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Useful Ways to Improve Your Cell Phone Photograph

Cell phone photography has increasingly becoming popular these days. However, the photographs that you take using your mobile phone lack the quality as well as clarity. If you are fond of using your phone for capturing the precious moments of your life, here are some helpful tips.

Always remember to take a photo in sufficient light
Having abundance of light gives pictures a real touch because you will able to capture every detail clearly without missing any point. Light is an important part in a photo session. Now a day's many camera phones have inbuilt flash which improve the quality of the photo and make the photo very much clear. Avoid taking a photo in low light as it may blur the photo quality.
Avoid taking a photo far from the object
One common mistake which the person does while taking a photo is that, he/she maintains distance from the target object which results in a very tiny and unclear image. You should keep too much distance and if you are doing so then it's smart to activate your zoom mode, because camera phones with low resolution degrades the quality of the images.
Don't move while taking photo
It is very important that you remain still while you take a shot because the more steady your camera phone is the clearer your image will be. Remember that if you are taking a photo in low light then it is better to remain still because the camera phone tries to adjust the light and look itself so better not to disturb it.
Try not to use digital zoom
If your camera phone has the feature of digital zoom then try to avoid it as it might decrease the quality of your shot. Better use any photo editing software if you have.
Always keep your camera lens clean
It is good to keep your camera phone clean and well maintained by cleaning it with any lens cleaning agent or by using cover. Generally our camera phone remains in our pocket, bags and sometimes even open which harms their lens quality under different climatic conditions and even gets dirty. To clean it from time to time and don't use your naked fingers to cleans.
Use highest resolution if possible in your camera phone
Generally we don't chose any resolution for our camera phone but if your phone has the feature of high resolution and high megapixels, then it is good to select high resolutions and this will make your shot more clear, but it will also increase the size of the file at the same time.
Follow rules of third
It would be good if you learn the rule of third i.e. don't put your subject in the middle of the frame while shooting, in the simple way to say is that your focus should not be at the centre of the centre otherwise it would decrease the quality of the image, this is because the centre point always receives minimum attention.
Frame your picture carefully
Most of us capture anything and everything we can get in one shot, this can simply and easily destroy the objective and theme of our picture. Every photo needs a specific subject and theme so you must decide it before shooting. Be clear what you want to shot and focus on it and remove the unwanted things which may low the quality of the photo. Anything that is distracting the attention of the subject must be discarded.
Adjust the color balance of the camera settings
It would be good to adjust the color setting of your camera, especially if you balance the white color of your camera. You can experiment this feature to get quality images, since different camera phones have different settings and changes so it is advisable to read the manual setting provided in the guide book of the camera.

A Wedding Photographer's Guide to Choosing a Wedding Photographer

By Nicholas Purcell

For some time now, I've had a suspicion that all is not well in the Wedding Photography industry. I'm a wedding photographer and I know all the tricks of "the business". I've also been on the other side of the business helping friends and family choose a photographer for their wedding (I prefer to party at my friend's weddings!)

So, with some suspicions, I surveyed a lot of married people and was astonished to find that 71 % of people said they were not happy with their wedding photographer. This was much higher than I was expecting. Furthermore, an astonishing 85% of respondents said they should have hired a better photographer and would do so if they had their time again.

Read that again, 85% of people were so disappointed in their photos they believe they should have hired a better photographer.

Clearly, something is not right in our industry.

I think there are a number of issues, I think its partly bad photographers, partly good photographers not handling expectations well, and partly couples who aren't, and have no reason to be, experts at understanding this industry.

So here's a little guide, by a wedding photographer, on how to choose the right wedding photographer. Note there are a million other things to consider but these are what I think are the essentials, if you get these right you will be less likely to be disappointed.

1. Style

Style is in many respects the easy thing to get right. You've looked online, read magazines, started a Pinterest account so you now know that you either want a photojournalist style, an editorial style, a retro style. Most photographers will have one style that they stick with so choosing a photographer who shoots the style you want is as simple as looking at the style they normally shoot in.

