From The Phoblographer…
Being a gadget freak and accessory hound, I tend to collect a lot of small items for my iPhone. But we know that you love them too! There are so many out there though, and I’ve tried many of them and made mistakes at times. With that said, here’s a couple that you might want to look at.
Check out this fabulous series of double exposures shot on an iPhone in New York and London by Daniella Zalcman…
Days is a journal disguised as an iOS app to document your life as it happens – in photographs.
Shoot photos throughout the day, and publish your post of images the following day in a visually delightful grid of time-stamped pics.
How is this different from Instagram? So many ways. Cool ways, too.
Whether you’re a professional photographer, an enthusiastic amateur, or simply a curious person with an iPhone and the desire to experiment with photography, this book is for you.
Photography experienced something of a renaissance when smartphones came along. Far from being dead, apps such as Instagram rejuvenated the art form.
Some interesting facts include:
The infographic below by Overgram, an app that adds text to Instagram photos, details the evolution of photography from its birth in 1826 to modern-day usage on social networks… fascinating!
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Your thoughts? Do share!
Your Brain
Your camera or smartphone is not as clever as you are…it can only see 4 stops of light (let’s not worry about what stops are for now) but your eye can see 12 stops. So, for example, you line up your friends against a bright background and all looks amazing…you take a picture and your friends are quite dark and the background is not great either…wot the?
The camera or smartphone is trying it’s best to work out the exposure (how much light to capture) so guesses somewhere in the middle, it doesn’t know your friends are more important than the background.
Your job is to help it and prioritise what’s important.
The great news is that most cameras, phones and apps have something brilliant called exposure compensation that nobody much ever uses. It basically allows you to add or subtract light after the camera has made its guess. It often has the symbol +/-
Check out your device and start using it today!
Indoors tricks
What we want is quality of light and not quantity. Often in a room there is way too much light bouncing everywhere to make an interesting picture, so take control! Turn off the overhead lights, close the door, half close the curtains and suddenly thing get interesting.
Taking control may mean moving your subject to a better position….look around, are there any pools of light from windows? Maybe turn on a lamp and if not…why not create your own with inexpensive LED video lights? (More on that soon.)
Cheats:
Take a moment to think about what you are trying to say (photographing) and try to fill the frame with just that.
Be bold:
Then once you think you have got as close as you can…..get closer!
You’ll be amazed how many times there is another picture in your picture and often one with more impact.
I know this sounds simple and obvious, but go look at your gallery with fresh eyes…
A word of caution: Unless you have an optical zoom (sorry smartphone users) you need to avoid zooming if at all possible…I know you can zoom, but what you are actually doing if you zoom digitally is just throwing away pixels and therefore quality.
susie loves photography 