Beginners guide to Mobile Photography- how to take breathtaking photos without a professional camera (Framing and Snapseed)
With the tremendous increase in people inclined towards social media and image sharing apps, better mobile cameras have become a key selling point for most mobile phones. There’s a huge demand for Camera Smart Phones and companies have come up with dual, triple camera setups, telephoto lenses, bokeh modes, portrait modes, AI selfies, and a lot more.
But honestly, any 2017 smartphone’s camera is more than enough in most conditions (except night time). So what is that makes the difference? Why is that some people get amazing photos from their mobile cameras and some just can’t? Trust me your phone camera can do a lot more than you think it can and so can you after reading this article.
It comes down to two simple things- Framing and post-processing.
This article is mainly aimed at naive users without any prior knowledge about photography. I’ll try and keep it as simple as possible and you’ll definitely become better after going through this and post better photos on Instagram, Snapchat, etc.
A lot of people have asked me about how I achieve such images using my phone and coincidentally I've been preparing for my Digital Image Processing semesterexam and learned a lot about the technicality of photography, so I thought it’s high time I materialize it.
Before diving into the actual process, let me show you few photos I’ve shot with my Phone (Mi Redmi 4- 13MP, f/2.0) a ~100$ phone and processed in Google’s Snapseed app. All the photos in the article are shot using the same phone unless otherwise mentioned.
Disclaimer 1: None of the devices and apps mentioned in this article have paid me to do so, they’re solely my personal choice and opinion.
Disclaimer 2: I’m partially colorblind (Deuteranopia), which basically means I have trouble distinguishing between closer tones of colors(especially red-green). Excuse me if there is any error while talking about colors
You don’t need a Pixel 2 XL or an iPhone 10 (obviously they have better hardware and software, but you’re paying a premium), the best camera is the one which you have with you. Let’s dive into the process now.
Framing
Framing is the key to any photo, it is how you want people to see your photo but it is very subjective and can take a lot of time to understand and improve. Nonetheless here are a few tips on how to frame your photo better.
1. Symmetry:
Symmetry brings a lot of beauty to a photograph but can be quite challenging sometimes. The Taj Mahal photo shows some degree of symmetry, with the fountain places in the middle of the photo. To make it easier to find symmetry turn on grid-lines on your camera app. It basically divides the frame into 9 boxes (3x3).
Pro tip: Place the subject of interest on one of the intersections (where horizontal and vertical lines meet) as our eyes tend to focus first on these points. This is known as the rule of thirds.
2. Background and foreground:
Most smartphone cameras today have the ability to blur the background (even the ones with a single camera lens setup) which gives us more flexibility to differentiate between the foreground and the background. To do so, tap on the screen where the object is located in the frame.
Shooting a time-lapse, Here, after opening my camera app, I tapped on the DSLR which appeared on the screen to change the focus on to it, the background was then blurred. Note that most cameras have a minimum focus distance and cannot focus on objects that are placed too close, in that case, move back a bit.
This pops the object in the foreground and gives it a nice look.
3. Shoot from a different angle:
Shooting from a new angle gives a whole new perspective and meaning to a photo, even if it’s of the same location. It is what makes a difference. It is something most people tend to not see.
For example, look at the below images: The one on the left is what most people see and click, but if you just point it upwards and try to shoot, you get a different (and most of the time, better) image. In case you are having trouble framing it, switch to the front camera (like I did to click this) and shoot it.
Don’t be lazy and try different positions ;)
Miscellaneous tips
If you’re shooting anything other than humans, always shoot in HDR (most camera apps have these options, just dig in your settings). HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It is the ratio of the brightest light (“whitest white”) to the darkest shadows (“blackest black”) in a shot.
HDR mode basically shoots 3(or more) photos of varying exposure- one underexposed, one normal, one overexposed, and combines them to give a better image and a lot more details, an image closer to what the eye sees.
All of the above are quite subjective and depend majorly on the scene and your eye. But keep them in mind next time you shoot and trust me, you’ll have better-framed photographs.
Let us now look into a less subjective part- Post-processing.
