More control in smartphone photography

Since few year ago smartphone were introduced. Manufacturer start adding new features to the smartphone. One of the main feature of the smartphone is the camera department.

Since the beginning of the smartphone and the present time there's so many things that changed in the camera department . The size of image sensor changed from smaller to bigger that means the quality of the photo gets better and better.  More camera( more focul length ) added to a single smartphone . More megapixel added, camera gets faster , more capable in low light and so on.  Manufacturer adds new features to the smartphone every year . You will find different features in different brand .

But most of the time these features works in auto mode. Phone figure it out itself what kind of feature is to use and where. But being a photographer you want to do by yourself where to focus, what should be the ISO, what should be your shutter speed, the basic control of photography, well in smartphone the aperture is fixed so, you really can't change the aperure so that's there's no function to change the aperture.

To do those certain works which you can't do in auto mode, you have to change the mode to manual mode , sometime few manufacturer called it pro mode. So, what happen in this mode is basically your smartphone gives you more control of ISO, Shutter Speed, and Focus ( The Exposer Triangle ) . Change ISO , Shutter Speed , focus according to your prospective, according to your situation.

Auto Mode , Auto HDR on

Manual Mode, No HDR

Now as an example look at this two images, you definitely can see in HDR mode the photo is dark as the phone increase the contrast also same goes with the highlight. Though the colours are pretty much same in both the images. The difference is that in auto mode the photo has much more contrast, where in manual mode the photo is flat, it has less contrast. It also gives you a natural view to the eye. Well in some cases auto mode perform very well with HDR but sometimes you need to adjust the settings by yourself as the phone can't handle the situation.  

You can take some amazing long exposure shot at any time you want, well technically you can't take in day light unless you have some ND filters otherwise your photos will get too much over-exposed. You can take some Nightshot without loosing details and sharpness at the same time you can control your ISO. 

S-1/3  ISO-350 

Look at this image, you can see the subject but they are moving so they came out blurry. But this kind of blur tells you that the subjects are moving. Now if you slower your shutter than this then you can't actually tell what are the subjects. What you will get is some blurry lines. You can't really take this kind of shot in auto mode. 

You can also take Macro (closer shot of your subject ) shot. Now it's not a big deal to take Macro shot or closer shot, but during this shot the distance between your phone or subject is very close or small. Now what happen sometimes that  at small distance if your subject is also small then in automode your phone really struggle to focus on the subject, so what you need to do is to switch to Manual mode and change the focus by yourself, and I am telling you that it's a real fun to manually focus on the subject.

You can also take some really high speed subject or some action shot by changing your shutter speed. In auto mode sometime the smartphone can't detect the high speed subject so you need to switch to Manual Mode to change your shutter speed by yourself so you can take those cool action shot. Cause nowadays the smartphone is capable of doing so much thing that DSLR or Mirrorless camera can do. You just have know what you are doing.

At the end, if you want to share some quick story or photo then you can use the auto mode as it gives you the quick share capability with good details and colour. But if you want to do photography with some creativity and control then you have to use the Manual mode.  

Now if you find this helpful feel free to share this with your friends. 

Getting out of your Auto Mode in photography

You guys probably know what is auto mode. Right ? Those who don't know and the beginner photographer I want to say that maybe you already can guess the function of auto mode by it's name auto . This mode will provides you an auto function system by your camera . So when you take photos with this mode your camera will do all the work and gives you a final image . You don't need to do anything, just grab your camera and press the shutter button . 

Probably you think this feature is quite good because you don't have to do anything by yourself . But that's not really the truth is , in photography you are the photographer, you tell your camera to do this setting or change that settings for a good contrasty looking photo, or shallow depth of field   but in auto mode you can't do anything at all .

You can not change your shutter speed when you want to capture a high speed object maybe your camera giving you a slower shutter speed , or maybewmaybe you need your aperture at maximum wide open for the bokeh or the background blur I mean the shallow depth of field at that time maybe you are not getting that wide open aperture . 

I told you before that this mode do all the work for yourself and will give you and final image and the format of this image is JPEG ( jpg ) , which is great for share Instantly but as a photographer you maybe want to change few things or colour correct the image in post processing . But in this JPEG format you can't do anything in Post processing , I mean you can but the image loses a lot of lots of details or colour or maybe the image has too much noise . You still need Raw format to do this which is not possible in automode .

In a DSLR or Mirrorless there are few others mode with the auto mode, but in a smartphone phone there is only one mode which is the manual mode or few manufacturers called it a pro mode . 

