Tips For Improving Mobile Photography

I work with a lot of remodeling contractors who create beautiful work. Sometimes the work they complete isn’t aesthetically beautiful in itself, but the changes made to the home certainly makes a positive impact on the client’s life. It is still important to document this work not only to use in marketing and advertising efforts, but to help other home owners understand the work they do and the improvements they could make on their own homes. One of the last things a contractor is thinking about while working on a client’s home is how to get that perfect photography shot so I decided to create a guide for working with mobile cameras in unusual spaces that helps them get the shots they need in less time. I hope you find this guide as useful as they do!

 

Tips for Improving Mobile Photography

We create some pretty amazing things here at remodeling company and there is no better way to showcase that (except video) than photographs. I’ve compiled a list of tips for mobile photography, but most of these help with POS (point and shoot) and DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras too.

First, get to know the settings on your phone or camera.  Most are pretty simple and usually include a lot of presets that help under various conditions. White balance can be especially useful to set to Incandescent or Fluorescent for inside shots.

High quality. Make sure your resolution is set to the highest it can go. Starting off with a higher quality photo is always better than a pixely/small sized one. This may eat up a lot of space on your phone so remember to regularly dump them on the server and purge anything you don’t need/like.

Keep steady. When taking shots indoors, lighting conditions are usually poor and require the shutter to remain open longer to absorb more light. This results in blurry photos if you are moving while taking the shot. Even propping your elbow up on a table can help reduce blur.

Ditch flash. The flash on mobile phones, and even most POS cameras, is really not suited to indoor photography. Disable it in your settings and try to keep steady while taking the shot. Unless the room is really dark, it will look much better without the flash washing out the image.

Don’t stop at one. Take multiple shots of the same scene as the camera may auto-focus incorrectly or hand shake could cause the photo to be blurry and having more than one shot of the same scene will increase your chance of getting a great shot!

Specific tips for insulation sales/crews and issues with dust particles: Try not to use the flash. The flash is a quick burst of light emanating from a location very close to the lens of the camera and it will pick up and highlight any specks of dust nearby causing it to auto focus on them instead of your subject. If it is really dark, try leaving your headlamp or flashlight/light source on the floor/joists facing your subject and shoot without flash. Try to stand very still because low light settings need a longer shutter time to capture the detail.