Promoted: 9 tips for better smartphone photography

1 Framing’s everything 

Think like Mozart and compose properly. Don’t line things up smack in the middle of the frame (Google the rule of thirds) and don’t cut off important bits with the edges of the frame. You know, important bits like legs and heads.

2 Steady, Eddie

 You know what causes blurry pictures? Moving as you push the button. Stand still, for goodness’ sake. The Galaxy Note 4 has built-in image stabilisation so it’ll take sharper pictures at night, but even so: plant your feet and take a deep breath before hitting the shutter. Luckily, that 5.7in, Quad HD display makes detecting blurry shots dead easy.

3 Edit, edit, edit

 A decent smartphone doesn’t just come with a decent camera. It comes with a powerful quad-core processor that lets it do the number-crunching required for high-quality picture edits. A few minutes in a photography app and your pics will sing.

4 Find high contrast for black and white

 If you want to try your hand at monochrome photography, try to find high-contrast subjects with very bright and very dark areas for maximum impact.

5 Go abstract

 Create! No one cares that you saw the Mona Lisa, so steer clear of “I saw this” pictures. Keep your eyes peeled for interesting subjects packed with detail and texture and make the most of them.

6 Chuck the chuff

 The Galaxy Note 4 is well catered for storage-wise. You’ll find a generous 32GB on-board, which you can bolster with another 128GB with a microSD card. Still, you don’t want to waste time flicking through rubbish, so shoot judiciously and delete as you go.

7 Shoot HDR 

HDR (High Dynamic Range) is clever tech, taking three pictures and combining them into one. That way, if your shot has very bright and very dark parts (think moody landscapes), you can get them all into one shot without over or under-exposed areas. The Galaxy Note 4 has this built-in.

8 Show people the good stuff

 The Galaxy Note 4 is a social-media powerhouse and once you’ve got your accounts set up you’ll be able to entertain your friends with your exploits from anywhere on Earth. But don’t bother people with endless shots: be selective about what you publish and keep your friends entertained with banter rather than boredom.

9 Shoot more!

 You never know when inspiration will strike, so keep an eye open at all times for killer shots and be ready to pounce. Find great landscapes, interesting portraits and action shots, and don’t worry about the battery: the Galaxy Note 4 has a whopping 3,220mAh battery inside, and it’ll hit 50 per cent charge from flat in just half an hour, so it’s always ready to go.

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