Gizmodo published an article from Light Stalker titled “7 Lessons You Can Learn from Shooting with a Camera Phone“.
I put my commentaries after the 7 lessons:
1. Seeing – always keep your eyes open for potential interesting scenes: dramatic cloud formations in the sky, interesting geometric lines form by roads and buildings, delicious-looking flowers, etc. Opportunities are always there to make photographs!
2. Using your feet – the zoom feature on almost all smartphones, including all Windows Phones to date, are digital. By digitally enlarging your photos, it will cause loss of image quality. If possible, walk closer to your subject.
3. Finding the light – the phone image sensors and the lenses are smaller than even the point-and-shoot cameras. To get acceptable images, you’ll need good light. A BSI (backside illuminated) sensor camera are generally better in low-light. The Nokia Lumia 920, for example, does great in low-light indoors.
4. Composing the shot – this is probably the most important of all lessons. Look at your phone screen as if it were displaying the final image – do you like it? Are there distracting elements (like overhead wires in the picture on right) in the picture? Moving the camera even a few inches can completely change the perspective and give you better composition.
5. Companionship – you can’t take pictures with your camera if you don’t have it with you. This is less of a problem with a phone – you’ll probably discover it within a mile of leaving your house.
6. Maintenance – it’s important to keep your camera lens clean. This is especially true on a smartphone because you’re always touching it all-over with your greasy fingers. Wipe it once in a while. If you notice that all your photos are coming out blurry, it’s time to clean your lens. Additionally, using your smartphone can drain your battery quickly. I sometimes carry a USB battery to make sure I have juice when I need it.
7. Appreciation – image-quality wise, smartphone cameras will probably never be as good as a DSLR. But so what – I guarantee you will make more memorable images with your phone than your DSLR. So appreciate it for what it can do for you.
Bill T.
(Picture of the sunflowers shot with Samsung Galaxy Note)
Bill Tsai Tech Guy 