Help Best camera settings for indoor pictures?

[pantlesspenguin]

Hey everyone. I really love the Vibrant's camera for outdoor pictures. However, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated at the picture quality in indoor settings, especially in low light. There are sooo many ways to tinker the settings!!! What makes for the best quality pictures in indoor, low-light settings?

I always use my cell phone camera as my primary camera. I love my Vibrant, but the camera quality is really making me consider going to a different device.

 

[w_bovine]

Hey everyone. I really love the Vibrant's camera for outdoor pictures. However, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated at the picture quality in indoor settings, especially in low light. There are sooo many ways to tinker the settings!!! What makes for the best quality pictures in indoor, low-light settings?

I always use my cell phone camera as my primary camera. I love my Vibrant, but the camera quality is really making me consider going to a different device.

Have you tried Night Mode? I don't take a lot of pictures, but I've seen shots using this mode and they're pretty impressive.

 

[Benn514]

With your camera open, go to settings. Click on "Scene Mode", then select "Night". Then post back and let us know how that went. I think you're gonna be pretty blown away with the results.

 

[pantlesspenguin]

No, night mode indoors makes the picture BRIGHTER, but the quality still sucks. Outdoors it works wonders at night, though.

 

[w_bovine]

No, night mode indoors makes the picture BRIGHTER, but the quality still sucks. Outdoors it works wonders at night, though.

Ah...okay. Like I said, I don't take a lot of pics! Have you tried a 3rd party camera app like Camera 360 or Vignette?

Camera 360 - Android app on AppBrain

Vignette (demo version) - Android app on AppBrain

 

[pantlesspenguin]

Wow, no! I didn't even know there were 3rd party camera apps. I'll do some tinkering w/ those, thanks. In the meantime, anyone else know how I can make my pics better?

I DO take lots of pics on my phone. I'm going on a family trip soon & would love to take some amazing pics .

 

[pantlesspenguin]

Here, I'll show you what I mean. This pic was taken in the late afternoon in my apartment. There was natural light shining through the windows & I had a few lights going. I was taking a pic of an item I was placing on ebay. This was the best I could do. I wish I could remember what settings I had...but seriously, this looks like it was taken by the 1.3mp Sidekick camera I had 3 years ago!

 

[w_bovine]

Here, I'll show you what I mean. This pic was taken in the late afternoon in my apartment. There was natural light shining through the windows & I had a few lights going. I was taking a pic of an item I was placing on ebay. This was the best I could do. I wish I could remember what settings I had...but seriously, this looks like it was taken by the 1.3mp Sidekick camera I had 3 years ago!

Hmm...are you focusing the camera first? At what resolution is the camera set?

 

[mdtolic]

Yeah, that really doesn't seem right. Did you go through all the settings to make sure it's not set to a low resolution?

I was just changing mine and I can't take a bad picture; not even in "fireworks" mode.

 

[pantlesspenguin]

Yep, this is how it came out after focusing it. Crazy, eh? I do have the resolution set to 3.2 just so the files don't come out wicked huge, but I wouldn't think the pics would turn out that bad just because of that!

 

[RyanZapata123]

Yep, this is how it came out after focusing it. Crazy, eh? I do have the resolution set to 3.2 just so the files don't come out wicked huge, but I wouldn't think the pics would turn out that bad just because of that!

The photo you posted is at a resolution of 800x600. That is .48 megapixels.

A photo taken at the highest resolution is 2560x1920. That is 5 megapixels.

 

[pantlesspenguin]

The photo you posted is at a resolution of 800x600. That is .48 megapixels.

A photo taken at the highest resolution is 2560x1920. That is 5 megapixels.

In my camera's settings, it shows resolution of 2048x1536. How can this be??

 

[w_bovine]

In my camera's settings, it shows resolution of 2048x1536. How can this be??

Odd...I went and checked mine...the highest setting is 2560x1920.

 

[pantlesspenguin]

Odd...I went and checked mine...the highest setting is 2560x1920.

Yeah that's as high as it goes but I purposely set mine lower so the files aren't as big.

 

[robo21]

Indoor photography with natural, incandescent or flourescent lighting is a challenge even with an SLR or DSLR camera unless you have a very fast lens. A mobile device's camera, by necessity, is a compromise.

 

[Terrier Hockey]

The photo you posted is at a resolution of 800x600. That is .48 megapixels.

A photo taken at the highest resolution is 2560x1920. That is 5 megapixels.

Thanks, but that has nothing to do with why it's so grainy and low contrast.


If you have a desk lamp try shining it right at the object. For non-glossy objects like clothing this method works rather well.

 

[pantlesspenguin]

Indoor photography with natural, incandescent or flourescent lighting is a challenge even with an SLR or DSLR camera unless you have a very fast lens. A mobile device's camera, by necessity, is a compromise.

That's a a good point, but my blackberry's camera took pretty decent indoor pics, even with low light.

 

[pantlesspenguin]

Here's another example:

I took this last night. Night mode was on. It was pretty dimly lit, but there should have been more than enouh light for a better picture. There was a screen like the one you see in the background right beside us providing light.

 

[robo21]

One possible issue with the photo you posted is the backlighting. If the backlighting was metered by the camera this would definitely affect the image of the intended subjects. I haven't seen the specs on the camera so I don't know if the metering is center weighted or not.

This is one shot were a flash might have proved helpful.

 

[mdtolic]

Yeah, backlight can mess up your shot.

I've noticed that if I re-focus a few times, on different spots, the pic can change, sometimes, drastically. Just yesterday I was taking a pic and focused on someone's head, but when I clicked the screen again and focused on her waist, clarity and contrast went up dramatically. Not good for spur of the moment shots, but for things like stationary objects, give it a try. If you re-hang that sweatshirt, focus on the chest, then try the wood door and then even try the black slat door and see what happens.

 

[TMoVibrant]

I've used my camera on the T-Mobile Vibrant many, many times since I got my phone. Getting the right setting is mostly trial and error since the amount of lighting surrounding the picture shot varies (no matter if indoor vs outdoor shots).

The thing that still bugs me is that T-Mobile Vibrant has no flash where the Verzion version has a flash.