With just under a week left to enjoy Sydney’s most popular lights festival, amateur and aspiring photographers alike are likely to understand the challenge of mastering night photography. Here to help, is Samsung Galaxy photographer Demas Rusli. Who shared his top 10 tips on how to take great pictures at Vivid on your mobile phone.
- Clean your lens. Although this might seem very simple, it’s probably the most important tip on the list! A lot of the time the camera lens on the back of your phone is quite dirty because it’s always rubbing against things in our pockets/bags. So, before you start to take any photos, give the cameras a quick wipe. This is especially useful for night photography. Because, it will eliminate the ugly glaring that happens when you point your cameras at bright lights.
- Turn on the Grid Lines. This will help you with composing your photos and help you keep your photos straight and balanced. To turn on the Grid Lines, open the Settings when you’re in the Camera App, scroll down and activate the ‘Grid Lines’ option.
- Stay still or use a tripod. Having a steady hand will help enormously when it comes to taking photos at night as less light is available for the sensor to capture. If you can, use a tripod to be extra still. But, if you can’t then try to lock your elbows in and stay still while taking your shots – unless you’re going for that blurry look on purpose!
- Use Night Mode. When the scene is dark, your Galaxy phone should be able to automatically detect this, and a small moon icon should appear on the bottom right of the screen when you’re in the Camera App. By tapping on it, this will activate Night Mode and it will help with taking clearer pictures at night. This requires you to hold the camera towards the scene a bit longer though. So, this is where Tip 3 will come in handy.
- Shoot using all the available cameras. By experimenting and shooting with all the available cameras (Ultrawide, Standard, 3x, and 5x), you’ll be able to capture many different compositions just from standing in the one spot. Being able to capture something in different ways helps with storytelling and adds more narrative to your images. Night mode is available on all cameras on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
- Look for unique and interesting angles. Don’t just take the shot that’s right in front of you. To get more interesting photos, try lots of different angles and see things from different perspectives. A few ways to get started are to look for reflections from mirrors/glass/puddles, shoot at a very low angle, shoot from a high angle, and try framing the subject using surrounding objects/people.
- Use Pro Mode. If you’re more advanced, you can try using the Pro Mode on the Galaxy S24 Ultra cameras. This will allow you to not only shoot in RAW, but also have more flexibility when it comes to the camera settings. Giving you the opportunity to play with long exposure photography and get even more creative!
- Remaster (AI). Once you’ve taken the perfect photo, you can use the AI tools on the Galaxy phones to enhance them even further. One tool to use is Remaster – which will help edit your photos automatically. To access this, find the photo you want to edit in the Gallery app, then press the “i” icon at the bottom, then click Remaster. Watch the AI do its magic and edit the photo for you!
- Remove unwanted people/distractions in your photos using Galaxy AI. A common problem when taking photos at Vivid is that you’re going to have lots of other people in your photos. This is where Galaxy AI comes in. Using this tool you can remove unwanted people/distractions from your photos. Simply open the photo in the Gallery app, then click the Pencil Icon, then the blue Galaxy AI button. Next circle around the people/objects you want to remove, then long press and click erase and finally click Generate. AI will automatically clean up the photo for you!
- Have fun with it!: The last tip is to have fun and enjoy photographing the festival! Photography is about expressing creativity and showing your vision. So, there are no rules and it’s up to you what you think looks good!
Heading to Vivid? Check out Samsung’s Chorus of Light Vivid masterpiece inspired by Galaxy AI exhibition. It’s a perfect chance to try these tips for taking great pictures at Vivid on your mobile phone