Post-Processing
Oh wait, here’s the part which most people think is cheating, manipulating, etc. TL;DR, it’s not. Most cameras (especially phone cameras) are physically incapable of capturing exactly what you see(yes, there is the camera’s inbuilt post-processing algorithm, but at the end of the day, it’s an algorithm- a set of predefined instructions) so we have to change a few basic properties of the image to make it look like what it’s meant to be.
There are a ton of image enhancement apps available for both Android and iOS, personally I prefer Google’s Snapseed (snapseed apk download touch here)
It has a very neat UI, simple to use yet extremely powerful with loaded features. You can use any other app, what I am about to discuss are common and basic post-processing techniques that do the same thing to an image( Even Instagram has an inbuilt image editor). They only differ in the presets they have inbuilt. I’ll be using Snapseed for this tutorial.
Next @
Click on Tools->Tune Image
Here, you’ll have a lot of options to play around with. I’ll be briefly explaining most of them.
1. Brightness
It is the overall lightness or darkness of an image. Adjusting it would make the image more bright or dark. Use this when the image is dark or too overexposed.
Left to right: Original image,brightness increased, brightness decreased
2. Contrast
Contrast is the difference in color and brightness which makes an object distinguishable. As you can see below, increasing the contrast increases the separation between dark and bright parts of the image, and decreasing does the opposite.
Left to right: Original image, contrast increased, contrast decreased
3. Saturation
Saturation is the amount of white light mixed with a hue( dominant color as perceived by an observed). Increasing saturation increases the separation between colors and vice versa. You get a punchier image if you increase the saturation.
Left to right: Original image, saturation increased, saturation decreased
4. Highlights
Highlights are usually the bright elements of an image, changing this property increases or decreases the intensity of these bright areas. Don’t confuse this with Brightness- which applies to the whole image, whereas Highlights only modifies specific parts.
Notice how the Hills are now more visible when the highlights have been decreased.
Left to right: Original image,highlights increased, highlights decreased
5. Shadows
Shadows are the exact opposite of highlights. When increased, they uncover the areas which were previously dark due to real shadows. Increasing shadows too much can introduce noise, since the image doesn’t contain much information about what is there.
Pro tip: If your camera supports shooting RAW format, which captures a lot more information ( like information about the image in shadows and highlights), use it, but it comes at a cost of larger image size (usually 5–6 times more)
“You don’t overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself bigger.” – John C. Maxwell
When it comes to getting results, it takes motivation and ability.
Motivation makes things happen.
Where there’s no will, there’s no way. One of the best ways to improve your personal effectiveness is to master your motivation and find your drive.
If you can master motivation, you can deal with life’s setbacks, as well as inspire yourself to always find a way forward, and create new experiences for yourself, and follow your growth.
In this post, I’ll demystify motivation and give you the motivation tools that really work.
1. Connect to your values.
This is the ultimate secret. If you can connect the work you do to your values, even in small ways, you can change your game.
One of my values is learning and growth.
I find ways to grow my skills in any situation. For example, I don’t just “call back a customer.” I “win a raving fan.” I don’t just “do a task.” I “master my craft.” I don’t just “get something done.” I “learn something new.”
2. Find your WHY.
Figure out a compelling purpose. Turn this into a one-liner.
For example, when I fall off the horse, I remind myself I’m here to “make others great.” This gets me back on track, sharing the best of what I know.
3. Change your WHY.
Sometimes you’re doing things for the wrong reason. Are you doing that task to get it done, or to learn something new? Just shifting your why can light your fire.
4. Change your HOW.
You can instantly find your tasks more enjoyable by shifting from getting them done, to doing them right.
I think of it as mastering your craft. Make it artful.
Sometimes slower is better. Other times, the key is to make it a game and actually speed it up. You can set time limits and race against the clock. Changing your how can get you out of ruts and find new ways to escape the mundane.
5. Remember the feeling.
Flipping through your head movies and scenes is one of the fastest ways to change how you feel.
Remember the feeling. How did you feel during your first kiss? What about laying on the grass on a sunny day?
When you feel good, you find your motivation faster.
