The digital cameras built into ­today’s smartphones are capable of taking high-quality photos. But snapping pictures with a smartphone is quite a bit different from doing so with a conventional camera. To take great smartphone photos…

Skip the zoom. The vast majority of smartphones don’t have zoom lenses but offer a zoom function. When you use the zoom function, your smartphone’s camera just enlarges the pixels in the middle of the frame and discards those around the edges. Unlike true optical zoom, this doesn’t capture any additional detail, and your photo could look pixilated if you zoom in too far.

Rather than using the zoom function, the best way to “zoom” with a smartphone camera is to get closer before taking the shot. If that isn’t possible, take the picture without zooming, then use a photo-editing program or app to crop the photo later (enlarging the part you want). The result is essentially the same as using the digital zoom on the smartphone, but this way you have the larger image saved so that you’re not stuck with the pixilated ­image if you zoom in too far.

Helpful: If you expect to crop a smartphone photo later, go into the phone’s camera settings or main settings menu and adjust the resolution as high as possible before taking the picture. The highest resolution often isn’t the default setting because higher resolutions can lead to long processing delays between shots.

Take special steps in low-light situations. Many of today’s smartphone cameras tend to struggle in low light. Using the flash is typically a poor solution—smartphone LED flashes often produce a very harsh tone.

Three options for better low-light smartphone photos…

Snap pictures from multiple angles with and without the flash, time permitting. Keep the one that comes out best.If there’s an image-stabilizer option in your phone’s camera settings menu, turn it on before taking low-light photos. Digital image stabilization can degrade image quality, however, so it might not make sense to leave it on when it isn’t needed.

Load a long-exposure app onto your smartphone. A long exposure allows more light to reach your camera’s sensor. A good long-exposure app also may include image stabilization to reduce the odds that the long exposure will lead to blurriness, a common problem. Using a tripod also can reduce blurriness.

Good examples of apps include Slow Shutter!, a long-exposure app for iPhones ($1.99 through iTunes), and Night Camera, one of the leading options for Android (free on Play.Google.com).

Buy a smartphone that performs unusually well in low light. See ­below for examples.

Be gentle with the shutter button. Tap your smartphone’s onscreen shutter-­release button too aggressively and you’ll jar the phone slightly, causing a blurred shot. Instead, press your finger lightly and smoothly on the button.

Helpful: The volume buttons on recent-model iPhones (and some other smartphones) can be used as a shutter release, too. That can come in handy when you have to hold the phone at an odd angle to get the shot and can’t comfortably tap the screen. In fact, the volume buttons on a pair of earbuds connected to an iPhone can serve as shutter releases, too. Using the earbud button avoids any risk that snapping the picture will jar the phone, because you’re not tapping the phone at all.

Brace your elbow against your ­torso. Smartphones are not equipped with optical viewfinders—the LCD screen serves as the viewfinder. But to see this screen, you must hold the smartphone at some distance away from your face, and that could cause blurred pictures if you can’t hold your arms perfectly steady.

If your shots often are blurry, ­reduce arm shake by bracing your elbow against your body before snapping a picture. Better yet, hold the phone with both hands and brace both ­elbows.

Wipe off the lens before snapping a picture. Unlike most cameras, smartphone cameras don’t have lens covers. Their lenses often get dusty or dirty in our pockets or purses or get smudged when we handle the phone. A quick wipe with a clean, microfiber cloth or lens wipe can prevent this from ruining a shot. You even can use the hem of a cotton T-shirt.

Load other useful photo apps onto your phone. When you buy a regular camera, you’re generally stuck with the software that the manufacturer includes in the camera. When you buy a smartphone, you can load some wonderful camera apps onto it, improving its programming.

In addition to the exposure app above, examples include…

Snapseed (free, iPhone or Android) for editing smartphone photos after you’ve taken them. Unlike other free photo-editing apps, it lets you make localized changes to photos. Example: If the tone of one face in a photo doesn’t look quite right, you can adjust just that face without changing the tone of other parts of the photo.

Camera+ ($1.99, iPhone) and ProCamera ($0.99, iPhone) offer image stabilization, delay timers and expanded control over light levels, among other perks.

AutoStitch Panorama ($1.99, iPhone) lets users snap several overlapping pictures, then combine them together into one large, seamless image. There are other photo-stitching apps, but this one lets you join photos in multiple configurations, not just side-by-side in a long, thin panorama.

Best Smartphones for Taking Pictures

Among the most notable smartphones for photography…

Apple iPhone 5s sets a new standard for smartphone ­photography. Its large aperture and pixel size take in significantly more light than the typical smartphone, allowing better low-light photography. Its high-quality image stabilization reduces blurriness. Its fast processor allows for quick automatic focusing and lets you snap up to 10 photos per second in “burst mode.” Even its flash is better than other smartphone flashes—it combines white and amber LED lights for a less harsh tone. ($199 for the 16-GB model with a two-year AT&T, Sprint or Verizon contract. Prices climb to $299 for the 32-GB model and $399 for the 64-GB.)

HTC One has a sensor with extra-large pixels that capture lots of light for high-quality low-light performance. In “Zoe” mode, it can take up to 20 photos and up to three seconds of video simultaneously with a single tap of the shutter button—that gives you plenty of choices so that you can pick the picture or video that comes out best. ($199.99 for the 32-GB model with a two-year AT&T, Sprint or Verizon contract. Prices climb to $299 for the 64-GB model.)

Nokia Lumia 1020 provides extremely high resolution thanks to a high-quality Carl Zeiss lens and an unusually large “back-illuminated” 41-megapixel sensor. Ultra-high resolution isn’t necessary with a standard digital camera, but it solves one of the main shortcomings of a smartphone camera—the lack of an optical zoom. The Lumia 1020’s r­esolution is so high that you can use a photo-editing app or program to zoom way in on the part of the photo that you’re interested in without pixilation. ($199 with a two-year AT&T contract)

Add-On Lenses

Sony QX10 isn’t actually a smartphone. It’s an attachment that turns a standard Android or Apple smartphone into a high-quality camera complete with 10x optical zoom lens, 18-megapixel image sensor and high-quality image stabilization. There’s also a QX100 model that offers a higher-end sensor and lens as well as other perks, but for twice the price. ($249.99, Store.Sony.com)

Related Articles