Taking Perfect Photos on iPhone: A Tutorial from The Verge. Taking Perfect Photos on iPhone: Tutorial from The Verge Photos iphone 5s front camera

Pictures from DP Review made on iPhone 5s

Reading smartphone reviews on specialized photography sites is rather strange. Especially when it comes to very old and respected Internet portals. If you are fond of or make money from photography, then definitely more than once or twice visited DP Review. A few days ago, journalists from his mobile section gave a verdict on photographic abilities. Looking ahead - everything is good, even if not like some competitors.

IPhone 5s dual flash operation

This, of course, is not about the iPhone 5c, because it is exactly the same "five", only in a different body and with a slightly improved front camera. iPhone 5s, in the best traditions, made the local editors scribble 11 pages of a detailed review of exclusively the photo and video capabilities of the device. A large sheet of text will definitely be appreciated by professionals, and we, being lazy children and adults of the Internet, will immediately look at the last page - to the conclusions.

Pros:

• Good exposure in a wide variety of situations
• Good picture detail, moderate noise reduction
• Nice color rendering
• Good flash with accurate color matching
• Very responsive operation, negligible shutter lag
• Very fast continuous shooting, 10fps
• Very easy to use camera app
• Better panorama mode than others
• Fun slow motion video mode
• Effective HDR with very low ghosting
• Digital stabilization in videos works relatively well
• High-quality design of the gallery application ("Photos")

Minuses:

• Less detail in good lighting than larger sensors
• Minimum manual control in the camera app
• Ergonomics are not great for photography
• Picky frame focus can lead to unwanted results
• Small screen
• Lack of optical image stabilization
• No separate two-stage shutter button
• Video too dark in low light conditions
• Filtered images are exported in low resolution

Total 8.1 points out of ten. The scale, of course, is applicable exclusively to mobile devices and has nothing to do with the rating of ordinary cameras on the site. The leader of the rating, for objective reasons, is Nokia 1020, whose sensor and image quality have been recognized as the best in the class of mobile devices. A Samsung Galaxy S4 scored 8.0 points, albeit taking slightly lower quality pictures, but having a large viewfinder screen. Otherwise, photographers have a peculiar view of the pros and cons, not at all the same as the average user. If interested, the full text of the iPhone 5s photo review can be read here: [dpreview]

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The Verge at Work is a series of articles from The Verge on how to do something and do it great. Today we are going to talk about how to create stunning photos using your iPhone. The author of this article, Jordan Opplinger, warns: all the tips and solutions that will be discussed are based on his personal experience and are subjective, however, we can always discuss controversial points in the comments. Enjoy reading.

I have always loved taking pictures and have always believed that the best camera is the one that is always with you. In the age of smartphones, this statement is more relevant than ever, because now almost everyone has a camera in their pocket. I've changed smartphones over the years and downloaded a lot of photography apps to them, and today the perfect combination for me is my iPhone 5S and a dozen photography apps for all occasions.

The App Store has hundreds or even thousands of photography and photo editing apps. I spent a lot of time at PhotoForge2 and PictureShow, then switched to SwankoLab and Noir Photo, which have amazing vignetting options. In fact, each app does one or two things perfectly, which forces me to constantly import and export photos from app to app. But the result, fortunately, is always worth it.

Shooting

It all starts with taking the photo itself. You can adjust the exposure, choose the temperature of the colors and increase the sharpness already during processing, but it will be much easier for you if the photo is taken correctly from the beginning. Focus and exposure are your top priorities. When you are not sure if you are in focus properly, move focus and take another shot. And one more.

Of course, there are a huge number of alternative applications to the standard iOS camera, but it seems to me that its capabilities are quite enough in almost all cases. There is a grid here (turn it on if you have not already turned it on: Settings> Photos and Camera> Grid), which does not allow me to forget about the rule of thirds. I do not always follow this rule, but it is the grid that allows me to break it deliberately, and not accidentally.

Also, I like the ability to lock autofocus and exposure. Press and hold the frame on a specific area of ​​the composition, and the application will calculate focus and exposure, regardless of other areas. This is very convenient if, for example, you are photographing a silhouette at sunset or close-up in front of a window.

There are also applications that provide the ability to separate exposure and focus in order to adjust them separately. It can come in handy sometimes, but they are slower. When you need to take photos quickly, the standard camera is second to none.

