top of page

5 hacks and accessories for better smartphone hiking photography


Many beautiful outdoor shots are taken with smartphones. BUT most are not a coincidence. The photographer used good basic techniques and inexpensive equipment to get a great picture. The good news is that you can also use the following 10 accessories and hacks for better smartphone hiking photography.

The latest cameras from Smartphone Kick Ass!

Newer iPhones (and other high-end Smartphones Tripod like Google Pixel) are intensively using "digital photography" (sophisticated software image processing) to dramatically improve photos. These include the dynamic range (ability to handle large differences between the brightest and darkest areas of the photo), color, contrast, texture and even the focus on photos.

Improvements can be dramatic. Thus, photos of new smartphones are often better than much larger "traditional" DSLRs. It may take a lot of photo editing from a conventional camera to see the benefits of having a larger sensor. This article will help you make the most of your smartphone's camera.

1- Take the picture! It does not matter if your smartphone's camera is holding you back. As great hockey player Wayne Gretzky says, "You miss 100% of the shots you do not make." The same goes for photography, maybe more. Grab your smartphone and start shooting. Some of my best photos were taken on a lark. A "I wonder how this attitude will look like" is paying off!

Related Article: Best Lightweight Tripod

2- Clean the lens of your camera. It's probably dirty! This layer of dirt makes every photo worse. Clean with only your breath and a high quality lens cloth, such as a MagicFiber microfiber cleaning cloth. Avoid overlapping your lens (unless absolutely necessary).

3- Get an app to manually control your camera. Camera is a personal favorite for usability and performance. It also has good photo editing capabilities. For iPhone: Camera + or Manual or VSCO or ProCamera or ProCam 4 - Manual Camera For Android: Open Camera (Free), Camera FV-5 and VSCO Keep in mind that your camera app does not need to be complicated or difficult to use. All you really want is control over

ISO, shutter speed and focus area. It is mainly to photograph the Zomei tripod in the magical light of dawn and dusk. [Ideally, you need to manually adjust the focus and low ISOs (about 32) to get the best images.] Tip: Get the best photo negatives of your smartphone. If you want to seriously modify your photos (see number 9 below), you can also record in RAW format with your camera application.

4- Get a small tripod: This avoids camera shake and blurry photos in low light.

Take better selfies too! (More below.) Bigger tripods: Joby GripTight GorillaPod Tripod (REI) or Amazon New JOBY GripTight ONE GP Stand - flexible universal mobile phone holder for smartphones for large smartphones Smaller Tripods: Joby GripTight Micro Stand (REI) or Amazon new JOBY GripTight ONE Micro Stand - Super compact stand for smartphones Or improvise a Backpacking Tripod "of course". Go to the next section.

5- Get Remote Shutter: This prevents pictures from being blurred when you tap your camera to take a picture (the camera moves / vibrates when you touch it).

It is also suitable for high quality selfies (for example, without your face engraved on the phone, see below). Bluetooth smartphone camera remote version Or use the timer setting of 2 or 10 seconds for the camera of your smartphone Or a little-known free feature: your wired iPhone headset works as a remote trigger. Just press the volume up key "+" to take a picture.

bottom of page