If you like photography and use a mobile phone to unleash your creativity, you probably already know that the flash is better to use as a flashlight than to illuminate your night or indoor photographs - at least in most cases -. Unless you want to end up with burnt, unnatural looking photos and, in short, with spoiled images from the simple fact of not having used alternative al flash LED.
This is precisely our intention with this guide: to explain you how you can take better photos with your mobile without using the LED flash which includes the vast majority of terminals on the market, so that your night shots have uniform and natural lighting.
Find out how to take better photos at night with these tricks
Take advantage of the night mode
Many of the recently launched mobiles in the mid- and high-end segments already have options for capturing night shots well lit. In most cases, these modalities are based on techniques such as the photography a long exposition, although other technologies come into play that help final acquisitions have higher quality.
Therefore, it is a good idea use night mode whenever you want to take a picture that would otherwise have been needed to use the flash. It is also important keep the cell phone stable enough, for example with a mobile tripod, so that the night mode can do its job correctly, thus capturing all available light.
Use the "Pro mode" of the camera
Samsung's camera app is one of the most comprehensive
Your mobile may not include a night mode, but your camera app most likely incorporates one professional or advanced mode, which allows you to get more out of the camera through advanced features.
Among these functions are those of changing values such as ISO, shutter speed or aperture. Depending on the type of scene, you can use these parameters for capture more light and generate bright images even in dark environments, thus avoiding having to use the LED flash. Typically, it will be necessary increase the sensor exposure time to light to get well-lit shots at night and raise the ISO value. Keep in mind, yes, that if you overdo it you can end up with burnt photos or too much noise.
"Play" with the white balance
Although the cameras of our mobile phones are increasingly "intelligent", in some cases they continue to have problems with white balance calculation best suited for any kind of scene. For this reason, brands like Google have equipped their terminals with machine learning systems that study thousands of images to identify the correct white balance for each style of photography.
But you don't need a Pixel 4 to take photos at night with optimal white balance. Virtually all terminals offer in the functions of your camera the possibility of manually choose the white balance from several options, which will modify the light to be warmer or colder as needed.
Take advantage of the environment
Ambient lights can be your allies when taking night photos
That you shouldn't use the flash to light up your night photographs doesn't mean you shouldn't use it other light sources. In fact, the best thing to do when shooting low-light scenes is use natural light sources - if any - or artificial, as long as the latter are not too “aggressive and end up burning up the main scene or object.
You can try to introduce elements like flashlights that point from either side of the scene towards the subject to be captured, lamps or other bright objects. In addition, there is always the possibility of buying an external flash for the mobile phone, which unlike the one integrated into the device, allows you to adjust the lighting level or white balance, and in most cases they offer a more diffused and natural light effect than in the case of the phone's LED flash.
