Shoot Better Photos

First of all, most smartphones have a flash of some kind that can double as a continuous light. If you need a little extra illumination, just turn on flashlight mode. If you don’t have a flash in your mobile device you can use the screen instead. Just download one of the many apps that turns it white or just visit a completely white web page like this one. Having enough light makes a big difference, but you need to consider more than just quantity. The direction of the light, its color temperature, and how it hits your subject all have a large effect on the quality of your photo, its coloring, and the mood you set. When you control the light, great! Just use Virtual Lighting Studio to create a setup to figure out what you want. When relying on natural/available light, however, you need to what you’re working with. iOS and Android (including Kindle Fire) users can pick up LightTrac. For $5, the app tracks light sources at your location so you can figure out the quality of the source in any given direction and estimate the shadows it will cast. A simple slider will take you to any time of day if you need to plan for later instead of right now. The app provides nearly invaluable information if you want to find the perfect natural light. Photographic Calculations Digital cameras handle a large amount of the work for us, but sometimes you need manual controls to get the exact image you want. While you can make some good educated guesses, you’ll serve yourself better by getting your settings just right. Even seasoned photographers will use tools to calculate the correct aperture, shutter speed, and ISO rating (among other things) for an ideal image. Too much trial and error can frustrate anyone, so use your smartphone to give you the information you need.

Photo Tools Pro (Android, $2.54) and f/8 DoF Calculator (iOS, $4) will help you out with some of the more annoying, complex calculations. Photo Tools Pro can help you figure out your desired depth of field, flash exposure, minimal shutter speed, and more. F/8 DoF Calculator only calculates depth of field, but for most that’s enough. (Unfortunately it costs more than an Android app with quite a few additional features, but what else is new.)