Cameras

As any camera phone photographer will tell you, talent beats equipment almost every time in photography. A talented photographer can produce a stunning image with a pinhole camera given enough time, whereas many amateurs struggle to produce even average photographs using top of the line camera gear. These days, there is a growing movement of camera phone photographers who are out to show that talent combined with a camera phone can produce some incredible photos. Given some of the images they come up with, we are certainly not going to argue.

In fact, the stunning examples of camera phone photography that we have seen led us to investigate how camera phones can be used to produce such incredible images. And so, here is out online guide to camera phone photography!

Camera Phone Photography Guide

There are a lot of things you can do to start getting the most out of your camera phone in terms of the best possible photography. Some of the more obvious things you can do include:

• Maximise the camera resolution many recent camera phones come with the option to increase or decrease the resolution of the camera. If you plan to be taking a lot of artistic shots then it’s obvious that you are going to have to jack the resolution up as high as possible for most scenarios.
• Be Aware of Light Many camera phones deal with low light quite poorly. In general, if you can get a well lit subject then you are going to get better results with your camera phone.
• Alter the white balance likewise, the white balance of shots on many camera phones can also be adjusted. Play around with this setting to achieve the effect that you want. You may even need to adjust this depending on the type of shots you are trying to take so get used to using one of the few controls that you have over the image making process on a camera phone.
• Don’t be shy about taking a lot of shots now, you have to realise that you are simply not going to have the options available to you that many people who shoot on SLRs or DSLRs will. One easy way to make up for that is to start taking as many shots as possible. This simply increases the chances of snagging a good one.
• Get Close The majority of camera phones don’t have great zoom lenses. In almost all cases the zoom is digital rather than optical meaning the image chip simply takes a part of the large and makes that part larger that leads to poorer quality. It is much better to get up close to the subject than to use the zoom on a camera phone.

Recommended Online Guides to Camera Phone Photography

These online tutorials and guides are the pick of the bunch in getting you started towards taking respectable cameraphone photos. Now, you shouldn’t expect to be taking shots like Nachtwey out of the gate, but as the Flickr pool of camera phone photographers shows, you can get some exceptional shots if you learn how.

12 Tips for Improving Camera Phone Photos A brief and easy overview of photography issues that will be faced by a camera phone photographer. It covers issues of lighting, composition and technique that are unique to camera phones and is a good first stop for getting to grips with this type of photography.

Beter Photos from Your Camera Phone A pretty good guide along the same lines as the one above. Still, a lot of these tips bear repreating. Staying really still might seem obvious, but how many of us have had disappointing shots from camera phones due to moving or shaking? Well worth the read.

Taking Great Shots with Your Camera Phone An old guide written by Darren Rowse (who now runs Digital Photography School) is a good basic overview of photography when you don’t have much control over your equipment. It’s a little dated, but still has some awesome information.

Photopreneur’s Guide to Good Mobile Phone Photography A good little guide from a great site. Includes tips on lighting, composition and post production ideas. Again, it was written a while back, but these types of tips remain important for anyone hoping to get the best out of their camera phones.

Take Great Camera Phone Pictures Timeout tackles the issue of camera phone photography by asking professional photographer, Robert Clark about his best tips. By now, you will see a lot of the same themes repeating themselves (get closer, shoot lots, steady the camera) which should tell you that these are key in shooting decent shots with this type of device.

Camera Phone Portrait Photography Our very own guide on the specific problems and challenges associated with taking great portraits while you are using a camera phone.

Closing Thoughts

If you are determined to show what great images can be taken with a camera phone, then you have set yourself quote a challenge, but certainly an achievable one. One key that is repeated in all of these guides is that planning is paramount. If you can control and plan for as much of the photography process as possible, then you offset many of the drawbacks in shooting with less adaptable equipment such as a camera phone. But as many camera phone photographers have shown, the results can be well worth the effort.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed so you don’t miss our upcoming series on camera phone photography where we will cover tips on portraiture, black and white, nature photography and macro photography all from the perspective of a camera phone photographer.

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Beach photography presents many unique challenge to the amateur photographer due mainly to the extreme photographic conditions in which it is often undertaken. Contending with an abundance of light, reflections and movement can leave some photographers grasping at straws, but it can also produce some of the most starkly beautiful images of any subject matter. We’ve put together a list of things that you may want to consider more guidelines than rules, but which might help you take your beach photos from the realm of average to great. Well, at least we hope they do.

