How to take good outdoor photos on your smartphone
Spring is here (at least it is in Cardiff and the UK) with beautiful nature scenes to photograph on your smartphone.
Gone are the days when professional photographers were the only people who'd carry a camera at all times - as many other have said, "We're all photojournalists now."
So whether it’s a breaking news story, such as a road traffic accident. or the flowers in your local park bursting out into the spring sunshine, we can all capture these moments and know how to take great photos on mobile phones.
In many cases grabbing the phone and pressing the button is all that’s needed. The phone's processor like Android's Octa core will look after the details like exposure, white balance, ISO and focus.
You you may ask why bother learning how to control these settings yourself? Read on to find out why (and browse the examples below, all shot outdoors on my Samsung Galaxy).
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The answer to why you should look to control the settings yourself is simple.
Your brain is still better than any processor, and there are lots of times when the phone cannot possibly know what the subject matter is and the effect you're aiming to achieve.
For example, if you were photographing a fast-moving subject, by default the phone on an auto setting will choose a mid-range shutter speed of around 125th of a second.
While this sounds fast, it’s nowhere near fast enough to freeze a moving car or even a rugby player in full flight.
Getting to grips with the photo settings on your phone is not complicated, even though it might sound daunting.
Most handsets have a variety of modes, such as sport, night, portrait and so on.
But if you want to delve deeper into the technicalities and really make your photos stand out, then I advise adding specific apps to your phone. For Android, Camera FV-5 Lite is free and available from the Google Play Store, while iPhone users should look at ProCamera from the App Store (also free).
Both of these apps offer full control of every aspect of picture-taking on a mobile phone, including the settings I mentioned above and a whole lot more, such HDR and visual effects for smoothing skin and making your images pop.
The other advantage of using these apps is that it teaches you about the connection between shutter speeds and F Stops, all of which will stand you in good stead for graduating onto a compact or a DSLR /mirrorless camera.
Whilst you may not be impressed by a “pro” who’s cost a small fortune turning up to photograph your wedding with an iPhone, even the most serious photographer now recognises the role that a humble phone can play in achieving great images and videos.
Whether you're looking to take beautiful, professional-standard holiday pictures or capture a news story like the road accident at night (above), then the equipment you need is almost certainly with you all the time.
What's the most memorable scene you've caught on your mobile phone? And did it turn out as you expected? Add your comments!