Items17The creator’s order
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Hold the Camera SteadyMany "out of focus" beginner pictures are really camera shake, and fixing it costs nothing. Use both hands, tuck your elbows against your body, plant your feet and press the shutter gently at the end of a slow breath out. With a viewfinder, bracing the camera against your face adds a third point of…0 - 2
Clean the Lens Before You ShootA phone lens lives in pockets and under thumbs, and a greasy smear turns bright lights into hazy glare and softens contrast across the whole frame. Wipe it gently with a clean microfibre cloth rather than a shirt hem, which can scratch the glass and its coating, and check that the case opening is…0 - 3
Choose Your Focus Point, Then Lock ItLeft alone, a camera often focuses on whatever is nearest or most contrasty, which is rarely a person's eyes. On a phone, tap the subject on screen; on an iPhone, touch and hold until AE/AF Lock appears, and focus and brightness stay put while you reframe. On most cameras, half-pressing the shutter…0 - 4
Correct Brightness with Exposure CompensationThe camera's meter aims for an average grey, so snow comes out dull and a face against a bright sky turns into a silhouette. Exposure compensation is the fix: the plus and minus dial on a camera, or the sun-shaped slider beside the focus box on an iPhone, with similar controls on Android phones.…0 - 5
Use Shutter Speed to Freeze or Blur MotionShutter speed decides how movement looks. A fast setting such as 1/500 of a second freezes a child mid-jump or a dog mid-run; a slow one turns a waterfall silky and car lights into streaks, but only if the camera is held perfectly still or rested on something. For handheld shots, a useful guide is…0 - 6
Use Aperture to Control What Is SharpAperture is the size of the lens opening, and its numbers run backwards: a small f-number such as f/1.8 is a wide opening that lets in lots of light and leaves only a thin slice of the scene sharp, while f/11 or f/16 keeps far more in focus from front to back. That is why portraits are often shot…0 - 7
Raise the ISO Rather Than Accept BlurISO sets how strongly the camera amplifies the light it receives. Higher settings add grainy noise, which is why beginners are told to keep it low, but that advice taken too far produces something worse: a blurred picture from a shutter speed too slow to hold. A little noise in a sharp photo of a…0 - 8
Get Closer and Fill the FrameOne of the most common problems in beginners' pictures is a small subject lost in a big, busy scene. Decide what the picture is of, then walk towards it until it fills most of the frame. Use your feet before the zoom: on a phone, pinching beyond its built-in lenses only crops and enlarges the…0 - 9
Turn On the Grid and Use the Rule of ThirdsAlmost every phone and camera can overlay a grid of two horizontal and two vertical lines. Placing the subject on one of those lines or where they cross, rather than dead centre, usually gives a picture more movement and room to breathe; putting the horizon on the upper or lower line stops a…0 - 10
Check the Background and the EdgesBeginners look at the subject; the picture includes everything else too. A lamp post growing out of someone's head, a bin at the edge of the frame or a bright window behind a face pulls the eye away from what matters. Before pressing the shutter, run your eyes around the four edges and behind the…0
