Guide: phone photos
Photograph documents for clearer extraction.
Phone photos are a common way to receive paperwork. A few simple capture habits keep text readable, reduce review warnings and save repeat uploads.
Start with a readable image
Extraction can only use what the image contains. Sharp text and a complete page make source locations easier to identify and values quicker to verify.
Cropped corners and deep shadows hide information. Affected fields may be absent or need review. A scanner is optional; a careful phone photograph is often enough.
Flatten the document
Place the sheet on a table instead of holding it. A contrasting, darker surface helps distinguish the page boundaries.
- Smooth out folds and creases with your palm before you take the photo.
- Hold a curled receipt flat at its ends with two fingers, and keep your fingers off the printed part.
- Hold the phone straight above the page, not at an angle, so the top and bottom lines are the same width.
Use window light, without flash
Use natural light from a window. Position yourself so neither your body nor the phone casts a shadow across the page.
Disable the flash, especially for glossy paper, thermal receipts and laminated cards. Reflections can erase visible detail. Move nearer a window if the room is dim.
Tap the printed text to focus, then keep the phone steady while taking the shot.
Include every corner
Let the page occupy most of the frame, with a small border of the table visible on all sides. All four corners help identify and straighten the document.
Check the lower edge: totals, signatures and stamps often sit there. A cropped total cannot be verified against its line items.
Photograph pages separately
Capture one page per image. Putting two pages in a single shot makes their text smaller and can mix their values.
Separate images become separate files and rows. For a multipage document, use a scanner app to produce one PDF so the pages stay together. The per-file limit is 100 pages.
Keep the original image
Upload the camera’s original image. Filters, aggressive monochrome processing and sharpening may remove faint text, stamps or handwriting. Manual cropping can also remove a necessary corner.
For WhatsApp transfers, ask for the image as a document to avoid unnecessary compression. Compressed pictures can still upload, but fine print may be harder to read.
Check image quality yourself
Check orientation and tilt before uploading. Keep the page upright, and compare extracted results with the original while reviewing.
This build does not automatically classify blur, darkness, cropping, small text or blank pages. Inspect those conditions yourself and replace a poor photograph before relying on its extracted values.
Check before uploading
- The page is flat and fills most of the screen.
- All four corners are in, with a little table showing round them.
- The flash is off and no shadow or bright patch covers the words.
- The words are sharp when you zoom in on the photo.
- One page in each photo, with no filter on it.
More practical in everyday language.
All guidesfield lists
Describe a field
Read the guideLearn to name fields, explain their location, provide examples and choose data types, with invoice and waybill examples.
bank statements
Work with bank statements
Read the guideExplore statement fields, long-document handling, debit and credit reconciliation, and privacy precautions.
Try a photograph of your own document.
Follow these capture steps, upload the image and review the extracted values beside their source locations.
Tracewise