With the introduction of the Camon 15 series with TAIVOS, mobile photography would surely be on the rise. To my selfie addicts, Camon CEOs, and photography lovers, here are a few tips and tricks for you to maximize your experience.

1. Clean The Lens For Crystal Clear Photos

Your mobile phone spends a lot of time in your hands, as well as your purse or pocket. And as a result, the camera’s lens can get covered in dirt, dust, and fingerprints. A dirty lens will leave smudges, blurs, or dust spots on your photos. And that won’t look good! So here’s the first of our mobile photography tip:

If you want clear and sharp photos, clean your phone’s lenses. Use a soft cloth (or even your t-shirt) to gently wipe the lens. If you’ve been shooting at the beach or in dusty conditions, blow on the lens first. This will remove any sand or dust that may scratch the lens.

2. Set The Focus To Ensure Your Subject Is Always Sharp

Even if your lens is perfectly clean, sometimes your subject just doesn’t look sharp. That’s because the camera’s autofocus doesn’t always focus where you want it to. To ensure your subject is always in sharp focus, you’ll need to set the focus point manually.

So, how do you set the phone camera focus? It’s actually super-easy! Simply compose your shot, then tap on the screen where you want to set focus.

(You’d normally want to set focus on your main subject). A yellow box or circle will appear to indicate the focus point. Now, just press the shutter button to take your photo. The area that you set focus on will appear crisp and sharp. Anything in front of or behind the focus point may appear out of focus.

3. Adjust Exposure For Perfect Brightness Levels

Do your photos often turn out too bright (over-exposed) or too dark (under-exposed)? It doesn’t have to be this way! So, how do you ensure your photos have the perfect level of brightness? You simply adjust the exposure (brightness) before you take a picture.

Adjusting exposure in the phone camera is easy. Start by tapping to set focus, then swipe up or down to adjust exposure. Swipe up to make the image brighter or swipe down to make it darker. Try to ensure the most important parts of the scene are exposed correctly.

When they're correctly exposed, they’ll have plenty of color and detail. Of course, sometimes you might want to deliberately under or over-expose your photo.

4. Use HDR For Evenly-Lit Photos With Amazing Detail

Taking photos of high-contrast scenes can be a problem when it comes to exposure. A high-contrast scene has both dark and bright areas – such as a landscape with a bright sky and dark foreground. When you take a photo, the camera struggles to capture detail in both the shadows(dark areas) and the highlights (bright areas).

You'll usually end up with one of two problems: Either the highlights will be correctly exposed, but the shadows will appear too dark. Or the shadows will be correctly exposed, but the highlights will appear too bright.

Fortunately, your Tecno phone’s camera has an amazing feature that helps you create more evenly-lit photos. It’s called HDR. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. And it allows you to capture detail in both the shadows and the highlights. So, how do you shoot HDR photos with your phone? First, you need to check your HDR settings. Open the camera and tap on HDR.

If you want your phone camera to automatically shoot HDR photos whenever it needs to, ensure it is set to HDRA (Auto HDR). When you shoot, you won’t need to think about using HDR – your camera will do the work for you! If you'd prefer to control the HDR setting manually in the Camera, switch auto HDR off.

5. Shoot In Portrait Mode To Create Gorgeous Blurred Backgrounds

Do you want to shoot professional-looking photos with dreamy, blurred backgrounds? Your Tecno camera has Portrait mode, you can easily blur the background when taking pictures. Portrait mode uses depth-effect software to keep your foreground subject sharp while blurring the background.

So, how do you use Portrait mode? It’s simple! In the phone’s camera, select the Portrait shooting mode at the bottom of the screen.

Compose your shot, making sure your subject is between two and eight feet away. (The depth-effect won’t work if your subject is too close or too far away).

6. Switch Between Lenses To Zoom In Or Out

Do you have a Tecno phone with a quad-lens or triple-lens camera? If so, you can easily zoom in and out by switching between the phone’s camera lenses. Zooming in allows you to capture a closer view of the scene. And zooming outlets you capture a wider angle of view. The lenses that you have will depend on which phone model you own. Android devices have three lenses: Wide, Ultra Wide, and Telephoto.

So, how do you switch between lenses when taking pictures? You use the Zoom icons (0.5x, 1x, and 2x) at the right side of your camera user interface.

0.5xis the Ultra-Wide lens, 1x is the Wide lens, and 2x is the Telephoto lens.

* To use the Wide lens, ensure 1x is selected. This lens has a moderately wide-angle of view which makes it suitable for most shooting situations.

* To switch to the Ultra Wide lens, tap 0.5x. This allows you to zoom out to capture more of the scene in your photo. It’s perfect for shooting landscapes, cityscapes, and architecture.

* Tap 2x to switch to the Telephoto lens. This lens allows you to zoom in and capture a closer view of the subject. It’s great for situations where you can physically get closer to your subject.

As you can see, you get very different results depending on which lens you shoot with. If you’re not sure which lens to use, why not capture the scene with each lens and then compare the results!

