Phontography is the next generation revolution and every second somewhere in the world a picture is being clicked using a mobile phone camera. With a small list of Mobile Photography tips over at our Phontography Blog I am here starting a series of posts on how to achieve maximum results from your mobile device camera. I wanted to start this series by bringing in two colours which ironically are not considered as colours, these are Black and White. In this post I will try to highlight on how you can click some insanely awesome and at the same time retro pictures using your mobile device camera. I have used Nokia N95 8GB and N96 for the following pictures with a little tweaking from the in present customization options and have achieved exceptionally amazing results.

First of all you all need to explore the options that are present in camera mode. The ones that I used to achieve the results were
1. Macro
2. Black & White
3. Exposure

With these three, I have been able to click pictures that were very unique and at the same time very appealing. A lot many times we feel that we need to have a higher mega pixel count in order to obtain better results. Well, while agree to this but only partially. I have experienced 1 MP, 2 MP, 3.2 MP and finally the 5 MP camera range of Nokia devices and by far I can say that it only helps in determining the size of the picture (i.e. the resolution) before it starts to break into its various pixels. The point that makes a difference is Focus. (click pictures for larger view.)

The latest devices are equipped with an Auto Focus feature which is simple but very important function of the camera. If you have been using a device with one then you know but one should not relay totally on it. You should manually focus the object you want to picture by pressing the camera button half-way down which will turn the centre box of the viewfinder green or red depending on the distance between you and the subject being focussed. So practice with this feature to get a hang of it and this will sure prove useful.
With these basic tips you should now explore the Macro Option. In many cases it will be labeled as Close-up Mode. (To activate this mode go to the Scene Modes options on the left navigation bar, when you switch to camera mode.) This gives you the ability to focus near by objects from a close distance up to 10 cm. Thus making the subject as foreground and rest as the hazy background. The object really comes prominent and alive with this technique. (Tip: Please note that select the Macro option before you make further changes.)

Next you can select Black & White from the Color Tone Option. This is simple and self explanatory. You can also try other color tone modes if you like.

After this tweak with the exposure, usually in the positive side up to 1.7, may be less or more depending upon the light and the subject you want to picture. Thus, now you are ready to click amazing Black & White pictures . Hope this helps you all. (Tip: Try to quickly bring the camera near the subject and see the motion effects come alive.)