When you first start blogging, you might feel like you have to have the best SLR money can buy to get your blog noticed and anything less needs to be apologised for. Especially mobile phones – it’s probably the main thing that most bloggers will apologise for.
Mobile phones usually aren’t the best option, admittedly, but the technologies involved have improved significantly in the last few years, and (slightly scarily!) some even have a high spec than some digital cameras on the market today.
The most important thing when taking photos with your mobile phone is to make sure there’s lots of light about. We’ve all seen the shaky, grainy photos from iPhones and Androids, but if you make sure there’s lots of light hitting the item you’re taking a photo of, and steady yourself, then you can get some really decent photos at times that it’s just not practical to use your big SLR.
If there’s too much light in the image, and everything seems a bit washed out, then tell your phone! On an iPhone, tap once on the area of the photo that’s too bright – you’ll instantly see the photo change as the iPhone changes to accommodate that. If you’re on an Android phone, then it’s going to vary with each model, but on our old Samsung, it adjusts automatically, but has lots more settings so you can play about with the ISO, etc.
The composition of the image is important as well – people make fun of Instagram images being a tiny perfected snapshot, but you can admit it – when you’re taking a picture, you make sure to turn the plate with your burger on to make sure you’re getting the best angle.
You can also buy little lenses for your mobile phone that can help to change up the way that a photo comes out – you can find out more about the jelly lenses over on A Beautiful Mess and if you fancy getting your own, the best place is eBay – here’s where to buy them individually or if you’re feeling flush (well, it is coming up to payday!), here’s the full set of 12 (from a UK seller, so you could be playing with them this weekend!).
Using your phone to take photos is useful as well because you can play around with various photo apps – you can find all the previous posts on mobile phone apps here.
It’s not the equipment that you use, it’s the way that you use it. Are there any times that you’ve used your mobile phone to take pics, and have been pleased with them?
Ooh more excellent tips from “@BonjourBlogger: Using Your Phone To Take Photos http://t.co/XtOIACeyog”
I never have a camera!
I actually use my phone for all of the pictures on my blog, I just don’t have any other camera so it’s basically my only option. I’ve found that my biggest issue is getting bored of just using the same settings all the time, I might need to try out some of those lenses!