If you want to take great pictures with your smartphone, then these 7 tips are useful.

Smartphones have become the most popular camera devices in the world today. These are always with you. They are easy to use and sharing photos with friends is also done in a jiffy. It is easier to keep a smartphone with you than a camera and the quality of photographs is also continuously improving. Most of the flagship smartphones available these days can take great photos. However, it all depends on the user to a great extent.

Just buying a high-end smartphone is not enough. Photography is a technique, even if you’re using a camera phone. If you want to improve your smartphone photography technique, then these tips will be useful for you.

Gadgets 360 spoke to freelance photojournalist Sanjay Austa who gave some tips for taking great photos with a smartphone. Apart from these tips, Aosta stressed that you cannot ignore certain principles while photography, even if you are taking photos with a smartphone. Always keep these tips in mind for great photography.

1. When to use HDR mode
Are you looking to capture bright and dark areas in the same frame? Austa suggests using the HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode found in most smartphone camera apps. He says that in this mode the light in the pictures remains more balanced. Detail is not lost, objects in bright light do not appear too bright and objects in low light do not appear too blurry.

To do this, the phone takes two photos at different exposure levels. After this the software balances these two pictures and outputs a single shot. Austa says to use this mode for high-contrast situations, such as outdoor photos at noon.

2. Selective Focusing / Refocusing Image
Austa says that choosing the right object when focusing can make the photo better, whether that object is in the foreground or the background. Smartphones that have the facility to refocus after taking a photo give you the opportunity to experiment and the photos taken with their cameras also come out better.

HTC One A8 smartphone comes with dual rear camera which gives you the opportunity to perform this action easily. But with the help of software in other smartphones, you can change the object to be focused.

3. Quick Launch
It takes a lot of time between turning on the digital camera and then taking the photo, but this does not happen with the smartphone camera. If your phone is locked then it takes some time. However, today many phones come with quick launch feature to overcome this shortcoming, with the help of which your camera gets ready to take photos instantly.

For example, in the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, you can directly access the Camera app by double tapping on the Home screen. Today, most smartphones are equipped with this type of quick launch feature. You should also look for quick launch action in your smartphone so that you do not miss capturing special moments on camera.

4. Camera button
Using the volume button or the camera button to take a photo in landscape mode is also a good step. With its help, your hands will not move, which often happens while using touch screens. If your phone does not have a separate camera button, then go to Settings and check whether you can use the volume button as a shutter. If your phone does not have this feature then there is no need to worry. There are many third-party apps on Android that come with this feature.

5. Light
Great photography depends on understanding light. There is no photography without light, so it is important to know how to use light to your advantage.

Austa said that golden hours are very important for special types of photographs. Golden hour means the time shortly after sunrise and just before sunset, which are great for landscape shots and also for photographing monuments. In photos taken in the middle of the day, landscape shots get spoiled due to excess light. Fog or cloudy skies are not suitable for photography, but you can still take great pictures.

On this, Austa says, “It is easy to take portraits in fog because there is no shadow and not much light. Apart from this, fog works to make the photo mysterious.” Now think about a situation, you are going to take a picture of a house built in the mountains. Due to a little fog, this house starts looking mysterious and it further enhances the beauty of the photo. Try to take advantage of any type of light, it will be better than giving up if you do not get help from nature.

6. Composition
Looking around you will see that every moment is made for a wonderful photo. Everyone’s difficult task is to decide the frame or to compose. To do this some basic rules have to be followed. Most smartphone cameras come with grid view. Once you enable them, you will find that four lines appear on the screen which divide the frame into 9 equal parts. The rule of thirds says that your subject should stay on one line, especially where these lines intersect. It is not that you have to follow this rule every time, but if you are a beginner in photography then you will find that by following this rule you are able to take better photographs.

Another important tip is that you can use lines in photos to reach the subject. For example, you compose a photo of a child sitting on the stairs where the second edge of the handrail frame begins. In such a situation the picture draws you towards the boy.

Austa says that the background can also be used to tell a story. Instead of zooming in on a picture of three people sitting under a building, you can also zoom in to make it look like the building is on the verge of collapsing. This will make the viewers of the picture realize that there was a war at this place or a natural disaster.

7. That important moment
This tip is most effective. It is very important for a photographer to have patience. Taking pictures at the right time can make the difference between a good photo and a wonderful one. Austa says that emotion should emerge in the picture. And this is possible only when the picture is clicked at the right time.

With these basic tips you can take great photos. Keeping these tips in mind, we took some photos from the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge which are used in this article. Do you also have any suggestion regarding photography then share it with us through the comment box.