HDR

The iPhone 5S has the best sensor on the smartphone market, but it is paltry when compared to professional cameras. This becomes apparent when the iPhone is faced with a high-contrast scene - details, shadows and tints are lost. And then HDR comes into play. The program combines two identical images (do not move the camera!), In one of which the exposure is overestimated and in the other - underestimated. The result is truly amazing. Many people use it to create unrealistic pictures, but I like to use it to compensate for the shortcomings of a mobile camera. The standard function is not bad, but I chose for myself a long time ago - this application is really capable of a lot.

The process is incredibly simple: there are two sliders in front of you - drag one to the light point, the other to the dark one. Do not choose the maximum values, this can make the photo too contrasting and unnatural. Stop at 80% and take a photo. It may not work the first time if you, for example, slightly moved the camera or filmed moving objects.

Treatment

It used to be a real torture - sharpening in one application, contrast in another, and already in the third - using filters. But all this was left behind when I, like many before me, switched to VSCO Cam. A wide range of options, and most importantly - the ability to choose the intensity of the filters. By the way, very beautiful and stylish filters. I literally fell in love with this application and now I do almost everything in it.

It has all the steps from filming to publishing on the web. The library is perfect for importing many photos at once, deleting the same or unsuccessful ones, marking good ones and, of course, making them even better.

More often than not, the first thing I do is sharpen. Of course, this is not a good habit, but this is what makes me understand how “promising” this photo is. A boost of 1 or 2 is quite enough, but if you fail with focus, you can even try 5 or 6. Try it. The more you sharpen, the more noise appears in the photo, and remember that what looks stunningly sharp on a mobile screen may not live up to expectations on a larger display.

Exposure:

You should also be careful with exposure, 1 or 2 in the direction you want is the maximum. Of course, you may be able to save some too dark (or vice versa) photo, but this is more the exception than the rule.

Temperature:

Color temperature is a setting that many people underestimate. However, it can seriously improve the result. For example, photos taken in natural light may appear natural until you step inside. They will look too warm in artificial light, but adjusting the temperature can easily fix this.

With just these three settings, you can dramatically improve the image. They are, in my opinion, the main ones. In addition to them, there are a dozen more, but they should be used with caution and in cases where it is really necessary.

Filters

In addition to the free ones, VSCO has filters that you need to purchase with money. I recommend that you be generous and get the “launch bundle” to get you started. After the filter is selected, I go to the “Tools” again to adjust the contrast and saturation (often they need to be reduced to make the filter look more natural). Sometimes I tweak the shadows in the “shadow save” to bring back details that are less clear after the filter has been applied. When the photo looks the way you want it, just import it into the gallery (save to camera roll). You can directly from VSCO Cam send photos to Instgram, Twitter, Facebook, Weibo or email.

"Film 0"

You took a photo, processed it using several applications and posted it, for example, on Instagram. Let me guess, there are even more unnecessary copies of the same photo in your gallery? Some aspire to an empty email inbox, but personally I dream of an empty iOS gallery.

Lots of apps promise you to tackle the chaos in your albums, but none of them are perfect. Everpix came close to this, but unfortunately it is no longer there. I use a combination of Google+ and Flickr. Google+ automatically saves every shot I take at full resolution, which is really reassuring and gives you the assurance that a good shot won't be lost forever. I post the processed photos to Flickr, where a terabyte of free space is enough for everyone. Then, I remove everything from the "Camera Roll" - cleanliness and order.

In conclusion, I want to say that the way we take photos on our smartphones is constantly changing. New applications come out every day, each of them theoretically can change the whole process in whole or only part of it. In addition, new smartphones are coming out. Products such as the Lumia 1020 and Galaxy Camera rely on photography and shape the future of mobile photography.

Crisp, sharp and tastefully processed photography.

During the presentation of new smartphones, representatives Apple paid special attention to the main camera of the new flagship. Obviously, when developing the model, the disadvantages that were inherent in optics were taken into account, in particular, the low level of detail and color rendition during shooting in low light conditions.

Despite the fact that one of the most popular indicators for assessing the quality of a camera - the resolution of the matrix, remained at the same level (8 megapixels), the developers Apple performed a fairly serious amount of work to optimize the optical properties of the component. So, the camera is equipped with a more powerful aperture F 2.2, which allows to a greater extent to avoid diffraction blur and a dual LED flash, which "knows" in automatic mode to adjust the shades for more realistic color reproduction. In addition, there is a function of automatic selection of the best shot when shooting in Burst Mode. In addition, the developers have implemented the ability to shoot 720p video quality in Slow-motion mode at 120 frames per second.






Indeed, the quality of the images shown at the presentation of the new smartphone suggests that the resolution of the matrix for modern optics is not at all a decisive criterion. It is noted that all photographs were taken using standard capabilities without the use of additional peripheral devices.