7. Keep Your Camera Steady For Sharp and  Shake-Free Shots

Do your photos sometimes turn out blurry? A common cause of blurry photos is camera shake. Camera-shake happens if you move the camera (even very slightly) when taking a photo. In bright light conditions, some slight camera movements usually isn’t a problem. Because when there’s lots of light, the camera uses a fast shutter speed (to avoid too much light getting in). A fast shutter speed freezes any movement in the scene, including camera movement. So in bright light, your shots will usually be nice and sharp.

But in low light conditions, the camera has to use a slower shutter speed. This lets more light in over a longer period of time.

During this longer exposure time, any movement (including camera movement) will be captured as a blur or streak.

And this is why you often get blurry photos when shooting in low light or at night. To capture sharp photos in low light, you need to keep the camera really steady.

If you have a tripod mount, you can use them to keep your phone perfectly still when shooting. But what if you don’t have a tripod? Here are a few mobile photography tips for keeping your phone steady when you don’t have a tripod:

* Rest your phone on a solid surface, such as a wall or rock.

* Hold your phone with both hands, making sure you have a good tight grip. Lean against a wall or tree to steady your body.

* Position your elbows against your body to keep your arms steady. Crouch down and rest your phone on your knee.

Just do whatever you can to keep your Phone as still as possible – especially when shooting in low light. If you do this, you’ll get the sharpest shots possible. And blurry photos will be a thing of the past!

If you have one of the Camon 15 models, you can use Night mode when shooting in low light. This camera feature helps you capture sharper night photos with better color and detail. But even with Night mode, you’ll still get the best results by keeping your camera as steady as possible!

8. UseThe Rule Of Thirds To Compose Beautiful Mobile Photos

Getting sharp, well-exposed photos is crucial. But composition is equally important. Good composition is what sets apart an average photo from an amazing one. Composing a  visually pleasing image involves careful positioning of the important elements in the frame. So how do you decide where to place your main subject or focal point? You use the rule of thirds!

The“rule” states that you should position the most important elements off-center –rather than in the middle of the frame. This creates more balanced and natural compositions – compositions that are engaging and pleasing to the eye. Fortunately, every Tecno camera has a handy tool to help you compose using the rule of thirds. What is this tool? Its called the Grid. To switch on the gridlines, open the settings of your camera and turn on Grid.

But remember, rules are made to be broken! So once you’ve mastered the rule of thirds, try breaking it on purpose. Sometimes, placing your subject in the middle of the frame can create a striking image, and if the scene is symmetrical, you can use a central composition to create perfect symmetry in your photo.

9. Use Leading Lines For Powerful Images With Incredible Depth

Leading lines are lines that lead from the foreground to the background of the scene. A leading line could be a path, a road, a river, or a railway line. It could be a fence, a wall, a bridge, a row of trees.

Anything can be used as a leading line – as long as it draws the viewer’s eye into the image. To ensure the leading line creates a sense of depth in your photo, frame the shot so that the line starts in the foreground bringing life into your pictures.

The line should either lead into the distance or towards your main subject. This is such a simple composition technique. But it will have a huge impact on your mobile photography. So whenever you're out shooting, look for leading lines. Then use them to create incredible depth in your pictures.

10. Experiment With Different Perspectives For More Unique Images

Most people take photos from chest height while standing. But you’ll get far more interesting photos by shooting from a different perspective. So, always look for an alternative point of view when taking pictures. Try crouching, kneeling, or even lying on the ground. Shooting from a low perspective is great for making foreground subjects loom large in your photo. You could also try shooting straight up at a tall building, tree canopy, or decorative ceiling.

You could also get closer to your subject to capture its intricate detail (Macro photography). You can create fabulous abstract images by getting close and filling the frame, or shoot through a “frame,” such as an archway, doorway, or window. This adds wonderful foreground interest to your photo. And it draws the eye through the frame towards the background. For really unique images, try shooting through a semi-transparent object. You could use frosted glass or a window with water droplets. You can create wonderfully abstract images using this method.

11. Simplify Your Compositions For The Most Striking Shots

The best photos are often the simplest ones. If there’s too much going on in the scene, your photo will be confusing. The viewer won’t know what to focus their attention on. So, always aim to simplify your compositions. Here are a few mobile photography tips for creating simple, striking photos:

* First, try to include only one main subject in your photo. The more subjects you have, the more confusing the photo will be.

* Second, ensure the background isn’t too busy or distracting. You might need to change your shooting angle to eliminate distractions.

* Try taking a few steps to the left or right to get down low so that you can include more sky in your photo.

* Another option is to get closer and fill the entire frame with your subject. This is an easy way to remove the background completely.

* And finally, try to include lots of empty space in your picture. In photography, this empty space is called “negative space “. Including large areas of negative space helps draw attention to your subject.

And it creates wonderful, minimalist photos that really catch the eye. So don’t forget one of the most important mobile photography tips:

Keep your compositions simple. Because simple images are the most striking!

Related: Mobile Photography Tips and Tricks