6. Shift to past, present or the future.
Sometimes you need to be here, now. Sometimes, the right here, right now sucks. The beauty of shifting tense is you can visualize a more compelling future, or remember a more enjoyable past.
At the same time, if you catch yourself dwelling on a painful past, get back to right here, right now, and find the joy in the moment.
You’ll improve your temporal skills with practice.
7. Find a meaningful metaphor.
Find a metaphor that fuels you. Maybe you’re the “Little Engine that Could.” Maybe you’re “in your element.”
The most powerful thing you can do is find a metaphor that connects to your values. This is why I turn my projects into “epic adventures.”
8. Take action.
Here’s a secret that once you know it, can change your life. Action often comes before motivation.
You simply start doing an activity and then your motivation kicks in. Nike was right with “Just do it.” For example, I don’t always look forward to my workout, but once I start, I find my flow.
9. Link it to good feelings.
Find a way to link things to good feelings. For example, play your favorite song when you’re doing something you don’t like to do.
It has to be a song that makes you feel so great that it overshadows the pain of the task. It’s hard to tell yourself you don’t like something when it feels so good.
A similar approach is to find your theme song.
10. Impress yourself first.
This is how people like Peter Jackson or James Cameron or Stephenie Meyer inspire themselves. They make the movies or write the books that impress themselves first. They connect their passion to the work and they don’t depend on other people setting the bar. Their internal bar becomes their drive.
11. “CHOOSE” to.
If you tell yourself you “HAVE” to do this or you “MUST” do that or you “SHOULD” do this, you can weaken your motivation.
The power of choice and simply reframing your language to “CHOOSE” to can be incredibly empowering and exactly the motivating language you need to hear. Choose your words carefully and make them work for you.
12. Pair up.
This is one of my favorite ways to make something fun. One person’s painful task, is another’s pleasure. Pair up with somebody who complements your skill or who can mentor you and get you over the humps.
13. Change your question.
Sometimes you need to change your focus. To change your focus, change the question.
If you ask yourself what’s wrong with this situation, of course you’ll find things to complain about. Ask yourself what’s right about the situation and you can quickly find the positives and get your groove on.
14. Fix time for eating, sleeping and working out.
Sometimes your body or emotions are working against you because you’re not giving them a break or fueling them the right way.
One simple way to improve results here is to find a routine for eating, sleeping, and moving or working out that supports you.
15. Play to your strengths.
Spending too much time in your weaknesses wears you down. Spending more time in your strengths helps you renew your energy and find your flow.
Strengths are the place where you can grow your best. Find the things that you can do all day that you really enjoy and find excuses throughout your day to do more of that. Success builds on itself and this helps you build momentum.
Try out the motivation techniques to see what works for you.
At the end of the day, all motivation really comes down to self-motivation, and you get better at motivation by building your self-awareness.
Learn how to push your own buttons from the inside out.
👑 "Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success." 👑
🔰As entrepreneurs, leaders, managers, and bosses, we must realize that everything we think actually matters. If we are seeking success, we must think successful, inspiring, and motivating thoughts.
🔰Read on to find the words of wisdom that will motivate you in building your business, leading your life, creating success, achieving your goals, and overcoming your fears.
