10 Tips For Taking Better Photos With Your Smartphone

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There’s a large contingent of photo enthusiasts online who will dismiss a photo straight away if they find out it was taken with a smartphone. The rally cry of “get a real camera” can be heard echoing through the rafters of comment sections for many websites. We think everyone should have a dedicated camera, but a good photo is a good photo, regardless of the gear used to take it. Camera phones have some inherent strengths and weaknesses, and by emphasizing the good and downplaying the bad, you can take silence naysayers before they can get to the enter key. Here are some things to keep in mind when firing up the photo app on your iPhone, Droid, Lumia or whatever.

Get Close

Many cell phone cameras, especially the iPhone, really start to shine when you bring them in close to your subject. The small sensor provides a relatively wide depth of field so you can get entire objects in focus where cameras with bigger sensors and longer lenses would have trouble.

When getting close, you can also usually have more control over the lighting of your subject. Are bright patches in the background of your composition throwing off the camera's meter and making your subject dark? Get closer and block it out all together. Small detail shots can be quite effective if done right.

Image: A flattened pellet from an air rifle after having hit a metal target. Shot in flat light, you can see the impressive amount of detail the camera phone lens can pull out of something so small.

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