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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Starting a career in photography can be an exciting, exhilarating move. Most photographers have freedom unlike any other traditional job and can book appointments as frequently as they want. Amateur photographers, that is to say those who don’t get compensated for shooting, usually do so because they enjoy hobby. Regardless of where you stand, there will be times when you need to decline an offer for work. Here are some examples of when and why you shouldn’t say yes to an offer.

Photo by Hamad AL-Mohannna

Professional Photographers

When you are a professional, it’s your business, even if only part time, you generate part of your income from shooting. This is an important fact that will come into play now.

Weddings that you are invited to as a guest and asked to shoot, probably a good idea to say no. I’m often asked this, even though I’m not a wedding photographer. If you invite me to your wedding, let me be a guest! I want to enjoy and remember the day, not work the event. It’s OK to decline shooting friends and family weddings and events.

Holidays are important, most people enjoy spending them with friends and family. If you are offered to shoot a job on July 4th (for American’s) or a wedding on New Year’s Eve, think about how that will impact your personal and social life. Do you want to work that holiday for strangers or spend it with people you care about?

Spec work, short for speculation, implies shooting something that a client might want to buy. Know your rates and have them agree prior to shooting. Rarely does working on spec ever benefit the photographer.

Trade work in exchange for pay. As a photographer who offers a service, you’ll often find clients who will offer you work in trade, rather than straight pay. Sometimes this isn’t a bad idea, but remember that trade doesn’t pay your bills.

Travel compensation is not payment for services rendered. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, If we pay for you to come to (insert fancy destination on the beach here), could you shoot our wedding? If they aren’t willing to pay for your services too, it’s probably a good idea to say no.

Working outside your normal area of expertise. I am not a landscape photographer, nor am I a wedding photographer. So far in 2010 I’ve turned down four wedding jobs because it’s simply not an area I’m great at. I told one person who found me through a mutual friend that I could provide good photography, but they deserve great photography. They completely understood.

Amateur Photographers

If photography is your hobby, and you do it because you love it, that should be the only reason you do it. Don’t get lured in by offers that sound too good to be true or deviate from your joy of photography.

Over your head jobs should be passed on. If you are asked to shoot something that you know you can’t handle, suggest they hire a professional.

When the line blurs between a fun hobby and a time exhausting job, turn the job down. Photography is a hobby, a passion, a form of expression. When it stops being fun, consider saying no.

Your goal is to become a professional shooter, so you’re working towards making that happen. Don’t represent yourself as one until you know the quality and expertise is on par with what clients should expect. If you are honest and upfront and decline a job that is out of your scope, you could very well get another job by the same client who respected your choice to not provide sub-par quality work.

All Photographers

Paid work or not, professional or amateur, time is a valuable commodity. Don’t take on more jobs then you can actually do, and don’t forget to factor in post processing times and commuting. I generally factor in about 30-45 minutes of post processing time for every hour of shooting time I do. There are exceptions to this, but that’s my general rule of thumb. Don’t take every offer because you want to satisfy every customer, friend or family member, you won’t be able to.

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I think everyone has seen the dreaded red-eye in photos, mostly effecting those with light eyes and animals. The red eye effect is caused when the camera’s flash is very close to the camera lens, most commonly seen with point and shoot cameras, this effect is purely a photographic one and never occurs under normal lighting conditions in nature. While point and shoot cameras are the most common culpret, DSLR shooters who use the pop-up flash often see similar results. There are two easy ways to get rid of red eye that all photographers should know how to do.

Photo by ribena_wrath

Prevent it before it even happens. By using a hot-shoe mounted flash on your DSLR or better, a flash bracket, you physically move the flash further away from the lens, thus eliminating red-eye from happening. For you point and shoot users out there, take your camera off auto-flash mode and put it into anti-red eye mode. When you do this, tell the people who you are taking photos of that there will be two flashes and the second one is what counts. Emitting a pre-flash during this mode in the camera drastically helps reduce red eye from occurring.

Fix it after the fact fast. Starting in Photoshop CS2 and getting better with each more current version, a red eye tool has been included. Simply select this tool and click on the effected red eye and Photoshop will fix it for you. For particularly bad cases, draw a box around the effected area. Photoshop does an absolutely stunning job fixing this. Don’t own a copy of Photoshop? Not to worry, Gimp is free and also has a red eye removal tool built in that can be accessed by going to Filters -> Enhance -> Red Eye Removal.

Don’t let red eye ruin your next photo and easily remove it from older images you’ve already taken!

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