Your Phone’s Worst Camera Is Weirdly Great—If You Use It Like This
2 min read
Summary
The author discovers the ultra-wide camera on their phone to be a surprising tool for creative photography, despite its known weaknesses.
The weaknesses of ultra-wide cameras are that they make objects in the foreground appear small and distant, and the camera zoom function should be avoided as it further diminishes the quality of the photo.
Instead of zooming in, the solution is to physically move closer to the desired subject, which makes them appear larger in the frame.
Another technique is to use objects in the foreground as an interesting detail that will give a sense of perspective and make the photo more dynamic.
Shooting tall objects vertically, using the phone’s portrait orientation, helps to capture the full height without important details being cropped out.
The ultra-wide lens is also useful in tight spaces when you want to include more details in the frame.
Reducing edge distortion can be done by keeping the subject closer to the center of the frame, as distortion is more noticeable in the corners.
Shooting in RAW instead of JPEG or HEIC gives you more editing flexibility later, as RAWs capture more of the details that the camera sensor captures.
