Photographing Guide, Manual Mode on Smartphone

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Hi, Steemers. How are you guys today? May you all be well. For those of you who like the world of photography but do not have enough funds to buy a DSLR camera, do not be sad. Because, now we can already use the camera on the smartphone.

Along with the increasing technology and the ability of smartphone camera. Now we can find the features of DSLR cameras on smartphones. Even so, there are still many users who do not know the functions and features offered pro camera mode and prefer to take pictures with auto mode.

Therefore, at this time we will explain the guide in recognizing the features available on the smartphone camera to beautify the shots with creative effects. So not only good at shooting with auto mode, you can also experiment with manual mode. Let's look at the following guidelines :

#1. Shutter speed.

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On every smartphone camera there is a component called shutter. When we take a picture, the shutter will open and close automatically. So, the shutter speed can be interpreted speed or vulnerable time required shutter to open.

If we set the shutter speed to be slow then the shutter will open longer (absorb more light) and if we set the shutter speed to be fast then the shutter will open faster (absorb less light).

Professional photographers usually use shutter speed to control blur levels and create images with artistic effects. Use high shutter speed to shoot fast moving objects and slow shutter to shoot light trail.

#2. Aperture.

Of course we are very familiar with this one component. Aperture or also called 'lens openings' is a camera component that regulates how much the size of the lens diaphragm while taking an object. Usually the value of the aperture is symbolized by f/xx, eg f/2.0.

The smaller the number behind f/xx, then the lens aperture will be greater. If the aperture number is getting bigger, then the lens openings will be smaller. So what is the effect of aperture in taking photos? The picture above will give you a little explanation.

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The picture above is taken with the same ISO level and shutter speed. In the first drawing taken with a large opening, there is a DOF (Depth of Field) effect that only focuses on the target object, this is often referred to as bokeh. While if the aperture is set to a larger value (small aperture), the focus on the image will be evenly distributed (no bokeh effect).

#3. ISO.

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When enabling manual mode in smartphone camera app, of course you will find a feature named ISO. Simply put, ISO is a component that regulates the sensitivity level of the camera lens to light. In other words, the higher the ISO the higher the level of sensitivity of the lens to light.

When we shoot objects in sufficient light conditions, we can set the ISO as low as possible to reduce noise. Meanwhile, if we take the object in low light conditions, we can set the ISO to a higher level for the object to look, although usually the quality of the image is generated so it contains a lot of noise.

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That means, a high ISO can increase the contrast in an image where under certain circumstances this will bring benefits. The photo above is an example of taking photos with different ISOs.

#4. Exposure.

Basically the camera requires light in capturing or taking an image. If the light absorbed by the lens is lacking, in the science of photography it is called EU (Under Exposure). Vice versa, if the light absorbed by the lens is excessive, this is commonly called OE (Over Exposure).

From here we know, that exposure is a configuration formed of three elements, namely ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. Or if formulated is the shutter speed + aperture + ISO = exposure.

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Combined or a combination of three settings is what causes the level of exposure in an image. The exposure feature can be applied to create cool effects like the above image.

#5. White balance.

The image below is an example of an object taken with different levels of White Balance (WB). You can use your creativity to put a different light on the resulting image.

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The human eye is able to see objects very clearly. The white object will look white on the human eye. But not so with the camera lens, white color can look yellowish or even bluish depending on the lighting at the location of shooting.

Therefore White Balance feature pinned on the camera smartphone. We can set the level of White Balance based on the situation or our wishes and what kind of photo we want to take.

#6. HDR.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) allows the camera to capture images with a more dynamic "range" or lighting level (adjusted to conditions). To make it easier to understand, the image below will show the difference between HDR mode photo quality and photos without HDR.

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Photos with HDR have better brightness levels than photos without HDR. Photos without HDR have an uneven level of brightness, ie clouds look much brighter than the photographed objects.

HDR does not actually help the camera in shooting in dark conditions or minimal light. HDR just balancing the difference in lighting alone. For example when we take pictures back to the sun.

#7. HDR+.

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The HDR+ feature is a higher HDR effect, only available for some smartphones only. In fact we only found this feature in Google Pixel. But we can download the software pack to get HDR+ feature on other smartphhone.

Smartphones such as LG G6, OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T, OnePlus 5, Xiaomi Mi 6, and Samsung Galaxy S8 seem to be compatible with this Google-made camera feature.

HDR+ actually has the same functionality as HDR, only HDR+ is claimed to offer images with more even and better lighting than ordinary HDR.

#8. RAW.

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image source

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Initially RAW is only available for DSLR cameras. But along with the development of technology, RAW format is also available for smartphone devices. In other words, RAW is a raw file or image generated by a camera.

This brings some advantages. The reason, we can customize or provide a super creative effect on each photo produced by the camera. In addition, the image quality in RAW format is much better than the JPEG format, because mature files like JPEG are already compressed.[source]

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