Left - Manual Mode                Right- Auto Mode

As you can see in this 2 photos first one is Manual and the 2nd one is the Auto mode. There is not a big difference but you can see in manual mode there is 5 extra options at the right side which is focus , white balance , shutter button , iso , and the exposer value . You can't see a option for aperture value cause maybe you already know that smartphone's aperture is fixed you can't change it . 

So the point is that if you want to get really good photos or you to become a photographer then you have to do is to get out of your auto mode , and use the other modes for the controls you want for a particular photo. And practice those mode regularly. And you have to keep in mind all the basic things for photography which you can check here.   That's it about this post. 

Basic things in Photography

 What is photography ? 

So what is photography ? Well this is a little hard question but I try to explain in a simple way . So, I think every beiginner photographer wants to know about this question. right ? So probably you can see lots of people grab their phone and take a selfie or maybe you told your friends to take a photo of your and your friend go to camera app and take a shot okay , so for me that's not photography means , well it's a kind of photography but not better or maybe it didn't stand your expectations. So, There are lots of thing matter in photography . Well as a beginner photographer maybe you don't understand all of the things but still you will get an interesting shot than an average person can't or a non photographer  .

What are the Basic things in Photography

In photography there are couple of few things that you need to keep in mind . 

1. Automode

Okay so, first of all you need to get out of your auto mode . Well if you are using smartphone in 2020 which means you are already using a smartphone okay that's not funny well my point is that current gen smartphone can take better photo in automode  but if you are using a Mirrorless or a DSLR  then you have to get out of your auto mode . That way you can turn your photos however you want . You can go little under exposed, you go little over exposed ,you can change iso ,you can change the aperture and so many other things too.  

2. Exposer

Secondly ,you have to keep in mind the exposer ,yes this one of the many things which is the most important part in photography . Again smartphone are using auto HDR mode which basically take the shadow part and the highlights part also so you can see details in shadow and the highlights area which looks  sometime great but not  but all the time .you have to keep the exposer level balanced so You can see the details in highlights and also in the shadow area . 

3. Aperture

Thirdly , it's the aperture . This is basically a hole in the lense which is controllable through the camera or sometimes manually . It actually control the light flow , how much light will hit the sensor . The more light the better the photo . It also gives you the background blur or shallow depth of field kind of look in your photo and that gives you a professional kind of look in your photos .

4 .  Shutter Speed

Fourthly , the shutter speed . It actually a small part infront of your image sensor , that close and open. So when you press the capture button the camere closed the shutter and open it up again in a fraction of time . It means you take a shot . The more it will take time to closed the shutter the more light will hit the image sensor . When you are capturing a non moving subject you can lower the shutter speed and when you are capturing high speed object then you have to increase the shutter speed . With this you become creative . 

5. Focus

Fifthly , it's the focus . It's also the main important thing in photography , right ? You get your exposer right , you set your shutter speed but the subject is out of focus . Then There's no meaning of that photo . Well in DSLR or Mirrorless the auto focus is great but in smartphone the it does not work properly . Then you can set your focus in manual mode and do it yourself. So, you always have to keep in mind that no matter what will happen you have to keep your subject in focus . 

6. ISO

Sixthly , none other than iso . This is actually the sensitivity of your camera's image sensor . So when you higer the sensitivity your sensor can capture more light but it increases grain in your photos and it will also lower the quality of your photos. Actually when you don't have enough light then you need to increase the iso so it can capture more light . But you have to keep in mind that when you have enough light you always lower your iso settings for better quality in your photos. 

7. White Balance

Seventhly , there is another things that you always have to keep in mind which is the White Balance . This is one of the things that can totally ruin your photo and you can't even correct it completely in post processing . If you are shooting in Raw then this features does not matter at all , but if your shooting in JPEG then this is one of the things that really matter . As my opinion set the White Balance in auto and let the camera handle this part .  

8. Composition

Lastly , I want to tell about composition . It's something like where you want to put your subject on the frame.  If you put your subject all the way to the up or down in the frame or the corners maybe or the side then it doesn't look well.  You always maybe not always but most of the time have to put your subject in the middle of the frame or maybe a little left or a little right . According to your prospective to the subject .

Conclusion 

Atlast I want to say that the point I mentioned above is the technical part of the photography.  So , if you want to get better in this part you have to practice more and more. Cause you already know practice makes you perfect . The more you spend time the more you will gain experience . And with experience you will understand the point I mentioned above and with those your photos will become from good to best .okay so that it everyone .  Thanks for reading.