1) Shoot in the Golden Hours It is going to be very difficult to take an above average beach photo in the middle of the day. Even on cloudy days, there is usually going to be a problem with over exposure. While many photographers put their cameras away between 10am and 2pm, that time is usually extended dramatically when shooting beach scenes especially if you are lucky enough to live in an area with reasonably good weather. As you can see from the photos below, the best images are usually taken at sunset or sunrise, so try to emulate that.

2) Capture Motion With lower light and longer exposures comes the chance to capture the motion of the waves and sea. As you can see, this can really result in some haunting images that are ten different kinds of awesome.

3) Remember the Rule of Thirds Composition of beach photos is just as important as any other type of photography. Remember to consider the rule of thirds and you shouldn’t go too far wrong with your beach composition.

4) Remember the Sunny F16 Rule If you absolutely, positively must shoot at the beach when the sun in shining, then you might at least come away with some images worth looking at if you remember the sunny F16 rule. This is not an ideal situation, but if you are even remotely experienced with photography you will realise that there are very few ideal situations in this hobby and when they come up, you usually get a prize for the resulting images!

5) Take Advantage of Reflection Being around so much water is going to give you a lot of opportunities to take advantage of reflection. If you need some inspiration then check out these reflection photos to see what we mean. Getting reflections under the right circumstances can add a huge element of interest to your images.

6) Don’t Ignore Black and White While you may think of the water or beach as a place where you can get fantastic contrasting colours (and you would be right) you might also like to take a moment to consider black and white images. Some of the greats were able to get incredible black and white seascapes that ooze atmosphere. Look at this image for instance:

7) Use Driftwood in the Composition You can find it on almost any beach and you can use it in good composition and to draw the viewer’s eyes to an area of the image. You can also move it around to build the image you want. (Ok, some people might consider that cheating, but we all do it!)

Think About the Weather While the beach might provoke mental images of flawless cloudless days, more dramatic weather can result in incredible images at a beach. Look at the brewing storm in the image below to see what we mean or check out these storm photos to see what can be done when shooting in extreme weather.

9) Use Clouds for Drama Going along with considering the weather is watching out for clouds. Most of the best images of beaches somehow incorporate clouds into the composition to add interest to the beach.

10) Don’t Forget Night Time Beaches usually make us think about beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Don’t forget that you can get some spectacular night time beach photos too. There are a whole heap of separate issues in incorporating the moon into a photo but the results can be great. Check out our moon photos post to get some more inspiration.

Other Awesome Beach Photos

Concluding Thoughts

Shooting at the beach presents its own set of challenges with lighting, motion and composition. Even so, even a rudimentary adherence to some of the suggestions here should increase the chances that you’re able to capture an image a cut above most other beach photos. A bit of experimentation and deference to the conditions will mean you should come up with a couple of solid photos.

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Ok, so a lot of us are amateur photographers, but there’s really no need to look like a complete amateur when we pick up and point our SLR or DSLR to get a shot. Holding your SLR properly, while not making it totally obvious that you are not a pro, also has a lot of advantages. Here’s what you need to know.

For starters, holding a camera at both sides of the body like the picture below is usually a dead give away that you don’t know what you are doing.

The problem with this grip is that you haven’t really got maximum control of the movement of your equipment and so problems such as blurred photos due to shaking are going to crop up. The slower your shutter speed, the more pronounced these negative effects are going to be.

Secondly, you don’t have instant access to the capabilities of your SLR or DSLR because you have to remove your left hand to use the controls on your lens. This is not a great state of affairs.

Now, while you will have a hard time eliminating camera shake altogether with solwer shots while you are hand-holding your camera, there are a few things you can do to minimise the problem and most of the time, it won’t be any problem whatsoever.

The widely-regarded best way to hold your SLR is to grip the lens with your left hand and use your right hand for the body controls (which are primarily positioned on most SLRs to be most accessible using this grip).

Here is the correct way to hold your SLR:

And here is a great little Youtube demonstration:

Other resources on how to hold a camera:

• Hold Your Camera on an Angle
• How to Hold Your Camera and Camera Phone for Better Results

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