Gentlemen, I seek to delve the collective wisdom of this fine community.

What is the best way to take in-game photos using a Samsung Galaxy phone? Any helpful* tips or suggestions gratefully accepted.

* I am expecting a contribution of unhelpful tips as well!

Depends on your camera.
.5 magnification is great for whole table shots.
You decent zoom helps for close ups.
You will also need photo processing software and a hosting site to post on here.plenty if good free ones out there.
Don't drop your phone in the bath or the lens will fog (like mine).
You'll take loads, and not use most.

Good lighting.
Brace your phone, hand or elbow resting on table (or professional tripod etc).

Get a few panoramic shots that show the whole battle *
Also try some low angle "soldier's eye" views.
Walk around the table for different angles - you'll be amazed how different it looks from the other side.


 * I can't stress the value of the panoramic - full context shots enough.
    They remind you what was happening and provide your context for the close-ups.

Some of my most frustrating blog-reading is battle reports which neglect all context.
A series of head on close ups of units with captions like "The hussars charge", "The Grenadiers roll three sixes".
This fails to tell any story.

By contrast, some of the best have edited their panoramic shots to label units, colour code armies and apply arrows to show recent movement of units.
These are a delight to read.
Now I know from where the hussars charged, and at whom".
In a best case, I may even learn the significance of the three sixes that the Grenadiers rolled.

Any recent phone will have a good camera, many have great cameras. 

I can't recall how many years ago I stopped using my DSLR for taking photos and just used my iPhone, buts is more likely 8-10 years ago, rather than 5-7 years ago. 

What problems are you having taking photos? Most of the ones I have seen from your battle reports look good. 

Steve and Will's tips about mixing up close-up and panoramic shots are good. I think I tend to have too many panoramic, which show the overall action, but probably don't get the detail of the figures or a specific combat. 

QuoteDon't drop your phone in the bath or the lens will fog (like mine).

I'm not sure I want to ask how, but feel worryingly compelled to?

Quote from: fred. on 14 April 2025, 09:08:31 PMI'm not sure I want to ask how, but feel worryingly compelled to?

Please don't... he might answer...

I was trying to skip forward on the BBC music App over part of a 6music shoes I had already listened to.

Leave it to Lee, who is more tech-savvy that I'll ever be. This may not be practical for everyone.

But would be fun to try Kitty

Buy a proper camera ?

Make sure the lens is clean. Seriously. Phones spend their lives in bags & pockets picking up muck & dust.

Tried opening my phone up and cleaning the lens last night


About 50% successful maybe.

Quote from: FierceKitty on 15 April 2025, 12:22:03 AMLeave it to Lee, who is more tech-savvy that I'll ever be. This may not be practical for everyone.

    

I have noticed that you seem to have more pictures of games that Lee wins.

This does not happen by chance!

Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 15 April 2025, 06:47:07 AMBut would be fun to try Kitty

Do you have a BBC/House of Lords/Cambridge/Archbishop of Canterbury/RSC English accent? She can't say "no" to those.

Thank for the comments gentlemen, as expecting on this esteemed forum, some were more useful than others.

Quote from: fred. on 14 April 2025, 09:06:47 PMAny recent phone will have a good camera, many have great cameras.

I can't recall how many years ago I stopped using my DSLR for taking photos and just used my iPhone, buts is more likely 8-10 years ago, rather than 5-7 years ago.

What problems are you having taking photos? Most of the ones I have seen from your battle reports look good.

Steve and Will's tips about mixing up close-up and panoramic shots are good. I think I tend to have too many panoramic, which show the overall action, but probably don't get the detail of the figures or a specific combat.

I think my photos are acceptable most of the time, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips that might improve them.  I have been using the camera on it's default settings. Although it seems to have a host of features, I'm not sure which are of any use. Is Macro better for close-up shots? 16M or 64M? 3:4 or Full?

Macro might help for close up shots. I notice my iPhone auto uses macro mode some times. 

Worth noting that macro mode on phones and compact cameras is very different to macro when used for DSLR cameras. On phones it is probably useful for photos of figures. On DSLRs marco means super close up, eg the surface of a coin, or an insect, so very shallow depth of field. 

3:4 or full screen - this is the ratio of the image - doesn't affect the quality, just the shape of the picture. If you view your photos on your phone mostly then full screen is good. If you crop them for viewing elsewhere, it doesn't really matter. 

16M or 64M - I assume this is the size of the image the number of pixels in it- i.e. the number of Megabytes - more pixels is more detail. But whether it is useful detail is questionable. For printing more pixels are good, for on screen, less so. More pixels will take up more storage space, and possibly quite quickly. I'd play with this one and see what it does, unless you are zooming in to images I doubt the extra pixels will make a visible difference. 

As was said early on - light is super important, the more light the better

Taking photo's is one thing..but when your camera and your PC get all 'sniffy' with each other, that's when the fun really starts.    

I simply do not know why this is suddenly happening. Maybe because I'm still running W 8.1 and the photo editing prog is 20+ years old.  

You could hire a professional, who know all the tricks.