How to Use Your New Smartphone Camera Like a Pro

New smartphone cameras are taking astonishing pictures. Add built-in editing software that uses Artificial Intelligence and the result is even photo bugs are ditching their bulky equipment to shoot with their phones.

Welcome to the future of photography. Smartphones are well on their way to replacing more than tablets and PCs; they also are well on their way to replacing SLR cameras. If you have the newest Pixel, Samsung or Apple iPhone 11, you can take photos that, until now, you could only take with professional equipment.

Here are ways you can use your new phone's camera like a pro:

Shooting a small bathroom

Finally, you can capture a photo of a small bathroom that shows most of the shower, toilet and sink without your image ending up in the mirror! A built-in, wide-angle lens in the newest camera does the trick. No lenses to attach. Simply pinch the image on your phone's screen to maximize the width of your shot.

Maximize natural lighting for exterior home pics

Your new phone allows you to adjust the lighting on the image you are about to shoot. Some built-in cameras will over light the photo. Most Android smartphones have manual modes. The Samsung S10 models have a built-in "Pro" mode – accessed by swiping along the bottom of the screen to access. For iPhone 11 models, you can adjust the lighting by holding a finger on the darkest point of the image to freeze focus and then adjust the lighting using the small indicator that appears to the left of the small box outline that pops up inside the image.

Using HDR for better landscaping shots

An HDR mode, available on most new phone cameras, now even uses AI to get a better "dynamic range" – the ratio of light to dark in a photo – which can make your landscaping shots pop.

Nighttime photos without a flash

This may be the most revolutionary improvement to date for smartphone cameras. Flashes have wrecked more photos than have worked to capture great ones. The new iPhone 11 Pro, for example, features Night Mode photography. For outdoor shots or indoor ones that feature low lighting, the results are stunning. It automatically comes on when needed and takes multiple images and uses optical image stabilization to steady the lens. The AI software does the rest to produce the final image. The resulting photos were once the purview of shots that only an experienced pro could capture with the SLR.

Sharper property shots

The new iPhone 11 Pro doesn't feature just three different primary lenses on the back – it features three cameras. Each one is a hefty 12-megapixel camera (think billboard-sized photo capabilities). There's one with a wide-angle lens (26mm), the other with an ultrawide lens (13mm) and one with a telephoto lens (52mm). Their capabilities are dramatically enhanced by technology, both the optical image stabilization and advanced focus capabilities. Add in super-easy to use software to instantly enhance any image and you will be able to take full property shots that will be sharper than ever.

Take professional videos too

You may have seen a black and white television commercial from Apple featuring Selena Gomez – all shot on an iPhone 11 Pro. That's how good these new smartphone cameras are. For neighborhood tours, promotional videos or a mini-tour to promote your next open house on social media, it's hard to beat the up to 4K high-resolution capabilities these new cameras feature.

Hidden features

It seems that these new smartphones also come with some hidden abilities. The iPhone 11, for example, allows you to go back in time to fix a photo mistake, figuratively speaking. When you zoom in to take a group shot and accidentally leave out someone in the photo, you can go back in to edit the photo to include the missing person. You need to enable this feature under Settings > Camera and turn on "Photo Capture Outside the Frame." This will use up extra data, but if you don't access it after 30 days, it is automatically deleted. This feature will allow you to zoom out after the fact, accessible inside its editing software.

Google's Pixel 4 features an Ambient EQ setting that equalizes the color and brightness of the display to reflect the current ambient lighting conditions. It is under Settings > Display > Ambient EQ > Toggle on. An even cooler feature is an instant social sharing feature. Take a photo and swipe up on the mini-preview bubble to instantly share to an app of your choice.

Samsung Galaxy S10 has three modes to teach you how to take better pictures. In Inside Settings, there are three modes: Scene Optimizer, Shot Suggestion and Flaw Detection. Scene Optimizer scans to adjusts the camera to take bright pictures in the dark or scan documents. Shot Suggestion places a guide on your screen to show you where to point the camera in order to get the best possible shot. And Flaw Detection can let you know if someone blinks, moves and looks blurry, or even if you've got a dirty lens.

More resources

You can learn more about the smartphones with some of the most powerful cameras, including:

• Apple iPhone 11 camera capabilities here.
• Samsung Galaxy S10 camera capabilities here.
• Google Pixel 4 camera review here.

Have questions?

Want someone to help you discover and guide you on what your smartphone can do? Call Tech Helpline! Our techs are standing by, looking forward to helping you. As your member benefit, this service is available to you at no additional cost.

Read about more photo tips and tricks here:

• 5 Basic Tips for Taking Great Photos with your iPhone
• Photos taking up too much space? A few tips to compress

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