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