2. Quality

The second, and in many ways most important, decision you need to make is about the quality of photographer you want. I'm not talking about style here (documentary, photojournalism etc), or cost, I'm talking about the quality of the photographer. How many great photos do they take across the whole day.

Here's an attempt to capture the range of possible photographers for your wedding:

# 1. Uncle Tom. He's always loved taking 'snaps'.
# 2. Jane's cousin Pete. He's a keen amateur who might have even studied photography once.
# 3. A "professional wedding photographer", found online.
# 4. A "professional wedding photographer", found online.

Wait, aren't #3 and #4 the same? No, no, and no! I'd say 50-80% of "professional wedding photographers" are nothing more than con-men and women who think buying an expensive camera makes them professional. Buying a scalpel does not make you a surgeon. Becoming a #4 professional wedding photographer takes years of dedication to photography. It takes commitment and passion and a constant desire to improve your art.

So how can you tell the difference between #3 and #4 professionals?

#3 will bambooz you with a flashy website full of good images from different weddings, they may have slideshows set to music, they will be slick. They will offer you champagne and expensive brochures.

#4 will bambooz you with a flashy website full of great images from weddings, they may have slideshows set to music, they will be slick. They will offer you champagne and expensive brochures.

Notice the difference? There's a key difference there. #3 will show you images from different weddings. #4 will show you images (especially if you ask) from ONE wedding. That's the key difference. A #4 photographer should be able to get good or great quality images across the whole day, not just one of two good images for the entire day.

At Mr & Mrs Wedding Photography our website is designed to showcase three individual weddings, one from a beach, one in a church, and another a destination wedding. We hope this gives our potential clients a feel for the quality across the entire day that they can expect to receive.

So, my #1 tip in choosing the right photographer for your wedding is insist on seeing images from one wedding. That will give you a feel for how many good quality images you are likely to see after your wedding.

Which leads me to expectations.

3. Expectations

The first thing to know is that photographers, even true professionals with years of experience, are not superhuman, they will not get award-winning, magazine quality images of every single aspect of your day from 8am until midnight. It just doesn't happen. If you are expecting stunning images from sunrise to sunrise, you will be disappointed.

Most #4 photographers will give you consistently good images across the entire day and this is what you should be aiming for. There should definitely be some great images in there, the sort you will be proud to hang up on your wall.

I know of two immensely expensive US based wedding photographers. Both are at the top of their game, are in huge demand, and both charge over US$25,000 for their basic packages. I've seen a full set of images from a single wedding and I can guarantee you, if you paid that much money and expected every single image to be a prize-winning image, you would be really disappointed. Some images are truly magnificent, most are really good, a large number are just 'snaps'.

If you end up with 5-10 magnificent images, 30-90 or so really good photos, and the rest nice snaps, then you should be happy.

4. Cheap

Cheap is always cheap. Repeat after me: cheap is always cheap. If you pick a photographer because they are cheap you can expect the quality of your images to plummet. This might be all you can afford/budget for but don't expect miracles and don't expect to be anything but disappointed (particularly if you hope to share the images with your kids and grandkids some day).

Do keep in mind though that your wedding is a once in a lifetime event (usually) and it might seem like a good idea to skimp on photography but really after the day is finished, apart from memories, all you have left is the photos. Imagine your grandchildren sitting down to look at your wedding album and seeing cheap photos. Is that worth it?

5. A recommendation from a friend

If you've seen you're friends wedding photos (all of them) and like them then this might be a good way to go. However keep in mind a few things. 1) Did you see all the photos? 2) How long ago did your friend get married (has the photographer aged in energy or style) 3) Ask your friend what the worst thing about the experience with that photographer was - if they suggest irrelevant things like they didn't like the package the images came in, then that's probably fine, if the photographer missed a key photo, that's not fine.

