DETROIT – There's no need to buy an expensive, high tech camera. A good photo is just a click away with a device you might already have in the palm of your hand: your smartphone.
"The best camera is the camera you have with you," said professional photographer Abby Rosenbaum. "For most people, including me, that's often my phone. Phones today, the camera technology is amazing. You can get really awesome images."
That says a lot coming from a professional photographer. Rosenbaum shared some smartphone secrets with us to help capture that perfect image.
"By touching different areas of the screen while you're composing the image you can tweak the exposure," Rosenbaum explained. "So, say there's a bright window in the frame that would, you know, if you just pointed the camera it would throw everything off. But by touching one of the darker areas, you can change the whole exposure."
Here's another secret: You can still capture a photo of an area that would otherwise be too large to fit in a frame. Just switch your camera to panoramic mode, then point and shoot to capture the full view. It's that easy!
And when you're done taking that perfect picture, several photo apps can really enhance your image.
"I did use an app to process that so it gives kind of a nice color wash effect, just to add a little visual interest to make it look a little, give it a little pop," she added.
Apps like Pic Tap Go, After Light and even Face Tune allow you to take that ordinary photo and make it look flawless. To the untrained eye, with the added effects, you might not even notice the difference between some smartphone photos and ones taken with a professional camera.
"Some people can't," Rosenbaum said. "Often times on Facebook people will be blown away that a photo I posted was not a professional photo."
And speaking of Facebook, if you love posting selfies on social media try this: Connect your iPhone headphones to your phone and prop your phone up. Using the volume up button, you can snap a selfie without having part of your arm in the shot.
Now that you have that perfect shot, Abby suggests printing your pics to show off your work. But most importantly, keep taking photos and your pics will get better and better.
"I print almost every one of my cell photos that I think is worth holding on to," she said. "Just go out and shoot. Smartphones today are probably better than the first digital cameras 20 years ago."