The beauty of smartphone photography is that you can just point and shoot and end up with a great-looking image most of the time, but this ease of use and convenience might mean that you haven’t fully explored all of the photo-taking options on your phone.
Flagship handsets in particular have a range of different modes and settings that you can take advantage of, from time lapse videos to portrait pictures. It’s worth spending some time exploring what’s on offer, so you can choose the right mode for each scenario.
These are the options you’ll see on iPhones, Pixels, and Galaxy phones when you open up the default camera app. Not every option appears on every model, but we’ll try and flag up the variations where we can.
Apple iPhone
Photo: Your standard photo-taking mode. You’ll see the zoom and macro options just above the shutter button, and you can tap anywhere in the frame to fit the focus and exposure on one spot. Holding your finger on the screen will cause the focus and exposure to lock on a specific area. So, if you’re trying to take a picture of a person against a bright background, you’ll want to lock the focus and exposure on their face so the camera isn’t tricked by a bright background into making your subject too dark.
Live photos: If you’re holding your iPhone in the portrait orientation, up in the top right corner is a button for toggling live photos on or off (it looks like a series of circles). Live photos capture a second or two of snaps, and pick the best one.
Portrait: This one’s for portraits, as the name suggests. It creates a depth-of-field effect, keeping the subject sharp and blurring the background. Use the dial just above the shutter button to switch between lighting modes, and when the cube on the dial turns yellow, you’re the right distance away from the subject. (You may see messages telling you to move further to or closer away…
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