Don't take a recommendation as proof that the photographer is everything you want for your wedding, refer back to points 1-4.

Conclusion.

By Diane Tessa Griffiths

To me, the question of whether you should shoot RAW or JPEG depends entirely on what you want from or to do with the photos.

JPEG = Shoot & Share
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a type of digital compression. The photos are processed automatically within the camera. This means that they fall out of the camera ready to share on Facebook (for example) or to print, nothing else needs to be done to them.
Pros

• Automatically prepped in-camera for use.
• Can view on most technological devices.
• The automatic processing is designed to look good on portable devices.
• Smaller file size.
• Faster transfer time to computer because of the smaller file size.

Cons

• Not as flexible as RAW if you want to tweak them with post-processing software such as Photoshop.
• JPEG is a 'lossy' format, which means that every time you save over the file you lose data within the photo. So the quality of the photo drops on every save (only a little). To overcome this you can save as a different version (i.e. photo_v2.jpeg).

RAW = All data
RAW (raw) is essentially a digital negative, it holds all the photo data and no processing is carried out within the camera. You have to use a post-processing software program to get it into a share or print format, however you have a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to tweaking the photo (e.g. increasing the colour, strengthening the contrast or delete an unwanted object, to name just a couple of possible tweaks)
Pros

• VERY flexible, it contains a lot of data you can you manipulate/retouch the photo quite a lot without losing detail. For me that's a massive 'Pro'.

Cons

• Large file size, so you need to ensure you have the memory card and hard drive space to capture and store your photos.
• You have to process the file in order to share or print it.
• The photos often look washed out because of the way the raw data is captured, although this doesn't really matter because of the power you have at your fingertips in post-production.

Still not sure?
That's okay; most cameras offer an option to shoot both at the same time and decide later, just beware that it's capturing two files; one is quite big so you need the memory card space.
Conclusion
If you're interested in capturing memories and sharing them, go for JPEG, it's quick, versatile and doesn't suck up your hard drive space. However, if you're like me and into getting the very best out of a photo, then it has to be RAW.

Photos, Sketches, Drawings and Paintings

By Andrei Blaguna

Since the first photo was taken, back in 1820, the main purpose of this incredible image capturing way never ceased to exist, even if nowadays trend is to transform photos into paintings.

But, it did not start this way. First it was the drawing which turned out into a sketch and finally into a painting. The never ending desire for science of the nineteen century was not satisfied with the reproduction of different images because of their lack of details.

It all started with the discovery of the camera obscura before even thinking of photo cameras. Back then, people were trying to reproduce famous paintings and it was impossible to make a perfect copy. Even if a photo could last up to eight hours to complete, the amount of work could last for days and the painting could end up being considered a work of art.

While on the walls of our homes we still hang different paintings, ones that match the color of that wall, ones that are replicas from famous painters, or simple sketches, photos still have a long way to go. Even with the advantage of being in the century of speed, our cameras take plenty of pictures which are exposed on different social networks, but still not on our living room walls.

This could be simply done with the help of a printer and a larger paper. But it is not enough. It feels cold and does not impress anybody while a painting usually captures our attention easily. The good thing is that we are able to reverse science and how we got from paintings to photos we can reverse the process and transform photos into paintings.

Both concepts have the same meaning and purpose but the manufacturing process is what makes the difference. It is like having a wooden handmade desk at the office compared to a carbon fiber and glass one. For most of us, the handmade one would be the choice because of the sense for natural materials and our tendency of keeping things as natural as possible.

After walking around big cities, in which there is a high density of commercials, some of them larger than 5 meters, with a lot of colors and messages, our eyes want to relax and paintings sure offer this opportunity. By turning photos into paintings we show respect for old values, gain a little bit of something else in our lives, we are getting away from the social networks and preserve memories on a physical support which is not the CD or the USB flash disk.