Published on December 4th, 2018 | by Biplab Das

Shoot like a Pro: Part 1

Photography on mobile phones have become an interesting and popular hobby these days. So mobile phone manufacturers are putting in really great cameras on phones and even going to the extent of adding multiple lenses.

For a few months, I was researching mobile phone photography. I tried different phones from various brands, a variety of camera apps in various condition and post-processing with various editing apps.In this article, I will speak about all the things I have learned and experienced in short.

First, I want to start by clearing up the myth that you need a phone with multiple camera lenses. You actually do not need multiple lenses. Many people think that if they have multiple lenses then they can take the best shots. But here’s a counterexample: the Google Pixel series phones are dominating the market in photography. I don’t think I need say anything more.

Types of phones

There are no major types of phones for photography. Yeah flagships usually have a good sensor for taking photographs. But in my research, I have found that if you buy a phone only by checking the specs on paper then you might be disappointed.

Currently, I’m using a low-end phone from Lenovo, the K8 Plus having a dual camera on the back (13+5MP with f/2.0 aperture) and one of my friends uses a Samsung J6+ which also has a similar setup on the back (13+5MP). The primary lens in J6+ has f/1.9 aperture (which performs better in low light). But real life performance is different with both the cameras in the same situation, light and even in same time. The results were shocking: the Lenovo K8 Plus performs really well, even better than the Samsung J6+.

Extra apps

Peoples use many alternative apps for taking pictures. Yes, I also do the same. I use HMD Global’s Nokia Camera APK. External apps don’t upgrade your camera. Instead, it unlocks features that your stock camera app doesn’t have. For example, many phone’s stock camera app does not have a good manual mode. So peoples are use alternative camera apps like FV-5 for better manual control.

Photo Editors

Editing is the killer app today. Thousands of filters, changing colors, brightness, contrast can be done to an image with a photo editor. Editing usually results in better results than the original image. Just make sure you are taking pictures in RAW format. RAW images can be captured by third party apps, in case your stock camera app doesn’t have the feature. (RAW images are direct data dumps from the camera. It is much bigger in capacity than other formats like JPEG as RAW images capture lots of information that you can use to the maximum limit).

Personally, I use Snapseed and Lightroom to play with my photos for better results. 90% of the time I prefer Snapseed.

Don’t get me wrong but there are two kinds of mobile photographers.

One who simply points-and-shoots daily happenings and the other one who likes subject photography like objects, nature, people, etc.

I will recommend Lightroom for subject photographers. Others can rely on Snapseed for better results.

Here are a few additional tips:

Avoid usage of flashlight
Learn to take pictures in manual mode
Find your best focus point
Enable grid view

So here were a few tips and my experience in mobile photography. Yes, I have covered very few things but in the future, I will publish more articles on this topic.

Meanwhile, take a look at some of the shots I have taken. All pictures below are clicked by Lenovo Zuk Z2 Plus and edited with Snapseed.

Tags: part 1, Pro, shoot

About the Author

Biplab Das My name is Biplab Das. I’m a writer, sometimes a tech YouTuber, blogger, ICT tutor and a part time website developer whose childhood obsession with science fiction never quite faded. A quarter-century later, the technology that I coveted as a kid is woven into the fabric of everyday life. I’ve spent the past years to learn these technologies, People say smartphones are boring these days, but I think everyone is beginning to take this wonderful technology marvel for granted.