Eight tips to get better photos out of your smartphone

What is the best camera? The answer to that question is often the device you have with you. A decade or two ago, digital cameras started becoming mainstream but these days sales of entry-level and mid-range cameras are just a shadow of what they used to be. Over the past decade, smartphones have almost completely obliterated the digital camera market.

Smartphone cameras are increasingly becoming better and better and improvements to the camera are now often one of the main selling points of new devices. While not all smartphones can shoot perfect photos, the reality is that a lot of mainstream devices offer good enough quality for social media. Nobody wants to carry two devices when one is good enough, so the majority of pictures these days get taken by smartphones.

To celebrate World Photography Day on August 19th, Motorola send over some tips on how you can get the most out of your smartphone camera:

1. Adjust the focus and white balance. By tapping the smartphone screen, you can adjust the focus. If you prefer old school adjusting, most camera apps also allow you to use a manual mode that enables the configuration of white balance, ISO values, etc.

2. Use natural light. Unless you have a professional photo studio, the use of a flash is almost always a no-go. The camera flash will make colors harsher, give people red eyes, and flatten the image. Try to use natural daylight as much as possible.

3. Read up about the Golden Ratio to improve your photo composition. In short, mentally divide your photo in three parts, both horizontally and vertically. Place the object of your focus as the intersection of one of these lines.

4. Use the right camera mode. For closeups macro mode is a must. Pictures of food can benefit from the "food" photography mode. For landscapes and group photos you can activate wide angle mode. And portraits may look better with a Bokeh effect.

5. Keep it steady. While most smartphones have image stabilization, you do need to keep the camera as steady as possible for the best result. A small tripod can help. Alternatively, a quick fix to improve stabilization can be to take the photo while you're breathing out.

6. Use HDR mode. These days, most smartphones have a HDR shooting mode. This feature shoots the picture using multiple lighting modes and composes a combination. For some type of photos like landscapes and sunny photos, this can result in pictures with better characteristics. It can reduce harsh sunlight, eliminate bright glare, and enhance detail.

7. Don't limit yourself to JPEG. While JPEG is the most widely used photo format, smartphones can also shoot photos in RAW. This file format takes up more storage space but offers higher quality and better editing capabilities as all data from the camera sensor is saved. Besides the quality hit from the lossy compression used by JPEG, RAW also more easily allows brightness and exposure adjustment, white balance correction, etc.

8. Use color. Motorola smartphones have a spot color feature that lets one color pop shot while making everything else black & white. This can help you to craft a more original looking shot.