Things your camera phone can do
OK, this is the part you've been waiting for - how your camera phone can help you take good photographs. Some of these techniques apply to all digital cameras (or even all cameras), and some just apply to camera phones to make up for their lack of ability in their camera, but most of these tips should be of use.
1). Lights, camera...er, ok, you get the idea!
The biggest limitation with camera phones is that they demand good light. Newer digital cameras, such as the FujiPix Z1, offer shutter speeds so fast they can take pictures in dark conditions without a flash. Not so camera phones. Although some offer a flash facility, it's usually pretty useless.
As an example, see these two pictures, taken of my cat, Bill, in what I call 'lady-favourable mood conditions' (in other words, I turned the lights down!). The first one is without the flash on my Sony Ericsson S700i - the second one is with the flash on the same phone. Notice any difference? No, thought not! Interestingly, the flash can still blind you, though, when you turn the phone round to see if the flash is actually on. In fact, the term 'flash' is something of a misnomer - it doesn’t actually flash at all, it's simply a small light that comes on and sucks the life out of the batteries! Still, any light is a bonus, so always use it!
My cat Bill, without light
This does rather mean that indoor shots are going to be poor. So those party shots you were hoping for? Well, good luck! That's why there's still a huge market for digital cameras - you can't replace them just yet. You can mediate the problem, though, by using a few more tricks and tips.
2). Stand...extremely...still
Because of their sensitivity to poor light conditions, you have to stand extremely still. In fact, if you can graft your camera phone onto your hands, and then cast your hands in plaster, along with the rest of your body, and then weld it all to the floor, you might have a good chance of capturing a good photo without any blur. This is an issue even in daylight, but at night, it's essential - be extremely still. And ensure your subjects are still too. Oh, and even be still after you think you've taken the picture - on my S700i, for example, you hear the phoney 'ker-click', and then the camera takes its shot! If you move immediately after hearing the click sound, you'll have spoiled the shot - Genius!
3). Get close to your subject
Digital cameras offer all sorts of features for capturing the subject of your shot well. Zoom lenses, differing focal lengths, the works. Your camera phone, of course, doesn't. If you want to get a sharp image of your subject, stay within 2 feet or so of it.
4). Use the highest resolution possible
I don't need to tell you this, right? You use 'VGA' settings and wonder why your pictures looks so poor? You may use more memory, but you absolutely must use the highest resolution your camera will support.
5). Avoid the digital zoom
If your camera has optical zoom - marvellous! Use it as much as you like. But digital zoom - nooo! Digital zoom will zoom in on the subject of your choice, but at the cost of resolution. It will actually lower the resolution you are effectively taking the picture at, and the poorer the resolution, the poorer your resulting image will be. If you want to get close to a subject, move!
6). White Balance
OK, now we reach the murky world of your camera phone's settings. White balance adjusts the camera's lens so that it adapts to the light setting of the scene, adding artificial lighting to your shot and so hopefully bringing out more detail. White balance can help the camera phone take better pictures in low lighting conditions, even without a flash. If you're having problems with low light, use white balance.
Of course, how well it works depends on your camera, so read the reviews carefully! Sony Ericsson have a good reputation for phone cameras with good white balance, beginning with 2004's S700i, and continuing through to their forthcoming Sony Ericsson CyberShot phones. Other notable manufacturers include Samsung (recently announcing a 10 megapixel camera phone!), Nokia and Sharp, but most manufacturers should provide good cameras on their phones soon.
To see the difference between the different white balance settings, look at the following pictures. The pics are of my other cat, Min, again with the light set to appropriate, er, 'mood' settings! The first one has no settings on at all - no white balance, no night mode, no light. The second one is with the camera using 'night mode' only, and still no white balance used. The third one has no night mode, but uses White balance set to 'auto' (i.e. where the camera chooses which of the available White balance settings it should use based on the prevailing light conditions). The fourth one has White balance set to 'incandescent'; the fifth uses 'fluorescent'; the sixth, 'daylight'; seventh, 'cloudy'; and finally the eigth shows what can be done with the optimal combination of settings used (in this case, incandescent White balance, night mode and with the 'flash' on).
The best thing to do is experiment. It’s a digital camera, so take lots of pictures, note which picture had which feature, and compare and contrast.
7). Night Mode
Night mode is again used to let in more light to help your camera phone take pictures in the dark (hence the term!). The problem is, it does this by increasing the exposure time - that is, the time during which the lens is being exposed to the image you wish to take the photo of. Because of this, if you use night mode (and you really must during poor light conditions, irrespective of whether it's night or not), you must keep you and your subject absolutely still. Yes, that means you'll get even more cheesy pictures of your subjects at parties, as they you force them to remain smiling for over a minute, but better that than they blur!
A good combination for low light, then, is Night mode plus incandescent white balance, but again, experiment.
8). Spot photometry
Slightly more complex, spot photometry makes the camera measure the light levels of a specific part of the scene, and adjust the white balance based on that subject. Usually this is accomplished with a set of cross hairs in the middle of the camera's view: the camera will sample the light wherever the cross-hairs point to, and adjust the white balance around those levels.
If there's uneven light, this can be a picture-saver: simply point at different parts of the scene and watch as the white balance changes rapidly in front of your eyes. Find the best compromise for your shot (either point to the dark areas if you're not interested in the bright sky, or point to the sky if you’re more interested in the shadows), and click. Be careful, though. If you want detail from the shadows, the sky could become completely washed out (white, intsead of blue, for example). Equally, if you want to show the bright blue sky, the shadows may lose all detail, becoming completely black. Finally, spot photometry can be annoying as your shot's focus is on an area of the scene that has the correct luminosity for your shot - not on the subject you're trying to take a photo of.
