Phone Camera Photography - Part 1& 2
By Diane Bohlen
BENEFITS
The best camera is the one you have with you when you want to capture that special moment in time or the unexpected shot.
A good photo is a good photo regardless of the camera.
“ A photographer went to a dinner party. After showing some of his work, the host said, “You must have a good camera.” The photographer didn’t say anything until the end of the night. When he was leaving he said, “ That was a delicious dinner. You must have a good oven.”
Obviously the portability of the mobile/cell phone is one of the benefits. It fits into a pocket or handbag easily. It is almost always with you.
Sarah says
First of all the best thing about phone photos over fancy DSLR shots is quite purely and simply, ease, accessibility and weight. In my world with 3 kiddos and generally being busy a lot of the time, I don’t have time, although I must say I certainly have the inclination, to get out my big camera, start fiddling around with what lens to use, start playing around with the settings, yadda, yadda, yadda… it’s heavy and bulky and means that I have to have an ugly camera bag with me.
There was a time, not too long ago, that the idea of having a camera on your mobile phone was just a gimmick. The quality of the photos taken with these cameras left a lot to be desired. But this is no longer the case. Most smartphones these days have cameras that rival many point and shoot cameras.
There are also many apps available for smartphone cameras which can mimic DSLR cameras by enhancing the photos.
It is great for taking shots discreetly. For example, in Street Photography when you want a candid shot without being observed. Turning the sound off helps to avoid being noticed. However, keep in mind camera phone etiquette and consider the impact on the subject/s. Respect the rules of museums and theatres. If possible ask permission.
The phone camera can be used as a notebook. If you see a book that you want to buy or borrow you can take a shot of it instead or writing it down. The same goes with , clothing, hairstyles and receipts etc.
Another good use is to record where you parked the car in big multistory carparks. Snap the post nearest to the car showing colour/level and letter of the location.
You can also scan QR Codes. Launch camera just hold it over the code and it will automatically give you a web page to tap. Make sure that QR scanner is turned on in Settings/Camera
One of the most popular benefits of the phone camera is the ability to edit and share immediately
A picture is worth a thousand words. For example, “Carol and friend Evodia both work for the same company but in different cities. Evodia in Melbourne and Carol in Sydney. They were having a conversation on messenger from their respective design studios. They were both planning to go to an industry talk which was traveling to both Sydney and Melbourne. Turns out the event is in Melbourne first.
So Evodia jokingly says to Carol:
"Ha! Melbourne always beats Sydney!"
Instead of replying with words, Carol took a photo out of her studio window and sent it to her saying: "beat this!"
Evodia replied with a shot out of the Melbourne studio window saying: "Ahh okay you win"
USING THE CAMERA APP (iPhone)
Launch the Camera Appfrom the Locked Screen. When your phone wakes up swipe to the left to open the camera app.
Or
Launch the camera app from the Control Centre. It is faster to use the control centre. Place finger at the bottom of the screen and swipe upwards and the control centre opens. Tap the camera icon.
or
Launch the camera app from the Home Screen. The home screen contains all the apps on the phone. Tap the camera icon to open the app.
or
Launch the camera app from the Multitasking Mode. To switch quickly from one app to another that you are using, press the Home button twice. Tap on the camera app thumbnail or the icon.
Launch the camera app by holding down the home button and ask Siri “Open Camera”
Using the Viewfinder. The screen transforms into the viewfinder. Everything you see on the screen will be in the photo. You can also see other icons; Flashicon, HDR icon, Live icon, Timer icon, Filters icon at the top. On the bottom there is the shooting mode menu bar, and the image preview thumbnail, the shutter button and the reverse camera icon.
Find out what the icons on top of the screen do.
Flash. The flash is a bright white LED flash, although the newer phone cameras have a ‘True Tone Flash’, which is better. Tap the flash icon to turn on, off or auto. Most photographers say ditch the flash because the colour temperature is wrong. The flash gives your subjects yellow skin, demon eyes and motion blur, it doesn’t freeze action.
HDR Mode. High Dynamic Range should be used in low light situations. Each time you press the shutter button it takes 3 or 4 photos at different exposures. Then the photos are quickly combined which offers better clarity and a more true representation of what you saw. To turn HDR on tap the icon at the top of the viewfinder. You can keep both photos the original image and the HDR image if you go to phone settings and tap on photo and camera option and turn on or off the ‘keep normal photo’.
Live Photos When you tap the shutter button, a Live Photo, along with capturing the still, captures 1.5 seconds of video (15 FPS) before and after you press the button.