Motivational Quotes That Will Inspire Your Success:
1. "If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission." --Anonymous
2. Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out." --John Wooden
3. "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." --Anonymous
4. "If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary." --Jim Rohn
5. "Trust because you are willing to accept the risk, not because it's safe or certain." --Anonymous
6. "Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life--think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success." --Swami Vivekananda
7. "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." --Walt Disney
8. "Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them." --Anonymous
9. "If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got." --Anonymous
10. "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." --Winston Churchill
11. "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly." --Proverb
12. "Successful entrepreneurs are givers and not takers of positive energy." --Anonymous
13. "Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them." --Vaibhav Shah
14. "Opportunities don't happen, you create them." --Chris Grosser
15. "Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value." --Albert Einstein
16. "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." --Eleanor Roosevelt
17. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." --Thomas A. Edison
18. "If you don't value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents--start charging for it." --Kim Garst
19. "A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him." --David Brinkley
20. "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." --Eleanor Roosevelt
21. "The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one's destiny to do, and then do it." --Henry Ford
22. "If you're going through hell keep going." --Winston Churchill
23. "The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." --Anonymous
24. "Don't raise your voice, improve your argument." --Anonymous
25. "What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise." --Oscar Wilde
26. "The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away." --Anonymous
27. "The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success." --Bruce Feirstein
28. "When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance to catch you." --Lolly Daskal
29. "I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams." --Oprah Winfrey
30. "No masterpiece was ever created by a lazy artist." --Anonymous
31. "Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." --Nathaniel Hawthorne 32. "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." --Albert Einstein
33. "Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting." --Anonymous
34. "Do one thing every day that scares you." --Anonymous
35. "What's the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable." --Anonymous
36. "Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." --Lolly Daskal
37. "Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent." --Anonymous
38. "Knowledge is being aware of what you can do. Wisdom is knowing when not to do it." --Anonymous
39. "Your problem isn't the problem. Your reaction is the problem." --Anonymous
40. "You can do anything, but not everything." --Anonymous
41. "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." --Steve Jobs
42. "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed." --Ray Goforth
43. "Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life." --A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
44. "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." --Thomas Jefferson
45. "The starting point of all achievement is desire." --Napoleon Hill
46. "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out." --Robert Collier
47. "If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work." --Thomas J. Watson
48. "All progress takes place outside the comfort zone." --Michael John Bobak
49. "You may only succeed if you desire succeeding; you may only fail if you do not mind failing." --Philippos
50. "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear." --Mark Twain
51. "Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone." --Pablo Picasso
52. "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing--that's why we recommend it daily." --Zig Ziglar
53. "We become what we think about most of the time, and that's the strangest secret." --Earl Nightingale
54. "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." --Vidal Sassoon
55. "Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears." --Les Brown
56. "I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing." --Martha Stewart
57. "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." --Anonymous
58. "The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same." --Colin R. Davis
59. "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." --Ralph Nader
60. "Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." --Maya Angelou
61. "As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." --Bill Gates
62. "A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them." --Henry Kravis
63. "The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself." --Mark Caine
64. "People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy." --Tony Robbins
65. "When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." --Audre Lorde
66. "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." --Mark Twain
67. "The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." --Bruce Lee
68. "There is no traffic jam along the extra mile." --Roger Staubach
69. "Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." --Dale Carnegie
70. "If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." --Jim Rohn
71. "If you genuinely want something, don't wait for it--teach yourself to be impatient." --Gurbaksh Chahal
72. "Don't let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning." --Robert Kiyosaki
73. "If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you!" --T. Harv Eker
74. "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." --Steve Jobs
75. "Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference." --Robert Frost
76. "The number one reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors." --Napoleon Hill
77. "The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them." --Denis Waitley
78. "In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it." --Jane Smiley
79. "Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time." --George Bernard Shaw
80. "I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." --Diane Ackerman
81. "You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them." --Michael Jordan
82. "Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." --Jim Ryun
83. "People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing." --Dale Carnegie
84. "There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul." --Ella Wheeler Wilcox
85. "Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." --Francis Chan
86. "You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction." --George Lorimer
87. "A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at." -- Bruce Lee
88. "Success is ... knowing your purpose in life, growing to reach your maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others." --John C. Maxwell
89. "Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." --Wayne Dyer
90. "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe." --Anatole France
91. "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all." --Dale Carnegie
92. "You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals." --Booker T. Washington
93. "Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable." --Theodore N. Vail
94. "It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation." --Herman Melville
95. "What would you do if you weren't afraid." --Spencer Johnson
96. "Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it." --Washington Irving
97. "Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor." --Truman Capote
98. "Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." --John R. Wooden
99. "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." --Margaret Thatcher
100. "A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done." --Vince Lombardi
🗓️ Year : *2020* Run Time : *1h 50m* 📷 Quality : *720p.WEBRip.2CH.x265.HEVC-PSA* 📁 Size : *591 MB* 🏷️ Genres : *Drama/Western* 📃 Language : *English* 📊 IMDB : *7.5*
A woman in her sixties who, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
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