Taking close up pictures with a smart phone

jeanluc83

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I have noticed some people having problems with getting their phones to focus up close. Most of the pictures end up a blur that is not really that much better than the description.

You can get lenses specifically made for macro photography but I have found that Phones can actually do a decent job without anything.

Here are a couple of tricks that will help force your phones camera to focus up close.

When you are taking a picture, place your hand between the object and your phone. Once the camera focuses on your hand move it out of the way. The camera will then focus on the next closest thing. Once that happens take the picture. It may take a little bit of trial and error to get it to focus on what you want.

Another way is to put a piece of paper or cardboard just behind what you are photographing. The depth of field will be about the same for everything so the camera will be able to focus more easily.

If you can’t get your camera to focus you probably have the camera too close. Try different distances until you find one that works. My phone has a minimum focal length of around 12".

In the end you might need to take the picture from farther away and crop it to show only what you want. Most smart phones have a basic photo manipulation app for things like cropping and rotating pictures.

If you want good advice on the forum taking good quality pictures helps a lot.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Unfortunately, even though I appreciate you taking the time to post this and even though I agree completely, it's not going to help.
What did work on other forums I visit, was to make a annual competition of the most crappy photos posted. Within weeks of opening a thread like that, everyone started making quality pics!
Negative reinforcement can help people more than most therapists believe or want to admit.
 

Starfox

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Cropping a phone pic can make things much worse in some cases. I posted an example a while back. I certainly would never crop a photo from my phone at least. With that said it is probably ok to do so if you have the top of the range Samsung or iPhone.
 

Nybonsai12

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Good post. The recent few years of iphones can take pretty decent pics. It's what i use to take all my photos for the forum. Sure they aren't going to win any photography awards but it does the job good enough. I've found that proper background, decent lighting, setting etc go a long way too.
 

jeanluc83

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Negative reinforcement can help people more than most therapists believe or want to admit.

I figured I try this first instead of calling people out on their threads.

Cropping a phone pic can make things much worse in some cases.

This is also true with zoom. Almost all phones use a digital zoom so all you are doing is reducing your resolution.
 

GGB

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My kyocera hydro icon has an 8mp camera, it was pretty bad. Just got an S5 with 16mp camera and my photos STILL suck.
 

M. Frary

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I just hold my Samsung 7 close and take the picture.
It's camera does everything else.
I take 2 pictures every time too.
One on flash and one with it off
 

jeanluc83

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Mine is a 2 or 3 year Motorola Moto e. I think it was only $90 out right when I brought it. It does the job though.
 

Solaris

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With my mobile (Huawei P8) I just have to tap on the area of the screen where the object I want to focus on appears.
Same here. Double-tap, it will try to focus on what I'm tapping on. If it can't, I need to move it back a couple of inches.
 
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