To view a Live Photo, all you do is press hard on the iPhone screen (3D Touch) and the photo will animate. The video will play in a loop, accompanied with the audio
As the Live Photo captures video from before and after you press the shutter button, you’ll need to hold the phone as steady as possible for about 2 seconds after your take the shot. Or else you’ll end up with Live Photos that end with your phone being put down.
Timer. You can set the timer for 3 or 10 seconds but you will need a tripod or prop it up on something. Ensure you turn the timer off after using it.
Filters. It is possible to incorporate special effects filters. Tap the filter icon. You can choose the filter before you shoot or you can add them to a photo after wards. Many photographers suggest not to use in camera filters but to edit with a powerful program on your computer for much better effects. Develop your own style of editing rather than picking your favourite filter for every photo.
Now check out the Shooting Modes at the bottom of the viewfinder screen.
Shooting Modes. Depends on the model of phone. The menu bar is above the shutter button. Slide it to access each mode. ‘Time Lapse’,‘Slo-Mo’,‘Video’, ‘Photo’, ‘Square’and ‘Pano.’
Time Lapse Mode is used to create fast-motion video. This type of video works great for slow moving subjects such as clouds moving across the sky or the sun setting. However, it can also works well to show people or traffic moving around a busy street scene, etc The most important thing to remember when using this mode is to keep the camera absolutely still. Ideally you should use a tripod to keep the iPhone steady and attach your headphones to use as the shutter release.
Slo-MoMode is basically the opposite of Time-Lapse mode. With Slo-Mo you can create slow motion videos, capturing video at 120 frames per second. This can be great fun, but it will only work well if there’s a lot of fast movement in the frame.
Video Mode.You just tap the shutter button to start recording and then tap it again to stop recording. Always hold the phone horizontally when recording. If you hold the phone upright you’ll end up with black bars either side of your video when you try to view it on a computer screen or television.
Photo Mode is your standard camera mode for taking pictures, and the one you’re likely to use most often. It takes a standard rectangular image.There are a number of different controls for the camera which can be accessed using the icons.
Activate the AE/AF Lock.When you try to take a person the automatic face detection focus square shows up. More than one can appear. What ever is in the box will be in focus and properly exposed. When there are no people in the photo the Automatic Focus/Automatic Exposure box may not appear. To make it appear top where your focal point is and the box will appear. If you are taking multiple shots of the same thing you can hold your finger down until the box pulses and that keeps AF/AE turned on. Next to the box is an exposure compensation slider. If not tap the box.
Exposure Compensation slider is a sun icon on a slider. Slide this up or down to make the photo lighter or darker.
Zoom. To zoom in use your thumb and index finger and pinch them together on the screen. The zoom slider will appear. Use your finger to drag the slider dot. However, zoom tends to increase blurriness and noise. You need plenty of light and use HDR . It is far better to crop to bring the subject closer than to use zoom because you enlargen the subject not the pixels. Zoom with your feet rather than the slider if possible.
Square mode allows you to take a photo in square format. Square photos are favoured by some photo sharing apps like Instagram. This saves you having to crop your photo later before posting to Instagram. However, bear in mind that it’s often better to take a rectangular image in Photo mode, and then crop into a square afterwards leaving you with both versions of the image. This gives you more flexibility.
Panoramic mode. Hold the phone camera in an upright (Portrait) position. There will be a yellow line and a large white arrow. Position the camera to the extreme left or right if you tap the arrow to change the direction. Tap the shutter button and pan slowly in a steady horizontal motion. Either press the shutter button to stop or wait until the arrow reaches the other side. If this option is not available you can take a series of shots and stitch them together with a post processing app.
Preview the Image. After shooting each image a preview thumbnail appears in the bottom left hand corner. Tap this to see your photo. Then you will see a variety of options and icons. There is a strip of thumbnails from your Camera Rollwhere your photos are stored. There is a Shareicon, Favouriteicon, Edit icon andTrash icon.
Share Once you have created your mobile masterpiece, the next thing is to get it out there so that people can see it and give you valuable feedback on your work. On the other hand you might just want to share with family and friends.
Photos can be shared by Airdrop, Mail, Message, PDF to ibooks, Messenger (FB), iCloud, Instagram and Facebook immediately but you can share and store them them on many photography sites from your computer. You can import them into your computer or they can go automatically as photo stream into Photos ap. Best of all store them on an external hard drive.
Favourite is a heart icon. When you tap this it will put a heart icon onto your photo and place it in an album of your favourite photos.
Edit. it is possible to edit your photos in the camera app. Click on the preview then on’Edit’.
The first icon on the bottom is the crop tool. Tap on it and then you can adjust the size of the box by moving the corners . You can straighten the image by moving the ring under the photo. It is a good idea to make the photos a conventional shape as they will look better and print properly without cutting bits off. So click on the collection of rectangles on the bottom right. A window will appear with the sizes you can chose. I like 3:2 best.
