Get the best photos from a cameraphone

Better mobile phone photos – tip 1
Switch to top quality

Top-of-the-range mobile phones today offer almost as many pixels as purpose-built digital cameras. Five years ago, the first-ever camphones promised just 300,000 pixels – nowadays you can get a top resolution of 8 megapixels, with even basic models offering pictures made up of 2 million pixel points.

However, you need to select the top resolution from the menu settings to get the best quality results. Choosing to use only some of the pixels is fine if you're just displaying the results on the mobile phone screen – but the full resolution comes into its own should you ever want to print and crop your pictures. The extra pixels also come in handy if you want to take full advantage of the electronic zoom facility found on most phones. Check, too, that you are using the top Quality setting; typically labeled Low, Normal, High and Best; this sets the amount of information that is thrown away during the JPEG compression process – the higher or better the setting, the more detail that is ultimately retained.

Better mobile phone photos – tip 2
Expand your memory

The trouble with obediently obeying our first tip, is that your mobile phone’s memory will soon fill up with your pictures. The higher the resolution and quality setting you use, the bigger each of your individual JPEG files will become. However, fancy your phone, there is only a finite amount of onboard storage – and this memory has to be shared with other things such as incoming text messages, apps and music.

Fortunately, most modern mobile phones have an expandable memory – using a slot-in miniature flash card that can add gigabytes to your picture-taking capacity. The Micro SD card is the most common type found – but there are a number of others, such as Sony’s M2 system, so check carefully which your phone uses. Buy your extra memory from an online specialist such as www.mobymemory.com – it will save you a fortune in comparison to high street stores. Get as much extra memory as you can afford – it will give you freedom not only to get the best quality form your camphone, it will also let you shoot more freely.

Better mobile phone photos – tip 3
Getter sharper picture

The camera on your mobile is likely to have a rudimentary autofocus system – but it is likely to need some help to ensure that the key part of the picture is pinsharp. With the camera switched on, you will usually have to lightly press the shutter release button to get the camera to focus. A square in the LCD screen will generally light up and tell you when and where it has focused. Use this to check that the right part of the scene is targeted. By pressing down lightly, and holding, you can lock the focus on a particular point, then re-compose the shot so that the subject does not need to be boringly in the middle of the frame.

Better mobile phone photos – tip 4
Make the most of the light

Photography literally means writing with light – and without light, even in the digital age, you cannot take pictures. More importantly, however, with the low-cost cameras on mobile phones is that your results will improve as the lighting levels increase. So take your party pictures when people are standing in a well-lit part of the room – rather in total darkness. Do this and your shots will look less grainy – and reveal more detail.

Better mobile phone photos – tip 5
Control contrast

Outdoors in daylight the light will almost always be strong enough for decent results – however, it can actually prove too strong. The range of brightness that the low-cost camera in your mobile can record is fairly limited, and much more restricted than can be accurately registered by the human eye. In bright sunshine, it will pay to move your portrait subjects into light shade to take your shots. Similarly, for architecture or landscape shots, wait until the sun disappears behind light cloud. Ensuring the sun is behind you, rather than to the side or in front of you, will also give you better colour and clarity. When you do shoot into the light, find the exposure compensation facility on the cameraphone – and use this to ensure that your main subject, at least, is well exposed.