I am continuously getting people emailing/PM'ing me and even posting on the forum asking for help, yet the images might as well not be there.
For example:
Sure, you may be able to identify a few of the parts, but if you're asking why it's not working, then how are we supposed to identify anything else?
Better, but the image is resized waaayyy too large, or taken with a very low quality camera. But seriously, these days even $5 webcams off eBay take better resolution than this!
Much better! Now we can identify some parts. However there is still one thing preventing this from being a perfect, clear photo, the camera flash. As you can see, it has reflected off the PCB and made it very hard to see detail in that area.
To solve this, you can either turn your camera flash off and find a better light source, move the camera further back and zoom in (Although be sure you are not using digital zoom, as this will make the image quality somewhat like the image before this!), you can also simply tilt the camera at a different angle to avoid the reflection, and finally, if nothing else works, you can try holding something like a piece of paper in front of the flash to diffuse it.
But I only have a phone camera!!
Most of the time the issue isn't the camera, but the user. You need to figure out what conditions your phone camera works best under, and go from there.
For example, most iPhones really do NOT like dark conditions, and your photos will turn out something like this:
As you can see, the image is very blurry. But not because the focus is off, but because the light conditions you were shooting in were too low. To compensate for this, the camera has tried to amplify the little light it had. You can not make something from nothing, so the image ends up looking fuzzy (and not to mention dark).
If your focus is off AND it's too dark, then this happens!
However, lots of light is not always best! Especially with phone cameras, due to their size, have very little control over exposure. Too much light is just as bad as too little, if not worse!
All my phone photos turn out blurry!
One huge flaw to phone cameras is that they're usually in a prime holding position. As such, their lenses become completely covered in fingerprints, dirt, oil and all kinds of stuff. ALWAYS wipe down the camera with a very soft tissue, or a specialized lens cleaning product before taking the picture to save yourself a lot of headache!
Another reason phone photos turn out blurry is because you have them too close to what you're trying to take a picture of. Many phones DO have a macro mode(Very often it has a flower symbol), so check and make sure that is enabled first!
If your phone doesn't have a macro mode, then try and find a lens you can put in front of your phones camera. I have hundreds of optics from old projectors laying around, and almost ALL of them had a substantial improvement. Hold it in front of your phone camera, and slowly move it closer until the image is clear.
This was taken on my phone camera using a lens infront:
Those traces are about the size of human hair.
Note however, doing this means you do not have a very large area in focus, so only use it when you do need extreme macros!
Here are some tips for both phone cameras and regular cameras:
Try to always use the lowest ISO possible. The ISO is how much the image sensor amplifies the light, as I showed in a previous photo. Turning this right down means that it does not amplify the light, and thus, very minimal grain. Unfortunately this isn't always an option on phone cameras. Instead, use as much light as you possibly can without overexposing. This will force it into using the lowest ISO it can.
Do not hold the camera too close. All cameras can only focus so far in front of them. Trying to take a photo closer than your camera can focus is guaranteed an instant blurred photo. You can also use the lens method for phone cameras I explained above.
Watch out for your flash reflection! This can make parts in a photo very difficult to identify, such as part numbers. Tilt the camera at an angle, turn off the flash and use a different light source, or diffuse the flash with a piece of paper. You can also hold the camera further away from your subject and use the zoom if your camera will allow it.
Use manual focus whenever possible! Auto focus often gets confused, especially when taking photos of electronics. If you do not have a manual focus option, then take a few photos, moving the camera slightly back and forth each time to attempt to have it focus on something else. You do not have to worry about wasting film, so do it!
Finally, watch the size of your images when posting them on the forum! There is nothing worse than having to scroll down for 5 minutes to get to the bottom of your picture! Resize them before you upload!
Using all I have mentioned above, you should get nice, clear, easily identifiable photos, even from your phone. One of these was taken on a phone, and the other on a Fuji HS10. Can you spot the difference?
This is not a guide on how to become a pro photographer, but instead to try and keep the sanity of members when you are asking for help. Like anything, practice is key. Eventually you will get to a stage where you don't even have to think and your photos will turn out perfect.
