Hi Gang. I'm back from extended leave and am raring to go with fresh ideas, tutorials and help for you to get the hang of your cameras!!
Hands up those of you with a smart phone?? Whether its an iPhone, a Samsung Galaxy or any other touch screen device. Even the iPad2. Then this tutorial is right up your alley.
Have you found yourself in a situation that you are without your camera until you think of your phone/iPad camera.??? The cameras in the latest devices are nothing short of amazing when you think about it. The amount of detail it can capture from macro distance to landscapes is stunning.
They still struggle in low light situations and personally I’d rather not use the inbuilt flash on my iphone4s.
I use my iPhone a lot for simple snaps, often people on location,
selfies or for quick reference shots when I’m scouting for different landscape locations.
If there’s awesome cloud activity in the sky and I don’t have my big Canon with me, I whip out my phone and snap a shot. Bearing in mind that these are snaps mostly for myself or to share on Facebook, not to hang on a wall
The ease of sharing a shot on Social Media is another big incentive as well. And in the ‘Age of Now’ you can take a shot, play with it, upload it onto Facebook within a minute.
There are some fantastic iPhone and Android Apps out there for your devices. My personal photography favorites are Camera+ ($1.99c from AppStore) and PanoStitcher (free from AppStore). There are heaps and heaps and heaps. Check out what your friends are using and if you like what you see, download it. Many of them are free.
Camera+ has great enhancements, framing (the instant is my favorite) and has different functions including 5 second delay timer, stabilizer, grids for lining up your shots, and can upload directly to your Social Media of choice.
PanoStitch takes those long panorama shots of landscapes. (I haven't found a direct link so search the AppStore via your phone) This one crops it to size as well. I usually save what I’ve created, and move it into Camera+ to frame/add text and upload from there.
I’ve an album on my Facebook Wall that’s just all iphone photos that I’ve taken from my Great Ocean Road Trip, that I’ve just come home from. Most of these are candid shots of our group and on location. I prefer the Polaroid look (Instant Frame) in Camera+ as I can add a small amount of txt to the frame.
My working tool on my phone for photography is TPE – The Photographers Ephemeris. (again use your phone to search the App store) This is brilliant tool that you can discover the angle of sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset, and many many other features. It has google maps of locations in real time and it can pinpoint where you are by the inbuilt GPS of the phone. It’s less than $10 from AppStore and I wouldn’t be without it. Ever.
Using the camera on iphone is in so many ways the same as using your camera, just much more simplified. You still need to compose the shot, so thinking of the rule of thirds, or clustering odd number of elements together (1,3,5), keep the horizon straight, esp in landscape shots.
Can you see the similarities in photography and scrapbooking ;O)
Most important of all – think of the lighting. Is the subject lit up enough? Can you move it to a better location? Is the lighting complimentary to the subject? You need to keep the camera steady while taking your shot, whether static or panning, and you still need to press the shutter button.
Don’t expect to capture images that will enlarge beyond 6x4 inch shots. You’ll be disappointed. If you like smaller photos on your layouts, then this will be just perfect. Another reason for my Polaroid preference at the moment is my future scrapping in mind.
So using any of the previous tutorials I’ve written; Landscape, Portraiture, Action, Macro, Bokeh, Sunflare, Black and White, grab your phone, plan your shot and how you want the end result to look so you can scrap it, get out there and shoot it.
Load up your best 3 shots in the Tiff's March Photo Challenge album for the chance to win a $25 Scrap Therapy Voucher that’s valid for a month upon receipt of the voucher code.
The winner will be announced in April on Saturday after the announcement of the new Man of the Month which is the first Friday of the month.
keep those phones in your pocket/handbag so its always handy!!!!
tiff
