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Android smartphones like the Xperia Z2 and the Galaxy S5 come equipped with powerful, high-resolution cameras that can take beautiful photos.

Used properly, Android devices are capable of producing images that pop right out of computer screens and into life. Below are a few tips gathered from different blogs and sites to help turn Android smartphone photography into more of an art.

Improvise on Different Functionalities

The Cooperative of Photography created a video which was featured on Mashable, sharing seven tips on improving smartphone photography. Some of the tips they included will save Android phone owners money from buying other lenses or downloading paid apps by improvising on features. For example, to zoom in on a faraway subject, they recommeded using binoculars (this provides a creative round frame for the image too). They also created a makeshift macro lens by adding a drop of water onto the lens and taking a photo of a small spider.

Edit Photos Manually

Pop Photo emphasizes this point in their gallery of tips for better smartphone photography. Different users use pre-installed filters on their Android cameras or on apps like Instagram, but they don't use the manual options to come up with a unique look and feel for the photo. Edit individual elements of the image by downloading a photo editing app or using Android's built-in editing option. Even Instagram allows users to tweak photo settings manually - in the window that shows the filters, check the icons on top of the screen, and click on the wrench (the third icon) to edit manually.

Light the Subject Properly

In the Cooperative of Photography's video, they had a useful tip for ensuring proper lighting, especially for portrait and product shots. A car reflector serves as an effective natural light reflector for smartphone photography. Use this to bounce light off of the subject and create different lighting effects for the image.

Android Pit, on the other hand, recommends something that's being done quite a lot today: taking photos of subjects off of a reflective surface, such as sunglasses or goggles with reflective coating. According to their piece, it gives people a different perspective on shots. Make sure a lighting source is reflected on the surface to produce better shots.

Use the Panorama Mode

Both Android Pit and the Pop Photo tips include panoramic shots in their tips to make smartphone photos pop, and for a good reason. Sometimes "more is more," and the shots provide an interesting look at the surroundings. Try Android Pit's tip of taking a panoramic shot with the same subject moving from one area of the panoramic shot to another to have multiple "identical" subjects, or Pop Photo's tip of taking photos of interesting parts of the neighbourhood from a moving car.

Enable Burst Mode for Action Shots

Moving subjects often make great shots, but only with the right settings. According to CNET, more powerful Android cameras are equipped with the Burst mode, which lets users take up to 20 frames at a time. Simply select Burst from the mode menu on the camera, and hold down the snapshot button to take multiple shots.