{"id":789,"date":"2017-06-21T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine?p=789"},"modified":"2017-06-28T14:35:05","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T18:35:05","slug":"explain-can-take-great-photos-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/explain-can-take-great-photos-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"Explain This: How can i take great photos with my phone?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-818\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/phone2-2-151x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"149\" height=\"300\" \/>It\u2019s vacation season. It\u2019s wedding season. It\u2019s beach season. There\u2019s no denying it: Summer is prime time for photo-taking. If you\u2019re like many people, you\u2019ve ditched your clunky film camera in favor of your smartphone\u2014and there\u2019s no shame in that, says Mark Ludak \u201981, a specialist professor who teaches all levels of photography at Monmouth. \u201cThe best kind of camera is the one you have on you,\u201d he says. \u201cModern smartphones are equal in quality to the premier digital cameras of about 15 years ago, so they are more than adequate for social media or printing up to 5 x 7.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n<header>Q: What\u2019s HDR, and why use it?<\/header>\n<p>If one part of your photo is too bright and another is too dark, you may need to use HDR. Short for high dynamic range, this setting takes a series of photos at different exposures to account for the different light values and then combines the best parts of each automatically<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>But there are a few golden rules to follow, says Ludak.<\/p>\n<p>First, the basics: Get closer than you think to the subject, and fill the frame with it. Keep the phone steady for the sharpest image possible by holding it with two hands and either resting the phone on a table or leaning your body against a wall. Make sure any sunlight is behind you to avoid backlighting the subject (pro tip: the best time of day is early morning or late afternoon). And when in doubt, opt for horizontal orientation. \u201cAny social media we use is horizontally oriented, so if you take a vertical photo, you\u2019ll see empty space on either side,\u201d says Ludak. \u201cPlus, if you\u2019re taking pictures of a person, vertical orientation almost guarantees there\u2019s too much space above their head.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next, optimize the phone\u2019s camera settings. Ludak says he rarely uses the flash\u2014unless it\u2019s pitch black, flash is going to make the photo look unnatural. Instead, use the exposure setting to focus the frame and achieve optimal lighting. \u201cOften, you can touch the screen where you want the focus to be, and it will automatically adjust the exposure,\u201d says Ludak. If your phone has an additional slider option to brighten or darken the photo, use it, he says.<\/p>\n<p>When life doesn\u2019t allow for perfect conditions\u2014like a child playing or a dog romping\u2014burst mode can be a photo-saver. Simply hold down the shutter button, and the phone should take a series of photos\u2014usually one of them is workable, says Ludak. Too bright? Too dark? Filters can come in handy, he adds. In particular, a black-and-white filter can save a too-bright pic.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line? \u201cYou can take great photos with the smartphones we have,\u201d he says. \u201cPhotographs aren\u2019t made by devices. They\u2019re made by people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Specialist professor and photography expert Mark Ludak offers his advice on how to take gripping shots with mobile cameras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":6,\"y\":1}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents"],"thumbnail":"<img width=\"151\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/phone2-2-151x300.png\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-818 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" role=\"presentation\" style=\"object-position:6% 1%\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/phone2-2-151x300.png 151w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/phone2-2-768x1521.png 768w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/phone2-2-517x1024.png 517w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/phone2-2-828x1640.png 828w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/phone2-2-360x713.png 360w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/phone2-2-9x18.png 9w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2017\/06\/phone2-2.png 930w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 151px) 100vw, 151px\" \/>","catString":"Currents","issue":"Summer 2017","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions\/870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}