How To Capture Better Portraits Using Your Android Smartphone Camera

The rise of Android smartphones has brought forward a number of changes in the way communication functions. However, one of the biggest changes it brought around is that it gave a camera in every hand. Today, smartphones come out with dual, triple and even quadruple Android smartphone camera. However, while the number of lenses might keep on increasing, it does not automatically increase your photography skills.

Users who have a basic idea about photography always tend to take better photos. Here are some tips which come straight from Google on how to take better portraits using your Android smartphone camera.

How to Capture Better Portraits Using The Android Smartphone Camera

Before we proceed, let us first establish what portrait photos are. Portrait photographs are photos of people. These involve people in various situations. It can be one, or multiple people. Most smartphones these days come out with a ‘Portrait Mode’ which allows users to capture great pictures. Here are the best tips:

• Get Closer

This is something that you must always keep in mind when clicking a portrait photograph. While the modern day Android smartphone camera tends to offer a great zoom as well as background blurs, it is best to take portrait photographs by getting as close to the subject as possible. This ensures a better background blur and allows you to capture the emotions of the subject while cropping out all the unnecessary background details. Look at the image above – the image on the right is an image where the photo has been taken closer to the subject!

• Distance Between The Subject and the Background

The fun thing about taking portrait images on your Android smartphone camera is that they tend to offer a sort of a depth unlike any other. In order to create a better ‘depth’ in the picture, it is better to take a picture by keeping the subject stand in a place where they are a little far from their background. Take the photo above as a consideration. The image on the right has the subject standing in a position where the depth is more apparent and hence it looks better.

• FOCUS!

The best images are the ones which are taken with a proper focus. You don’t want to have an image which is unevenly blurred, right? Make sure you tap on the subject to set the focus there. Moreover, you can lock your focus too by tapping on the lock focus button on the right side of your Google camera app. Different Android smartphone camera apps have a different method to lock focus. The image above shows a badly focused cat on the left, and a properly focused image on the right.

• The Rule of Thirds

An important rule that everyone who wants to click a good picture needs to know! We see these grids on a camera many times. However, they are there for a reason. Grids allow you to focus which part of the image you want to focus on the most. Typically, keeping the subject at any intersection of the 3×3 grid gives the best such result.

• Lighting

Finally, the lighting. This is another critical thing that needs to be adjusted when clicking a photograph using the Android smartphone camera. If there’s a light source behind your subject, the image would appear rather absurd-looking with the subject looking darker than the background. Often the light on the background would distort the image too. However, having the subject standing opposite the light source, or at an angle where the light falls on them tends to give a better portrait image.  Sometimes, appropriate use of flash can make the image look better (as seen above).

Got any other tips that can help click a good image using your android smartphone camera? comment below and let us know!