Are you often disappointed by the photos you take with your phone? Or, are you also envious when you see other people taking amazing mobile photography with their mobile phones? For many people who use mobile phones to take pictures, there are some mistakes that need to be avoided when taking pictures, which can not only help you improve the picture quality of your photos, but also make your photos more appreciable. So today, let’s talk about some mistakes that often occur in mobile phone photography, and how to avoid these mistakes, so as to help you take wonderful mobile phone photography works.
1. There is no subject in the picture
Photography is an art of subtraction, so someone will always advise you to take pictures from a simple perspective. But when many people take photos, they ignore an important factor – the subject. Imagine this picture, there are rows of trees in front of you, and there are green grass on the ground. I think many people will raise their mobile phones to take a picture. This picture looks good, but because there is no subject, it is just a photo, not a photography work.
empty scene
Scenes with subjects
Therefore, when using a mobile phone to take pictures, an obvious subject needs to appear on the screen, so that the audience’s attention can be drawn to the subject in the picture, and the interaction between the background and the subject can be connected to arouse readers’ thinking and resonance .
2. The focus point is not on the subject
Sometimes, you will find that the focus of the photos taken with your mobile phone is not on the subject, but on the background. To give a simple example, when you use a mobile phone to take a picture of a flower, it often appears that the flower is virtual and the background is clear. But in fact, the correct imaging effect is that the flowers are clear and the background is blurred. The reason why such results are obtained is mostly in the focus.
Examples of focus errors
Correctly focused instance
Most of the time when using a mobile phone to take pictures, open the camera program of the mobile phone, and they like to let the mobile phone complete the autofocus, and you only need to press the shutter button. However, in some scenes or shooting environments, the autofocus of mobile phones is not so reliable, such as when shooting objects at close range. This requires you to be proficient in shooting focus skills, manually select the focus point, and place the focus point on the subject, so that you will not get a wrong-focus photo.
3. Inaccurate exposure
Human eyes can easily identify and judge light and dark levels, but for cameras or mobile phones, the range of light and dark capture is obviously much narrower, so this also causes the use of mobile phones to shoot in certain environments with relatively bright light. Sometimes, there will be overexposure or underexposure.
under-explosive scene
overexposed scene
Although the manufacturing technology and software algorithms of mobile phone cameras have made great progress, there are still many problems in the exposure judgment of bright and dark scenes, which also makes the imaging extremely unstable in environments with relatively bright and dark light (either bright or dark). dark), and lose a lot of picture details, which requires you to have a certain understanding of the light metering methods of mobile phones.
Most mobile phones now use spot measurement linkage for focusing and metering, that is, the sensitivity to the focus position is used as the metering basis to calculate the overall exposure of the photo. Therefore, this requires you to be proficient in using the exposure compensation function of your mobile phone. Taking the Apple iPhone as an example, there is a slider marked with a “little sun” on the side of the focusing point. By sliding the slider up or down, you can adjust the exposure compensation. To control the overall exposure of the final image, and exposure compensation is a function that is often overlooked when taking pictures with a mobile phone.
correctly exposed scene
Reasonable use of exposure compensation is of great help to the accuracy of the final imaging exposure of mobile phone shooting, so this is one of the functions that must be mastered for you who like mobile phone photography.
4. Keep your phone stable
Keeping the camera stable is very important for taking pictures with a mobile phone.
When shooting with a mobile phone during the day, due to the sufficient light, the slight jitter is almost negligible for the final image. However, when shooting at night or in a dark environment, the slight jitter will cause the picture to be “virtual”, and the image will eventually become serious. quality.
Blurred picture due to shaking
So how to keep the mobile phone to take a stable picture at night or in a dark environment?
First of all, don’t count on the LED flash of the mobile phone, because at night or in a dark environment, the LED flash has very limited fill light effect on the picture.
Secondly, although mobile phones now have an anti-shake function, it still cannot guarantee that clear and stable photos can be taken at night or in low light. So, with the help of some platforms, fences, etc., keep the phone steady, and finish the shot. Of course, if you have the conditions, using a mobile phone tripod can provide the most stable shooting environment and ensure the stability of the final image.
mobile phone tripod
When shooting at night or in a dark environment, you need to learn to find and use the light source, such as with the help of window, street lamp or building lighting; in addition, with the help of the full manual shooting function of the mobile phone, you can manually set the sensitivity and shutter speed , exposure compensation, etc. help the mobile phone to complete the shooting, and for iPhone users, in addition to exposure compensation, they can also use third-party photography apps, such as Camera+, to control the mobile phone to shoot through the professional mode.
