Now this is a tutorial that most all of us can use! Yup, most camphone pics pretty much blow I am afraid.

Feature: Better Photos From Your Camera Phone

Camera phones, it seems, are taking over the world. I replaced my cell phone a few months ago and discovered something that a lot of you probably already knew: Even some basic mobile phones have cameras built in, and high-end phones can capture 2-megapixel images and even record video. In Asia 5- and 6-megapixel camera phones are available, which means it’s just a matter of time before they show up in the U.S.

Overall, most of the phones at the store I went to had cameras built in.

Will we soon take all of our pictures with a camera phone? Probably not. The image quality is still pretty low, which means that we tend to use camera phones for casual, candid, lifestyle scenes. We save the stuff we want to keep forever for our “real” camera. Even so, there are things you can do to improve the quality of your camera-phone photos.

1. Go Into the Light

Almost without exception, camera phones crave light–and lots of it. You will always get the best photos from a camera phone when you shoot outdoors at midday. If you are in the shade, indoors, or photographing at night, you’ll get noisy, dark images. In those situations, you should switch your camera phone to its “low light” or “night” mode. Don’t be put off by the name; even if it’s called “night” mode, you should use it whenever you’re indoors or in shadow.

Also, a few camera phones include a flash. Don’t get your hopes up: Current camera-phone flash units are weak, and even in the best of situations they illuminate the scene unevenly. Future camera phones may use much more efficient LED flashes to dramatically improve results. But for now, you’re better off sticking with the sun. [Read the rest]