Not quite satisfied with the photos your smartphone takes? Try these tricks to improve the quality of your phone's camera for better results.

If you’re like most people, you use your smartphone as your primary camera, and there’s no shame in that. Many smartphones these days take better photos than entry-level digital cameras from just a few years ago.

Still, there’s plenty of room for improvement regarding the picture quality coming out of your phone, especially if you plan on sharing photos with family and friends or posting them on your social media accounts.

Here are 11 ways to ensure that the photos you take using your smartphone camera turn out clean, crisp, and sharp.

One of the most common causes of blurry or distorted images is taking photos using a smartphone with dirty lenses. When dust and other debris collect on the lens, it blocks some of the light entering the lens, reducing the quality of your shots.

If you don’t clean your phone’s lens regularly, your shots will suffer in terms of clarity and color accuracy. An easy way to clean your camera lens is using a dry microfiber cloth to remove any visible dust or dirt from the surface of the lens.

The smartphone camera has many features that allow you to adjust focus and exposure on the fly. If your camera doesn’t have these features built-in, try using a photo editing app like Snapseed, Lightroom for mobile, or Photoshop Express to make these adjustments.

The typical way to adjust focus and exposure is by using a bar or slider at the bottom of the screen. Alternatively, you can zoom in or out and tap where you want that point to be in focus. Once you’ve focused on an object, take the shot.

It’s much easier for a smartphone camera to take good photos in a well-lit area than in dark surroundings. For indoor shots, try setting up artificial lighting with a ring light, lamps, or incandescent bulbs.

If you’re outside during the day, try to avoid direct sunlight. Direct sunlight can cause light to reflect off the camera lens into your photo (lens flare), creating a glare or sparkle in the image.

A surefire way to start shooting better photos is by keeping your hands still and avoiding shaking the camera while taking pictures. If you’re trying to take a group photo, one person should be in charge of pressing the shutter button as another person holds the phone as steady as possible.

You can also use a tripod to help keep things even more stable. If you don’t have a tripod, try using something else, like a wall, a book, or a table, to hold your phone still.

Smartphones typically have smaller resolutions than some of the more professional cameras available on the market. Trying to enlarge an image with digital zoom can make your photos appear grainy, blurry, or pixelated. If you want to take a close-up shot with your iPhone or Android phone, move closer to whatever you’re shooting instead of using digital zoom.

Most modern smartphones have multiple camera lenses, including a front-facing camera for selfies and video calling, an ultrawide-angle lens for capturing landscapes, and a secondary rear camera to help blur the background in images. Knowing how and when to use these can help you take great photos in different indoor and outdoor environments.

JPEG is the most widely-used digital image format. While it’s convenient because it reduces file size and has relatively good image quality when shooting in less than ideal lighting conditions, shooting in RAW format means you are preserving more data of the original photo.

This is beneficial for just about any type of editing that will take place in post-processing, like color correcting an overexposed shot.

A third-party camera app can improve the quality of photos taken by the smartphone camera. For example, apps like Camera+ and Google Camera can provide features that a default camera app doesn’t have. Installing Google Camera on your Android phone allows you to access features like Night Sight and Portrait Mode.

The rule of thirds is a simple concept that helps you compose your images. It’s based on the idea that dividing an image into nine equal parts that form a three-by-three grid creates visual interest.

You should aim to place the main subject of your photo in these intersections or along the lines, ideally, in the left or right third of the image.

Knowing how your camera works is one of the first steps to improving any camera. Aim not just to learn where camera features are located but also what each feature does.

One of the best ways to learn how to use your smartphone camera is to experiment with different settings. Understanding how shutter speed, ISO, and aperture can help capture amazing photos that truly reflect your personal style is a good place to start.

You can improve the quality of your photos by editing them in a free or paid editing app. Editing apps allow you to adjust exposure, color saturation, sharpness, and more to get the best-looking shots.

If you’re looking for a free editing app, try Snapseed. This app can help you make dramatic changes and adjustments in just a few minutes.

You can use Snapseed to create a double exposure effect, remove red-eye, and add artistic effects to your photos. You can also fix wide-angle distortion using the app’s Perspective tool and sharpen your photo using the Detail tool.

Smartphones have become part of our lives; besides communicating, you can use them to take photos. However, their camera quality isn’t perfect; many people are unhappy with the results they get from their smartphone cameras.

This post outlines the ways you can improve the quality of your smartphone camera. From shooting in RAW to using a tripod, these tips should help you get better results from your smartphone camera. If all else fails, consider getting a digital camera.

Denis is a technology writer with a focus on security. The environmental science graduate started freelance writing in 2016, while still working as a loan officer. He mostly writes on topics related to cybersecurity threats, security vulnerabilities, and cloud security best practices. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, watching movies, and listening to music.

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