It’s unusual when a mobile phone does not have a camera in this day and age. Mobile phones are everywhere in our lives. They follow us to every event, work day, meeting, and play date. Given the easy access that cell phone cameras have to our lives, it’s no wonder that most of our photographs end up on them. Professional cameras are bulky, and can take a lot of skill and learning to use properly. Cell phone cameras make up for those faults with their ease of use, portability and small size. Many cell phone pictures can be made into custom wall decals, but sometimes the picture quality isn't up to par.
This article will help you take the best cell phone photos for custom wall decals. Cell phone cameras come with a camera rating, telling you the size of the camera inside. Phones produced past 2010 typically have at least a 10 mega pixel (MP) camera. Some go all the way to 27 mega pixels!
The older the phone, the smaller the camera generally is. You should use a cell phone that has at least a 10 MP camera for the best results.
Using proper lighting for cell phone pictures will greatly improve the quality of your images. Outdoor pictures under sunny skies are always a safe bet. They work very well for sports photography or action shots outside. Indoor lighting conditions can vary greatly. When possible, turn on another light or use the flash on your camera phone. Grainy, dark photos will not translate well to wall decals.
Fill your frame with your subject by getting as physically close to them as possible. Using optical zoom features on your cell phone can lead to loss of quality, or grainy photographs that won’t enlarge well. The bigger your subject is inside the frame, the more information in the picture goes towards your subject. This is especially important if the background is going to be removed to create a cropped decal. If your subject only fills 20% of your frame, you lose 80% of the rest of the image. This dramatically reduces the size your photo can be enlarged to.
Check your photos before ending your shoot. It’s very important to make sure you have a clear, well light, in focus photograph before you lose your subject. Take a few extra photos before the game ends or the kids go home. If you have cut off an important part of the photograph, sometimes it can be fixed but often times it can not. If your subject is missing their head or foot or hand, retake your photo if you can.
You can get photos off of your cell phone in one of three ways. Email from your phone, direct connect through USB cord to a computer, or wirelessly with Bluetooth, airdrop, iCloud or similar service. When transferring images off of your phone, watch out for any popups or options that may change the size of the file you are sending. Whenever possible, you want to select “full size” or “original size” or “largest file.” Different phones will have different options; check your user manual for exact wording. If you compress or otherwise resize the file, you may not be able to get the photo quality you’ll need for a great looking wall decal.
Do you have a question not covered here about using cell phone photos for custom wall decals? Don't hesitate to contact us for help, or check out our FAQ page for more frequently asked questions.
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