We don’t really call them “photophones” anymore, but our smartphones have never done so much for photography! Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, Honor… constantly highlight the possibilities of their terminals with each more developed generation to help us take better photographs and… we often look elsewhere! So how can we optimize our shots beyond simply pressing the shutter button? 20 Minutes asked two experts for their insight.
RAW format for better retouching
“First, we systematically clean the lenses of the photo module of our smartphone! », judiciously reminds photographer Emma Pict (emma_pict on Instagram), member of streetphotographyfrance.fr and macro photography enthusiast. In addition to its case (GX80from Panasonic), she never separates from her iPhone to hunt down beautiful images. “The smartphone is an essential complement, especially for scenes that happen very quickly.” But once the fingerprints on the lenses have been removed, how can we go further?
“I save everything in RAW (non-degraded) format. This allows me to do post-production and have a much better level of quality than in JPEG,” continues Emma Pict. “Thanks to RAW, we can retouch the exposure, the contrasts, the white balance and then achieve a level that the smartphone could not give itself”. No need to systematically make this adjustment when taking a photo, it can be automated and activated in advance in the settings, which allows you to draw your smartphone at any time.
In the absence of photographing in RAW and spending time in post-production retouching your photos, it is possible to play on certain values when shooting. The main one undoubtedly remains the exposure, which allows you to increase or decrease the brightness of the image you are going to take. “I learned that it is better to have a photo that is underexposed rather than overexposed, because you can recover a lot more elements in retouching than if you ruined the shot by overexposing it,” advises Emma Pict . Then, it’s time for framing.
Framing and the rule of three thirds
“This is, in my opinion, the most important aspect. You have to be careful to always respect the vertical and horizontal rule of three thirds to properly frame a photo,” comments wildlife photographer Mathieu Courdesses (mathieucourdesses on IG). The rule of three thirds? It consists of dividing the photo frame into three vertical and horizontal bands using imaginary lines. By placing his subject at the intersection of these lines, to the left or right of the image, the photographer naturally highlights it. In their photo settings, most smartphones allow these lines to be displayed on the screen. Don’t deprive yourself of them, you learn a lot by using them.
Mathieu Courdesses, who is an author of books* and video director for his YouTube channelobviously prefers to photograph wild animals a reflex (Canon) with zooms of 400 and 500 mm (“to be as close as possible to the animal and obtain impeccable sharpness”). “On the other hand,” he adds, “what is interesting is that the photos taken with a smartphone as part of my activity give a direct indication of the distance that separates me from the animal. For the public, it’s another form of immersion through which we share the photographer’s session.” Session that Matthieu brings to life in his stories Instagram in vertical format, “more aesthetic on a screen for a giraffe, certain gazelles or the cheetah which is very slender”.
On the other hand, the young 30-year-old photographer will reserve the advanced settings (exposure, focal length, etc.) for his SLR, preferring “the simplicity of the smartphone”. Which also has its limits according to him: “even with the iPhone’s Portrait mode, the second plan lacks naturalness and harmony”.
Zoom, flash? Sparingly!
With a 500 mm zoom attached to his Canon camera to photograph the animal world, Mathieu Courdesses will rarely use the zoom of his smartphone in the field. Emma Pict doesn’t have much more for her street photos: “I don’t go beyond optical zoom, with digital, the quality decreases too quickly,” she explains. Some smartphones (Samsung, in particular) use AI to compensate for the degradation of the photo due to digital zoom. But there’s no way to go beyond x10 without it being visible.
What the photographer allows herself more easily is manual focus, to focus on a particular area of her photo, in particular static images or those called “proxi”, which are similar in their form to photographs. macro photo. “Often, I couple this focus with the exposure by playing with the cursor on the touch screen,” she explains.
Flash or no flash? Today, with smartphones also powered by AI to photograph in low light, such as Samsung’s Galaxy S24 or Google’s Pixel 9, we can largely do without it. Paradoxically, this means obtaining scenes that are more lit than they really are!
Afterwards, it can be a choice, to better illuminate a face, or a purely aesthetic bias. “Very great photographers, like Martin Parr, have made the use of flash a trademark. At my own level, I don’t use it, I don’t like it, I’m always in natural light,” explains Emma Pict modestly.
Retouching, AI… and the naturalness of it all?
All that remains is the retouching after shooting. Which open up the field of possibilities. Either from the Photo application on your smartphone, or through third-party applications, such as Snapseed, Photoleap, Lightroom. Free or paid, they sometimes allow you to go quite far in the quest for perfection. What AI increasingly allows: transformation of a cloudy sky into a blue sky at Apple, deletion of an unwanted object or person at Google and via apps like Luminar… Be careful, however, by dint of wanting to embellish reality, not to betray it too much!
* “ Green & Wild at Dashbook.