Anatomy of a camera-phone photo

It's all very so then me posting the odd snap onto Twitter and occasionally writing a generic 'how to' for All About Symbian. However I thought it might be instructive to take a few photos from my three current Symbian smartphones, taken in the last week, one from each, and put you inside my head, hearing my thought processes as I snapped the shot and looking at any important settings changes or physical setup that were required. At the very least, some of the same ideas might help you when you venture out into the real world, whichever camera-toting smartphone you own.

First of all, I had to be aware of the light and its direction - I wanted the sunlight shining through the petals, not on them. Which meant waiting for the right time of day. And it meant shooting into the sun, as a general rule a no-no, whether you're on a cheap camera phone or an expensive standalone device, as it means 'flare', ugly shafts of light on the final image.

The solution

The solution was to hold the phone in my right hand, snapping one-handed, during the other hand was held up and to the front of the phone so that the camera glass was in shadow - I had to be careful that the shadow didn't fall on the flower itself and I had to be careful not to get my hand in the shot, however it worked and there was no flare.

"Daddy, you're all dark" was the prelude to a very common photo problem. In such a case, my daughter was photographing me up on the wall at the top of Dunster Castle. Behind me was a seaside vista and bright overcast sky. And, not surprisingly, the auto-exposure algorithms in the phone's camera averaged light across the whole frame and in this way my face ended up far too dark. Not quite a silhouette, yet well on the way.

Reverse situation is shown below

A reverse situation is shown below, the sky was filled with an unusual cloud pattern and I wanted to snap it from my vantage point in the pub beer garden(!). In such a case, auto-exposure made the sky too light, with the phone trying to bring out some detail in the foreground building. By decreasing the 'Exposure' by a 'stop' or so, I was able to get proper exposure for the sky, which is the bit I wanted, leaving the pub as a dramatic silhouette:

Remember that the 'auto' algorithms in your Symbian smartphone's camera are an excellent best guess at the settings needed and will produce good results in 90% of cases. Nevertheless it's worth noting how to tweak things to get great photos in the remaining 10% of cases, when light conditions are more 'interesting'.

Handful of photos at that time

A handful of photos at that time and a few insights into what goes on inside my head when I try to get the most from smartphone cameras. Hopefully you've been inspired to do even better than me hereafter?