Smartphone Gun Photography Tips?

[37th Mass]

Some of the photos on this forum look fantastic, but I've been pretty underwhelmed with my attempts to photograph my handguns with my smartphone. I get too much glare with a flash and too many shadows without one. If I hold the camera close the perspective seems distorted, but if I take the picture farther away and then crop it I lose detail. Any pointers that forum members could offer would be appreciated. I don't want to invest in an SLR.

[oregon45]

Take pictures outside in the shade, without flash, to reduce glare; to reduce distortion keep the phone level and parallel to the gun

[awp_101]

Also, don’t try to get up close to take the pic. Stand back and zoom in. iPhones have enough in the way of editing software to save me when I misjudge the lighting and take a pic that’s too dark.

And turn off the flash. Very rarely have I been able to get the flash to not overwhelm everything to the point that I can’t save it even with software.

[TC215]

StraitR

[Duelist]

Fill light instead of flash: a bright flashlight bounced off the ceiling or wall can work wonders.

Or buy a better phone.

Or buy a Nikon or Canon or Sony and play around with exploring real camera digital photography.

[StraitR]

Get the free app named Snapseed. It can transform a good pic into a great pic, and even the worst (lighting) cell phone pics into something usable.

Some tidbits...

Never use a flash.

On Snapseed, I basically utilize the same filters for every pic. I use the "drama" filter, and dial it back to 40% filter effect, and -10% saturation. Then I use Vignette and adjust Inner Brightness and Outer Brightness accordingly. This can be used to brighten faces/objects, and move the attention to the subject/spot you want. There is a ton more options, and I've used most of it as required.

Here is a "How to use Snapseed" search on YouTube. I'm sure many of them will give a good amount of detail.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+use+snapseed

One thing to keep in mind, is Snapseed will kill your resolution quite a bit. A very detailed pic will come out a bit pixelated. Not sure if this is just a byproduct of the app in general, or the filters. I stopped using Snapseed when I upgraded my trusty iPhone 6+ a month ago, because the picture quality degradation was more obvious with the 11 Pro camera (it's crazy good for a phone), but it's a good app if you want to share phone pics online.

Good luck.

ETA: As far as "how to set up and capture the photo", I suggest searching for "photography composition" tutorials on YouTube. Composition (Rule of 3rds, etc) is really no different on a phone that it would be on a SLR/DSLR.