5. Poor composition
Photography is all about composition, and mobile photography is no exception.
The rule of photography composition is the rule of thirds. The photographer needs to divide the scene with two vertical lines and two horizontal lines, just like writing the Chinese word “well”. In this way, 4 intersection points can be obtained, and then the focus of performance can be placed on one of the 4 intersection points.
Schematic diagram of the rule of thirds composition
Reasonable Composition Examples
Composition can not only bring a perfect mobile phone photography work, but also test the photographer’s understanding of the expression of the picture. Therefore, the rules of composition must be mastered and kept in mind. Developing a habit of composition is an essential foundation for every photographer, whether using a camera or a mobile phone.
Therefore, developing the habit of composition is also the most critical and most important point for taking good photos with a mobile phone.
6. Messy background
Many times when we use mobile phones to take pictures, we pay more attention to the subject and ignore the background details. When we look at the photos, we find that there are many unnecessary elements in the background, such as pedestrians, plastic bottles, Extra twigs, etc., all do irreparable mistakes to the photo.
Messy background makes it difficult to stand out from the subject
This requires you not only to choose a suitable angle to express the subject before pressing the shutter, but also to choose to avoid the redundant objects in the background, and avoid the redundant objects in the background that affect the picture effect by changing the angle.
The simple background can easily highlight the subject
Also, the best way to avoid unwanted objects in the background is to shoot from a low angle. First, low-angle shooting is easy to operate, and the shooting angle is better controlled, which will make the subject of the photo more interesting. Second, low-angle shooting can better highlight the subject, while the background is usually only The ground and sky parts are preserved, so low-angle shooting is also a good way to remove noisy backgrounds. Third, the low angle can also use the foreground, passing colors and changes in light and shade to create a sense of depth in the picture and guide the audience to focus on the final subject.
7. Too far away
Bresson once said: “You are not good enough because you are not close enough”. The same principle applies to mobile phone photography. After all, for some subjects, such as plants and flowers, if the distance is too far, it is impossible to capture the details of the flowers and plants, nor can it show the color levels of the flowers and plants. Only an ordinary photo can be obtained. , I think this is definitely not the effect you want.
When shooting certain subjects, such as flowers, water droplets, and object texture surfaces, the details can give the audience a great visual shock. When capturing these details, you can use the external lens of the mobile phone, such as a macro lens, to better help You’re done shooting for the details.
beauty in details
For portraits, shooting close to the person can also better show the details of the person’s skin texture, highlight the emotion of the person, inject more readability into the photo, and even shock the hearts of the audience.
beauty in details
For landscape photography, in addition to recording large scenes, shooting environmental details can increase the depth of the picture and make your landscape photos more pleasing to the audience.
8. Use digital zoom
I often see people taking pictures with their mobile phones on the street, in order to zoom in on the scene, they directly use digital zoom to shoot. When I see the digital zoom being used, I know the photo is screwed.
Digital zoom is difficult to guarantee image quality
Shot without digital zoom
The zoom of the mobile phone lens is digital zoom, which is essentially different from optical zoom. Digital zoom generally enlarges a certain position in the photo, and then crops out useless pixels in the photo. Therefore, when the digital zoom photo is enlarged to 100%, the detail loss is very serious, and the overall picture quality is very poor, all due to the digital zoom enlargement.
Mobile phone lenses are all fixed focus, and the focal length is generally between 25mm and 30mm (equivalent to 35mm), so when using a mobile phone to take pictures, you still have to follow the secret of fixed focus shooting, that is, “zooming depends on walking”, and the work of changing the focal length through “manual methods” .
9. Excessive post-processing
The biggest advantage of taking photos with a mobile phone is that you can use the photography app in the phone to directly process the photos. For example, with the help of Snapseed, VSCO, Instagram and many other apps, you can quickly and easily complete the post-processing of the photos.
Remember, post-processing photos should be moderate, do not over-processing, excessive post-processing, not necessarily get twice the result with half the effort. Loss also affects the visual perception of photos.
moderate post-processing
In addition, HDR can effectively preserve the details of the bright and dark parts of the photo, but it must be used in moderation. Excessive HDR will affect the details of the photo, which will have an irreparable impact on the quality of the photo.
The above are the nine problems that are often encountered in mobile phone photography. If you solve them, it will definitely help you improve the level of mobile phone photography and open a new horizon for you. Taking pictures with a mobile phone lies in the heart, and it can move everyone. At a fixed moment, everyone can take amazing mobile phone photography works.
