Capturing Your Best Photos: Mobile Style

By: Michael Grecco


            As the years go by, the power and technology of smartphones is going to improve and adapt to humanity’s needs and wants. Whether you’re a fan of Apple or Samsung, both tech-giants are aiming to make a smartphone that helps their consumers with everyday tasks. Apple, for example, not only improves from their last generation of iPhone with a better processing unit, screen quality, etc., but the camera of the iPhone over the years has improved greatly. Apple advertises the iPhone’s camera quality very well, and most people do not use it fully.

            Let’s begin with Apple and the iPhone. My journey with the iPhone began with the iPhone 4, a real basic phone with a simple camera and user interface. A blog post from TailWind (https://www.tailwindapp.com/blog/iphone-photography-tips) gives 10 helpful tips on how to get the best photos from your iPhone. I’ll list some that I think most can benefit from. 

            One that some might not know is that you can press the volume buttons to take photos. Speaking from experience, this is very helpful. Not only can you get a better grip in your hands from using the volume buttons, if you hold those buttons down, you can take multiple photos very quickly. A feature that the pros use and can help with that “Rule of Thirds” for photographers is a photo grid. Some may find the lines distracting, but this is very useful if you want to line up a group of people or an object perfectly. 

            Besides just taking a photo, there is something called “Portrait Mode” on the iPhones that can truly make photos shine above the rest. Portrait mode is an option that iPhone users can select if they want to focus solely on one person or object. There are different lighting effects and even some black and white and noir filters to choose from. This mode blurs the background just a little to make the subject of the photo pop out. Lastly, one common tip that might help users with their photos is the timer. Sometimes, you just need a little bit of time to get set up, and the timer on iPhones can allow up to a 10 second timer.

            Switching over to Samsung, they still offer some very powerful mechanisms that allow their users to get the best photos. Wired.co posted some tips for Samsung users that honestly, sound pretty cool (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/how-to-take-better-photos-with-samsung-galaxy).

            Offered exclusively for the Note Series, The S Pen is a Bluetooth-powered pen that connects effortlessly to the Samsung device. Once you’re all set up to take a photo, there’s a button you can press on the S Pen that will take photo, rather than going to tap something on the screen. 

             Samsung’s versions of Apple’s “Portrait Mode” is called Live Focus. Within Wired.co’s article, they mention that “if you want to create shallow depth of field portraits, the best thing to do is head to Live Focus Mode.” This, like Portrait Mode, creates mesmerizing photos that people usually question, “was that really taken on a smartphone?” On the Galaxy S20, is a night mode feature that Samsung calls “Bright Night”. An article published on TheViennaBlog (https://www.theviennablog.com/2020/04/13/ultimate-samsung-galaxy-s20-camera-photography-tips-and-tricks/) explains how the function works. Since the Galaxy S20’s camera is so advanced, it can “capture multiple photos at once, merging them into one stunning shot with minimal blur and noise”. This is a great and nifty feature that comes in handy whenever you are taking photos in the later hours of the day.

            Overall, both Apple and Samsung offer great camera qualities and aspects that often fly under the radar. Looking into the future, is buying a Canon or Nikon camera worth it since you might be able to have all that power right at your fingertips? No matter if you use an actual camera or your smartphone, making your photos looks great can lead to effective social media outcomes. Your followers and consumers want to see the cameras in action, and what better way to do that than post a photo on social media. Using the tips provided above, companies can utilize these features to get the most out of their message or what they want to sell.

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