Advice for better photos at distance?

[LazyLemming]

Anyone have any advice for taking a better shot of this? I played with several different exposure and iso values and the camera was perfectly stationary during the photo (I made a little stand out of rocks...). Is this kind of shot just beyond the capability of our phones or is there some tricks I can do to enhance the shot?

 

[Dregur]

How are you taking the picture? By using the camera button or touching the screen to focus?

 

[Jari P]

Have you seen this one ... it is in "Photos taken by Lumia 920" thread (he said that he used smart shoot to catch that photo) ....

http://forums.windowscentral.com/nokia-lumia-920/200218-59.htm#post1869764

 

[pewpewbangbang]

what are you trying to get out of it?

Probably out of the cameras capabilities.

To the above, that has nothing to do with what he's trying to achieve. The shot that guy took was like 2 feet away vs this one being miles and miles.

Really, not an ideal shooting scene anyway. I mean yea, you'll just get a lot of bright lights on a dark night. But it's not like NYC skyscrapers or something that would look pretty rad.

 

[LazyLemming]

Mostly just hoping to sharpen and clarify the picture a bit.

It's a shot of my hometown from the top of a nearby mountain. Probably pretty blah for most folks, but it's pretty cool to me.

Not expecting a miracle from the phone, I'm just wondering if there's any tips on ways I can improve the quality.

Focus was take by a VERY light touch on the screen, with the camera immobile propped by some rocks.

 

[rajkumr]

Lazylemming, you will need a dslr to get a sharp photo of the scene, Especially with such a low light shot. Most cellphone cameras and even most point & shoots will have trouble to get a sharp picture out of the scene. The reason for the soft pic is bcoz longer the exposure, the more the lights will bloom and the halo effect will be more prominent.

 

[TK2011]

Assuming it's a full resolution shot (i.e. no digital zoom), it seems a bit out of focus. Autofocus can be a hit or miss in that kind of condition. Often, just retaking the shot gets you a sharper focusing. Better yet, try manual focusing using one of the camera apps. CameraPro and ProShot both have manual focusing capability. I recommend CameraPro ($2.50). It's not without bugs (i'm sure it will be improved over time) but it does the job.

EDIT:
BTW, where in the picture did you tap to take the shot? When you tap, it shows a bracket for AF area. That area has to have "contrasty" scene or AF system won't be able to lock.

 

[George Ponder]

a pile of rocks does not steady the camera.... unless it's buried beneath an avalanche..

my guess is that this picture is beyond the camera's capabilities... you're really too far away to get any detail other than lights and the 920's lens isn't capable of zooming in to provide that detail.

Maybe you could clarify the picture by cropping some of the black, dead space out though. Maybe shoot it at dusk, just when the lights of the town become prominent but the setting sun still give you some detail of the landscape. Maybe get one of the apps TK recommended and use a longer exposure.

It may be one of those neat scenes to look at in person but difficult to capture the feeling in a photo.