5 Easy Steps From Huawei to Take Professional Photos with a Smartphone

Since the start of the Circuit Breaker, it hasn’t been easy finding new things to do when you’re stuck at home most of the time. Instead of wondering about what you can do to keep yourself occupied, how about picking up a handy new skill like smartphone photography?

Huawei has partnered with Bryan van Der Beek, who has 20 years of experience as a professional photographer, to share 5 tips and tricks for budding photographers on how you can achieve beautiful and stunning photos with your smartphone. 

1. PATIENCE IS KEY

Capture a unique photo with patience. (Image courtesy of Bryan van der Beek)

Finding a nice scene or background in your home with the perfect moment and lighting isn’t always easy but sometimes, we will see an opportunity for a unique photograph when we least expect it to.

As a photographer, you could wait it out to take a natural shot, or you could get your family member to walk into the frame to capture your envisioned photograph. But instead of creating a visually interesting image, consider the moment and emotion before the composition. Patience is essential to producing a good photo that shows a real moment with emotions that is not set up.

2. LIGHTING IS CRUCIAL IN NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Night photography is easier when you have a smartphone that can take low light photos. (Image courtesy of Bryan van der Beek)

A tip to note when wanting to take good shots in the night is that after a certain time, the illumination from your photos will move from being lit by the sun to being lit by artificial lighting. So, when it comes to capturing night landscapes, timing doesn’t really matter. All you’ll need is a good smartphone device capable of handling low light photos in their standard mode like the Huawei P40 Series.

You can also check if your device has a Night Mode — this function uses artificial intelligence to analyse the scene you are trying to photograph, taking into account multiple factors such as light, the phone’s movement, and the movement of objects being captured. Your smartphone will then automatically shoot a series of images internally at different exposure levels and use bracketing to put them together to bring out as much detail as possible in the single photo you see.

3. SHOOT LANDSCAPES WITH A LOW ISO AND AT A HIGH VANTAGE POINT

Key to good landscape photos — low ISO and high vantage point! (Image courtesy of Bryan van der Beek)

The golden hour to shoot an urban landscape is usually around the early morning or late afternoon in the evening when the lighting is best and the longest shadows are cast. It provides the perfect opportunity to shoot silhouettes in your photographs.

A tip for shooting good landscape photos is to go for a higher vantage point, especially if where you’re staying isn’t high up enough compared to your subject. Additionally, use the lowest ISO as possible to get the cleanest digital file because while higher ISOs may give you faster shutter speeds, you’ll only get increased digital noise.

4. LEVEL YOUR CAMERA WHEN SHOOTING IN WIDE ANGLE

Remember to keep your smartphone level when you’re shooting at a wide-angle. (Image courtesy of Bryan van der Beek)

When you want to capture as much area within a photo, consider using a wide-angle lens to help you out with your desired shot. If you happen to own a Huawei P40 Pro, you can use the 40MP Ultra-Wide Angle camera instead. However, you must remember to not get too far away from the centre as it will create more distortion in your image. One way to control the distortion is to keep the camera as straight and level as possible, and while you’re shooting from home, ensure that you don’t have any family members at the side of your frames as it would stretch them out and make them look distorted in the photograph.

5. GETTING UP CLOSE FOR PORTRAIT SHOTS

Huawei P40 Pro users can easily get rid of accidental photo bombers with the Huawei Golden Snap feature. (Image courtesy of Bryan van der Beek)

Taking portraits of people usually means that you’ll need to get up close to them in order to capture more textures from their faces which enhances the visual of the photo. To give your photograph more context, utilise the rule of thirds to frame your subject and capture some of the surrounding environment. For Huawei P40 Pro users, you don’t really have to worry about accidental photo bombers thanks to its AI capabilities which include the Huawei Golden Snap feature which removes the unwanted subjects instantly.

The Huawei P40 Series

If you’re looking for a smartphone upgrade, you could consider the Huawei P40 Series which has a versatile camera system that comes packed with different camera features for you to experiment with.

The Huawei P40 retails at $1,048 while the Huawei P40 Pro retails at $1,448, and is available for purchase from the official Huawei store on Shopee.

 


To find out more about the Huawei P40 Series, click here.

Banner image courtesy of Bryan van der Beek.