This document provides tips for taking better smartphone photos. Some key points covered include: - Clean the smartphone camera lens before taking pictures to avoid dirty lens effects. - Use both hands to hold the smartphone steady and reduce camera shake. Breath out when taking a picture to further stabilize the device. - Natural lighting generally provides the best illumination for smartphone photos due to the small camera sensors. Avoid direct sunlight. - Get closer to the subject rather than using the digital zoom, as zooming reduces photo quality. - Frame photos following the rule of thirds for more visually appealing composition. Place subjects of interest near the intersecting lines. - Take multiple photos of the same scene and

1. SMARTPHONE
CAMERA
WORKSHOP
2016
DECEMBER

2. CLEAN YOUR LENS
#1
Typical Smartphone-Lenses are little in size. The smallest dirt on the lens will lead to
disturbing effects on the picture. So before taking any pictures, just check your lens and, if
necessary, for example, clean it with your shirt.

3. THE BIGGER, THE BETTER
#2
Check your smartphone settings if you actually use the max display resolution.
Don’t send high quality pictures over WhatsApp. The are all cropped down and
reduced in quality.

4. MULTIPLE PICTURES
#3
Hold down the camera button to take multiple pictures of the same motive.
You can choose the best picture later. Some smartphones also have a burst-
mode which automatically suggests the best pictures.

5. USE BOTH HANDS
#4
A big problem are fuzzy pictures, even if you have a built in image stabilizer.
So that’s why try to always use both hands when taking pictures. In this position
you also easily can use the hardware camera button and don’t have to use the
software button on the display. Hold the smartphone not too far away from you
because then it’s harder to keep it still. To even stabilize it more, breath in, hold
your breath and take the picture.

6. USE LANDSCAPE FORMAT
#5
Try to hold most of the time your smartphone
in landscape format. This should be your
default picture format. That rule should not
be changed until there are TVs which are
also able to flip 90°.

7. THE LIGHT IS YOUR FRIEND
#6
Because the sensor of smartphone cameras is so small, you need a good amount
of light to actually create good pictures without noise. Usually natural light works
best. Try to find it.
It works best if it comes from behind the camera. Avoid to take pictures in direct
sunlight because it may causes you to squint your eyes.
You even can use your built in flashlight during the day to create more light. Just
manually activate it and give it a try.

8. ZOOM
#7
As long as you don’t have such a big lens
mounted on your smartphone - don’t zoom!
The smartphone zooms are most of the time
digital zooms. So every time you zoom it’s like
zooming with the pinch gesture on an existing
picture and the picture gets grainy the more
you zoom in. That’s because when taking a
zoomed picture, you don’t use the full size of
your sensor anymore.
Better: Do the picture without the zoom and
zoom or edit the picture afterwards.

9. ZOOM
#7
This is the best zoom you can get. Simply go
closer to the object you would like to shoot.

10. THE GOLDEN RATIO
#8
Our brain likes to explore
pictures. So try to avoid pictures
where the main motive is simply
in the middle. That’s boring.
Just imagine to cut the picture
horizontally and vertically into
thirds - like the 4 lines does it on
that picture. Now try to „place“
important details of the motive,
like eyes, the mouth, a building,
a tree or existing lines of the
environment, exactly on these
lines.

11. BE THE CREATOR
#9
Be active in creating the picture composition. Look
around you before taking the picture. What happens to
the desired motive? Any chance that something
happens which improves it? Does the sun shine or is it
cloudy and worth to wait a while? Are flowers ore
other interesting things nearby to put also in the
picture? Should I go to another position or use a
different angle? Are there any reflections we can use?
Also try to find interesting lines, symmetries, patterns
and shadows. Take your time, be creative and do as
much pictures as possible!

12. FOCUS
#10
You decide what’s in focus and what’s not.
Simply tap on the screen to set the focus.

13. EXPOSE MANUALLY
#11
You can set the exposure manually to decide what
objective in the picture should be lighted properly.
To do so tap and hold the objective on the screen as long
as the exposure icon appears. Then lift the finger and
place it on another position of the screen, hold it and
move it up or down to increase or decrease the
exposure.

14. HDR
#12
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range in pictures with
different lighting situations: With the HDR mode active (you
can leave it in auto mode), Cams aber able to handle areas
with different contrasts and lighting situations. The cam
usually has to decide which part of a picture should be
exposed. Let’s say you want to take a picture of an object in
the shadow and behind it there is the sun. So the cam has
to decide if it exposes the Sun (then your object is even
darker or almost not visible) or it exposes your object (then
the sun is even brighter and you got a full white sky without
any contrasts).
Instead of just taking one photo, HDR uses three photos,
taken at different exposures. One with your object exposed
properly, one with the sun exposed properly and one
standard picture. After that it merges the 3 pictures to one,
where every part of the picture is exposed as it should be.

15. SELFIES
#13
You know your best side. Try to highlight that side
in the picture.
1. Find the best angle:
That part of your face which is close to the cam will
be the biggest in the picture. Usually we want to
highlight the eyes of your face. To increase the
eyes a bit, just hold your arm up in 45° and take the
picture from up there. If you take the picture
directly in front of you and maybe hold the
smartphone too close your nose will be increased.
If you hold the smartphone too low, your chin will
be highlighted and it’s possible that you create a
double chin which you actually don’t have.

16. SELFIES
#13
2.Take as many pictures in different angles and
different facial expressions. You should directly
pick the best pictures after the shooting and delete
the bad ones.

17. SELFIES
#13
3. Be natural:
Try to be as natural as possible. Be like you usually
be and your friends know you. Usually you don’t
say hello to your friends with a duckface ;-)