As parents, you are fascinated with how your baby is growing. You want to capture the moments for posterity. Your smartphone with its in-built camera always comes in handy. So, here are a few tips on using your mobile camera to your advantage.
Rule of Thirds
Turn on the grid in your mobile camera’s settings. This is a set of nine equal squares. If you place your primary subject on any of the four intersecting points, where the viewers are inclined to focus, you’ll realise that your clicks would come out better. This rule is frequently used by professional photographers. By keeping the grid on, you can use this rule more conveniently.
Turn off the Flash
In the event of lack of proper light, use indirect light instead of using your phone’s flash. This flash is usually a set of LED flashlights which are too near the lens and very bright. It’s switched on for a longer duration ending in pictures that are too harshly lit. Instead of the phone’s flash, use an indirect light coming from the subject’s side. Ask one of the people around you to hold a flash to light up your subject.
Don’t zoom-in, crop instead
If your subject is at a distance, don’t zoom-in. Instead shift yourself nearer to the subject. Even if your smartphone offers optical zoom, don’t use it. What you’ll end up with is a portion of your frame, that you’d zoomed in to, stretched to fit the frame. The picture quality deteriorates. If you can’t get nearer to the subject, don’t click at all. Or take a wider angle picture and later crop it. You’d have preserved the quality still.
Click multiple candid shots
When you are shooting kids, it’s best to click candid shots in multiple numbers. When you do so, amongst that bunch, you’re sure to find a few splendid shots. It is rare to get a perfect shot every time you click; most images will turn out blurred because kids are never steady.
Mobile apps
There are always ways to improve your pictures. Here are a few photo editing apps which are pretty simple to use and would turn your ordinary shots into striking ones.
Snapseed: Available for both iPhone and Android, it’s one of the popular photo editing tools. Amongst other things, it keeps track of the history of picture editing which you can change later.
Photoshop: This is easily the most popular picture editing app. It has three free variants available for iPhone and Android. Using Photoshop Mix, you can combine pictures. Photoshop Express provides you with the options of cropping, adjusting colour and brightness, and filters. Photoshop Fix helps you to remove distracting things and people from your shot. The trick of capturing your kids’ perfect moments lies in clicking away. So, keep that finger tapping away.
Sanitize your phone
You might be horrified to learn that more than 90% of smartphones carry bacteria. Here are a few ways on how to keep your phone clean.
- Wipe your phone regularly with anti-bacterial wet wipes. A 1:1 solution of white vinegar and distilled water would work too.
- Use toothpicks and Q-tips to clean the tiny crevices.
- Clean the headphones with a soft cloth dipped in any mild soap solution.
- Do not use any harsh solutions on your phone.
~ Aatika, Write Wing Media; Pics: Pixabay