5 Mobile Photography Tricks To Capture DSLR Like Photos

Mobile photography has come a long way during the past decades. We have gone from having just 1-megapixel cameras to mobile phones with 108-megapixel cameras, and as if this wasn't just enough, we are now even seeing quad-camera setups in mobile phones. Mobile photography is one big part of the future of photography. The reason for this is the compactness, portability, cost, and features that mobile phones offer. While DSLRs and other professional-grade cameras cannot be replaced with mobiles, a mobile phone with an average camera setup is more than enough for capturing good photos for a layman.

I am primarily a smartphone photographer, and I can confidently say that I capture good photographs. You can say this for yourself, too, if you know the basics of mobile photography. Another thing that you should know is that for amazing mobile photography, you don't need to have a $1000 smartphone. I use a $165 (INR 12000) smartphone, and I get just fine results.

Well, as the title must've already suggested, in this article, I am going to tell you 5 Mobile Photography Tricks To Capture DSLR Like Photos that I personally use. Without further ado, let's dive straight in!

5 Tips On How To Take Professional Photos With Phone Camera

Here some tips and tricks for beginners that professionals still use to take amazing pictures:

1. Clean The Lens

One big thing that spoils photographs is a dirty lens. Sometimes, even when the lens looks clean, a closer look will show some blemishes. A camera lens with zero moisture and dirt can result in crystal clear photographs. To clean the lens, a moisture-free microfiber or a soft cotton cloth is suggested.

Below are some images that show the difference between an image captured from a dirty camera lens and a clean camera lens:

Dirty Lens

Clean lens

2. Improve Stability

While I was starting as a smartphone photographer, I had shaky hands. Every time I went on to click a photograph, the images were just not up to the mark. There was a little motion and blurriness at some parts. To a common eye, these photos might seem okay, but they destroy the overall quality. A good way to improve on this is to capture more and more photographs and work on some breath control exercises.

Unstable Image

3. Work on edits

What you see with your eyes is not what your mobile camera sees. Mobile cameras are controlled with machine learning and adjust the light and other settings accordingly. To highlight the desired element in a photograph, editing is crucial. A great amount of photo editing can be done from the smartphone itself. Adobe Lightroom, Snapseed, VSCO, and Adobe photoshop express are some of the best apps for photo editing. These apps offer you a wide array of filters and controls over photographs like exposure settings, split toning, detailing, color grading, etc.

Before the edit

After the edit

4. Use Pro Mode

Pro mode, expert mode or advanced mode, whatever you call it, it offers more control over the settings of a photograph, in pro mode you get to control the ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance and EV. Some flagships offer even more control. With these settings, you can produce good images even without editing and do some pretty cool camera tricks like light painting, long exposure photos and panning. There are a few mid range mobile phones that don't have pro modes in the inbuilt camera app. You can use other camera apps like Adobe lightroom which is one of the best camera app for mobile photography.

5. Capture More

Practice makes a man perfect. If you want to improve on something, you gotta practice more. Never be happy with a single photograph. I personally capture at least 10 photographs at once and then choose which one is best. Having more options can eliminate errors or inconsistencies in the final outcome. You will eventually start having cool mobile photography ideas if you start capturing more and more.

The bottom line

To become a good mobile photographer, you don't need to spend a lot of time and money, it is easy, the key is to practice more and develop a photographer outlook. Don't go on capturing photographs with shaky hands and blemishes on the lens and you'll start capturing great photographs in no time.

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