I really like sharing photos on all sorts of social media and I especially love snooping looking through other people’s pics. Some people, however, are chronic offenders of the blurry photo post. I really don’t see the point of posting photos where the viewers have to squint and tilt their head to one side to work out what the subject of the photo is. I understand that we are sentimental about photos. Even bad photos can mean a lot to us. Here are a few things that I try to think about when I’m taking photos on my smart phone.
* Keep it clean. The camera lens on phones can get dirty quite easily. A dirty lens will result in blurry photos.
* Stay still. Try and hold the phone as still as possible or rest it against something when taking a photo. Depending on the light, sometimes the slightest movement can ruin a good photo and make it out of focus.
* Get close. Most phone cameras aren’t great at focusing on objects that are too far away. Get close to your subjects, wait until the camera focuses and carefully press the button to take the pic. NOTE: You’ll generally find that phones (like iPhones) that have a camera on the front of the phone as well as the back, take better photos from the back camera.
* Light it up. Natural light will always give you the best results but if you’re indoors, use the flash if your camera has that option or make sure you’re close to a good light source. Your photo will look really grainy and pixelated if there’s not enough light.
* Less is more. An overly busy background will take away from the subject you’re trying to capture. If it’s a posed photo, look at what’s behind your subject/s to make sure there’s not too much going on.
* Be selective. Only share the good ones.
I constantly fill up my phone’s memory by taking videos of Dora. A lot of them aren’t worth sharing but my husband and I still love looking through them. Herer are some pointers I don’t always think of but should, when taking videos on my phone.
* All of the above. The tips I mentioned for taking photos apply to videos too.
* Go slow. Try to pan slowly, especially if you are trying to capture something scenic.
* Create something special. Make a DVD of your collected phone videos so you have a back up of them and so they don’t eat up your phone’s memory. Also, it’s a much nicer way to watch the special moments you’ve captured.
Again, I’m no expert but have found through trial and error that these tips will help make the footage you take of your phone worth sharing.
