10 Things You Need to Know About... Taking photos with Android

Before you take photos with your Android smartphone, the results maybe improved by applying these ten tips.

1. Clean your lens

It might sound obvious, but cleaning your phone's camera lens is vital when taking a picture. It doesn't matter how many megapixels your camera is if it's streaked with fingerprints. Use a microfiber cloth or cleaning fluid for best results.

2. Let there be light

Some cameras do better with less light than others, but you need some illumination to take a good shot. For the best results, try to have the source of the light behind and above you, ideally pointing towards whatever it is that you are taking a picture of.

3. Frame the shot

Take a second to get the right things in the right places in your viewfinder. Make sure the subject is slightly off-center and is far enough away from the background so that things behind are not in crisp focus.

4. Boost your zoom

Digital zoom isn't as powerful as optical zoom, but few phones offer a proper camera lens. Instead you can buy accessories for your existing phone camera, such as Photojojo's magnetic lens and the Oppo Clip.

5. Shooting modes

Whether you're shooting a landscape or portrait, there's a mode for that. Since there are few actual moving parts in a smartphone camera, software adjusments are used to make all the difference.

6. Change your camera

One of the biggest benefits of your phone camera being digital is that if you don't like it, you can download a new one from the Play Store. Google Camera has recently been updated, while Camera ZOOM FX and VSCO Cam remains popular.

7. Forget the flash

While the Moto X's circular dual-LED flash is leading the way for smartphone camera flashes, they are still best left turned off or used for a flashlight. They sit too close to the sensor and can create harshed and washed-out pictures - not ideal.

8. Take lots of pictures

With no film to waste and lots of cloud storage options, you can never take too many photos. Experiment and take lots of pictures to learn how to capture a good one. Then you can save your favorites.

9. Touchscreen tweaks

Google Play is full of photo editing apps from the social Instagram to the advanced Adobe Lightroom, to fix the color, sharpness and saturation of your photos.

10. Take your time

More often than not, phonegraphers snap a photo and share it online instantly. However, if you take your time and set things up just right, you can get some really good pictures from your phone.