How to take pictures with a mobile phone more clearly?

Blur is one of the most common problems when people take pictures with their mobile phones. However, once you know the main reason of the blurred photos, you can completely and easily prevent the blurred photos. This article will introduce several simple and effective techniques to help you take clearer photos with your mobile phone in any light.

Remember: taking clear photos is the beginning of mobile phone photography!

1. Set the focal length for the subject.

Improper setting of focal length is one of the most common reasons for the final blur of photos, and the problem of focusing will affect photos in any light situation. If you are like most people, you may rely on autofocus to finish shooting, which works well in most cases.

However, sometimes autofocus will let you down, and you may take an image similar to the above photo. For best results, you should set manual focusing by touching the screen in the camera application of your phone.

In this example, the mobile phone has automatically set the focus (and exposure) on the background of the photo, which is why the tennis ball in the foreground is not in focus, but the background is in focus. If my initial goal is to play tennis, I will touch the screen of the ball to manually set the focus (and exposure), as shown in the following example.

2. Make sure the shooting light is sufficient.

When it is possible to take a clear photo with a mobile phone at night, generally speaking, the effect will be better when there is more light in the photo. In the case of insufficient light (such as indoor shooting), less light reaches the camera sensor. In order to let enough light reach the sensor to produce an appropriately exposed image, the shutter must remain open for a longer time.

Any action when the shutter is open (including the action of the mobile phone itself and the motion of the subject) will lead to blurred photos. The longer the shutter is open, the more actions may be taken (leading to more blurring).

When the mobile phone does not start to manually adjust the shutter speed, the shutter stays open for a short time under the condition of sufficient light. So if you can take measures to increase the amount of light entering the photos (such as shooting outdoors or turning on the lights), you will get clearer photos.

Step 3 avoid shaking hands

Sometimes, it is impossible to increase the amount of light in the scene. If you want to take pictures at this time, try to avoid shaking your phone. Please make sure that your hand holds the phone tightly and there is a solid object to support your hand.

Any external building (such as a table or railing) can be used to support the wrist or elbow, or it can be completely against the wall. When there is no external support, you can also try to put your arms on your knees or your elbows on your waist.

Of course, if you take pictures slowly, the shooting effect will be much better. Taking photos slowly can ensure that the photos are taken perfectly, and the body posture is comfortable when holding the phone tightly, which helps to avoid unnecessary actions.

Step 4 Use a sturdy tripod

Without the support of any equipment, using a high-quality tripod is the best way to avoid any movement (and blurring) of photos, which can keep the stability of the mobile phone to a certain extent. Of course, wearing a tripod makes your photos lose some natural feeling, but it also brings you magical effects, especially when taking landscape photos and exposing photos for a long time.

Step 5 take pictures with headphones

A little-known trick of mobile phone photography is to use the volume button on the earphone as the remote shutter switch.

If you press the volume up button on the headphone cable, the phone will take pictures. This technique of reducing camera motion (holding and using tripod) is very good, because you can take pictures without touching the screen of your mobile phone.

Step 6 avoid moving objects

In addition to trying to keep the phone from shaking, it is equally important to keep the subject still, especially when the light is insufficient. Even if the photo below doesn't achieve the expected effect, it can clearly explain what happens when the subject moves.

In this example, the object on the left is almost completely clear, but the object on the right is blurred. The only difference here is that the person on the left is standing still (except his right arm), while the person on the right is walking quickly in front of the camera.

7. Increase the contrast of post-processing.

Other techniques in this article will help you actually take clearer photos, and the techniques mentioned in this paragraph can make you create a clear-looking mobile phone photo with a little modification through post-processing. Increasing the contrast can obviously improve the clarity of photos.

The reason why high-contrast photos appear clearer is that when the contrast increases (especially black-and-white photos), the dividing line between the light and dark parts of the photos is highlighted.