How to photograph like a pro with the Samsung Galaxy A30

You invested in a Samsung A30, swayed by the promise of captivating pictures. It was a tough call between the A20 and the phone you currently have sitting in lap. Both are great investments and you’re able to take stunning pictures with either option. But you wanted the bigger number, the more impressive display. Thus, the A30 came into your possession. You’re excited to capture some fantastic pictures with that camera but…how do you do that exactly? Sure, the camera on the A30 is remarkably easy to use but there’s so much more to taking a picture than pointing and clicking. You’re gonna need some tips on how to make the most of the A30’s camera and fortunately, it’s more than willing to help you out.

Paying with Exposure

Exposure in photographs is one of those things that professional photographers always consider but for someone using a phone to capture their dinner for Instagram or trying to take a selfie with Nana, exposure often slips the mind. Exposure is just how much light you’re allowing into the camera. By playing with exposure levels, you’re able to brighten or darken a picture before it’s taken. While exposure itself doesn’t fixe all lighting problems, it can certainly help make pictures look way better.

The A30 offers you an easy and effective way to adjust the exposure of a photo, by simply dragging a slider across the screen. The best part is that the image displayed on-screen changes its exposure in real time, making it far easier to settle on an image before taking the photo. Seriously, exposure can fix a lot of problems and if you’re not playing around with it you definitely should be.

Gimbaling your Life Away

Now, a gimbal is a word you might not have across. It’s a strange sound, we know, but the equipment it describes is beyond helpful. A gimbal is simple a handle with a whole load of gyroscopes inside it, designed to keep the camera inserted into the device as stable as possible. You can even find some – like DJI’s Osmo Mobile 3 — that sync to your phone and allow it to be turned and swivelled with an analog stick on the handle. Fun!

The A30’s built-in image stabilisation is impressive in its own right and it’s not strictly necessary to throw it onto a gimbal to take steady photos. But the added balance is always an extra benefit. Plus, the software you’ll need to get your gimbal running is all supported by the A30, meaning you don’t need to mess around and do things the hard way.

Living on the grid

See, we know that the grid on most phone cameras can be a little annoying but it’s actually far more useful than you think it is. The rules of image composition are vital at all times, even for those family shots where Uncle Hector takes up two thirds of the frame. Don’t go overboard worrying about composition but the rule of thirds is usually the most essential guide you should follow. It’s photography 101 and it applies to your Samsung A30 just as much as it does an SLR camera.

Your A30 should come with the grid lines turned off by default but they’re incredibly easy to activate. Just head over to the camera settings, scroll down to Grid Lines and you’ll have the option to turn on the 3×3 grid pattern. It’s an absolute essential when taking pictures with your phone and while not as dramatically effective as setting the correct levels of exposure, correct composition will do your photos the world of good.

Zooming in is far out

There’s something else you need to be looking at. We’re talking about a macro lens. Without getting into the nitty gritty about how it works, all you need to know is that a macro lens is used for taking pictures of objects that are super close to the camera without losing clarity. Remember when you wanted to take a close-up of that delicious steak you cooked the other day, but it always blurred when you got your phone up close? That’s a concern of the past, friends.

While the Galaxy A30 doesn’t have a built-in macro lens like its bigger sibling the Galaxy S20, that doesn’t stop it from taking some seriously impressive images at close range. Thanks to the addition of Samsung Live Focus, the A30 is able to defocus the background without breaking a sweat all just by using a simple slider on the screen. It’s a super impressive feature and one that makes those close-up shots so tantalisingly simple.