Well, my first recommendation for mobile phone photography would be to buy SE phones. SE has excellent color reproduction, lower dust & brighter pics.
But that would b advertisement & other bigtime Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola users'll come bangin @ my door.
Yah... yah... Nokia users'll yap-yap about their Symbian phones & sturdy build quality... Motorola for their sexy slim look... LG & Samsung for...
But, bottomline, in mobile photography; as is well evident, is that SE is the numero uno camera-phone comany. Even the quality-conscious Nokia takes a beating here.
Ok... now for those who r really interested in taking Flickr-worthy photos on their camera phones, here r some quick tips.
1. Stay away from dim light as much as possible.
2. If unavoidable, definitely use the flash. (I'ld also add absolutely use flash for photographing moving subjects in normal/low light, the rule.. the more the light, the sharper the pic)
3. Avoid backlighting. Let stong light come from behind u, rather than from behind the subject.
4. Adjust the white balance too if u find the colors different. Best approach.. look @ the whites thru the camera. If they appear different, adjust the white balance till the
white is seen as
white in the camera.
5. Experiment with the brightness levels(EV). They r put for a purpose!
6. Keep ur subject close, around 3-5 ft away max. Cam phones has shallow focal lengths, the more distant the subject, the lesser details captured.
7. Don't
digital zoom. It sucks... big time. If wanna crop off $hit, take photos in the highest available resolution (I'm not talkin of extrapolated resolutions) and crop with some good image editor (well.. I'm a photoshopper).
8. I also noticed another thing in these camera phones. Taking photos in a lower resolution than its original resolution removes most of the dust from the pic. i.e. a 2megapix cam phone, if takes pics in sub-2megapix sizes, say 1megapix or VGA size, gives a noise-free photo. Dust reduction by way of resolution reduction. Put this in mind, esp when taking shots under low light. Dark areas r dangerous
hotspots in photography.
Take for example, this pic taken by
gx_saurav aka
brutality9k. It rocks in terms of night photography. Almost no dust.
9. Not to forget... stay stable. Image stabilization is not yet a stong point for cam phones. So, a steady hand'll give u better pics. For support, lean onto some rigid body, eg. a post/bar or a tree'll do u good.
10. And those phones having the autofocus/macro mode, always use it for close-up photography. Crystal clear pics @ close range.
Ground rule - To b blindly obeyed - It's all in the light. The more the light; the lesser the dust, the sharper the pic. But anythin in excess is bad. And so is it here too. Over-exposure'll just give u big, bright patches of light everywhere. Use optimally. Take more pics. Master ur cam.
Some cam pics -
Post your cam pics
Mobile phone photography
Linear Mode