The next icon is the filter collection. These can be fun but I rarely use them because I prefer to edit my photos with an editing program on my computer.
The next icon is for the editing tools for Light, Colour, and Black and White.
Tap on Light then slide the photo bar to the left and the right until you are happy. Tap on the three menu lines, a list of adjustments appears. Tap on any of them and then slide the slider. The grey spot is shoeing where the original photo lies. Tap the menu to go to Colour tap on Colour and use the sliders there too if you want. Tap on menu again and you can tap on B&W to turn your photo into a black and white one. Tap done when finished editing. Then you are ready to hit the share button. If not your photo will be saved in your camera roll. If you have turned on Photo Stream in iCloud in Settings your photos will automatically be transferred to your other devices, computer and iPad. Otherwise plug the phone into your computer and the photos should go into your photo program.
Trash is the last icon here. Use it to get rid of the photos that you don’t want to free up space in your phone and computer. However, be careful when deleting photos. Sometimes you find that they are okay when uploaded to your computer.
At the top there should be a Red Eye tool. Tap on it and on the eyes that need fixing. The next icon is Mark Up. Mark up lets you draw on the photo and add text.
Shutter Button When you are ready to snap the photo, tap the shutter button on the screen or press down the Volume + or Volume – button on the side of the phone.
Burst. By holding the shutter button down the camera will take continuous photos. This is a good option for sporting events and birds in flight. Newer phones have Burst on Shooting Mode menu bar. Tap the thumbnail it will take you to Camera Roll. You will see a thumbnail of a pile of photos. Tap ‘select.’ At the bottom there is a strip with grey dots under some photos. These are the ones that the camera thinks are the best. Tap the circle in the lower corner of the ones you want to keep
Tap done when you have chosen your favourites.
Reverse Camera The phone has two cameras. Front facing camera and rearview camera. Tap the camera icon to change it from front camera to rear camera. Front facing camera is for ‘selfies.’ The rear camera has a much higher resolution then the front facing camera.
Use of the Grid. Another feature you can turn on and off in ‘settings’ is the camera grid. This will help with the rule of thirds. It doesn’t appear on the photo.
Geotagging. Your phone camera can record metadata like the time and date and location of the photo. You can display a map to show where the photo was taken. The down side is if you want to publish the photo it will tell those able to view the photo where you are/were. If you don’t want people to know where you are you can turn off geotagging. In settings tap Privacy from the submenu tap Location Services. You can leave Location Services on for other apps but scroll down and turn off the switch for the Camera option.
Screen Shot. To take a screen shot press the Sleep wake button and the Home button at the same time.
Keep the Lens Clean. Because the phone is traveling with you everywhere in pockets and bags, the lens gets dirty and fingerprints. Remember to wipe it before you start taking photos or you will have misty, smudgy shots.
Also be careful not to put your fingers in front of the lens when shooting.
Keep Still. Hold the phone like you would a camera. Hold the phone camera still for longer than usual, especially in low light. Use both hands and stabalise the camera by bracing your arms against your body or on a fence and hold your breath.
Too Much Light on the Viewfinder. We all know the problem of the sun shining on the LDC screen and you can’t see to compose the shot. This is difficult to combat. Try to move into the shade to take the shot. Cup your hand over the screen. You can alter the brightness of the screen from the control centre, just push your finger up from the bottom of the screen to access the control centre. You might have to guesstimate the shot and then go into the shade to check it and try again if necessary. You can invest in a anti glare protective film to stick on the screen. Body Guardz$15-$30.
Waterproof your phone
In the rain put your phone in a snap lock bag and shoot through the clear plastic.
Check. Remember to check that your battery is charged. Check the settings are what you want. Check the usage. Make sure you have enough storage space in your phone before setting of on a photoshoot.
Settings, General, Usage, Photo & Camera
Take loads of Shots.Use different angles and different lighting and later choose the best.
ADD ON LENSES
Lensbaby
There are three phone lenses from Lensbaby and they all do different things. Along with them is an app for your phone that helps you take photos.
Photojojo
Another company that has produced lenses is Photojojo. You can buy all fiveor just a couple of them. They have standard lenses, but they also have some special effects ones as well. They are the only company that I saw with a polarizer, which could be very handy for some situations.
Here is a list of what they have:
Fisheye
Superfisheye
Polarizer
Wide/macro
Telephoto lens
ACCESSORIES
To improve the quality of phone shots, it is advisable to use a mini tripod with a phone bracket. This is definitely needed for time-lapse shots. These are also very helpful unfolded to use hand-held for more steady shots and to capture video footage.
TO BE CONTINUED
No comments:
Post a Comment