Cheers,
Dan
For example:
Sure, you may be able to identify a few of the parts, but if you're asking why it's not working, then how are we supposed to identify anything else?
Better, but the image is resized waaayyy too large, or taken with a very low quality camera. But seriously, these days even $5 webcams off eBay take better resolution than this!
Much better! Now we can identify some parts. However there is still one thing preventing this from being a perfect, clear photo, the camera flash. As you can see, it has reflected off the PCB and made it very hard to see detail in that area.
To solve this, you can either turn your camera flash off and find a better light source, move the camera further back and zoom in (Although be sure you are not using digital zoom, as this will make the image quality somewhat like the image before this!), you can also simply tilt the camera at a different angle to avoid the reflection, and finally, if nothing else works, you can try holding something like a piece of paper in front of the flash to diffuse it.
But I only have a phone camera!!
Most of the time the issue isn't the camera, but the user. You need to figure out what conditions your phone camera works best under, and go from there.
For example, most iPhones really do NOT like dark conditions, and your photos will turn out something like this:
As you can see, the image is very blurry. But not because the focus is off, but because the light conditions you were shooting in were too low. To compensate for this, the camera has tried to amplify the little light it had. You can not make something from nothing, so the image ends up looking fuzzy (and not to mention dark).
If your focus is off AND it's too dark, then this happens!
However, lots of light is not always best! Especially with phone cameras, due to their size, have very little control over exposure. Too much light is just as bad as too little, if not worse!
All my phone photos turn out blurry!
One huge flaw to phone cameras is that they're usually in a prime holding position. As such, their lenses become completely covered in fingerprints, dirt, oil and all kinds of stuff. ALWAYS wipe down the camera with a very soft tissue, or a specialized lens cleaning product before taking the picture to save yourself a lot of headache!
Another reason phone photos turn out blurry is because you have them too close to what you're trying to take a picture of. Many phones DO have a macro mode(Very often it has a flower symbol), so check and make sure that is enabled first!
If your phone doesn't have a macro mode, then try and find a lens you can put in front of your phones camera. I have hundreds of optics from old projectors laying around, and almost ALL of them had a substantial improvement. Hold it in front of your phone camera, and slowly move it closer until the image is clear.
This was taken on my phone camera using a lens infront:
Those traces are about the size of human hair.
Note however, doing this means you do not have a very large area in focus, so only use it when you do need extreme macros!
Here are some tips for both phone cameras and regular cameras:
Try to always use the lowest ISO possible. The ISO is how much the image sensor amplifies the light, as I showed in a previous photo. Turning this right down means that it does not amplify the light, and thus, very minimal grain. Unfortunately this isn't always an option on phone cameras. Instead, use as much light as you possibly can without overexposing. This will force it into using the lowest ISO it can.
Do not hold the camera too close. All cameras can only focus so far in front of them. Trying to take a photo closer than your camera can focus is guaranteed an instant blurred photo. You can also use the lens method for phone cameras I explained above.
Watch out for your flash reflection! This can make parts in a photo very difficult to identify, such as part numbers. Tilt the camera at an angle, turn off the flash and use a different light source, or diffuse the flash with a piece of paper. You can also hold the camera further away from your subject and use the zoom if your camera will allow it.
Use manual focus whenever possible! Auto focus often gets confused, especially when taking photos of electronics. If you do not have a manual focus option, then take a few photos, moving the camera slightly back and forth each time to attempt to have it focus on something else. You do not have to worry about wasting film, so do it!
Finally, watch the size of your images when posting them on the forum! There is nothing worse than having to scroll down for 5 minutes to get to the bottom of your picture! Resize them before you upload!
Using all I have mentioned above, you should get nice, clear, easily identifiable photos, even from your phone. One of these was taken on a phone, and the other on a Fuji HS10. Can you spot the difference?
This is not a guide on how to become a pro photographer, but instead to try and keep the sanity of members when you are asking for help. Like anything, practice is key. Eventually you will get to a stage where you don't even have to think and your photos will turn out perfect.
Cheers,
Dan
Last edited:
