Mobile Camera Tricks

After a week of stormy weather, I finally had a chance to go out and find something to capture for my picture gallery. Today's subject is a dry leaf that I found along the way. It has water drops on it, rain drops left by the storm. To get a clearer view of those drops, I need to bend and draw my Zenfone's camera closer to the subject. As you can see, only the nearest drops were focused while the other parts were slightly blurred. My camera at this time was set into Auto and automatically sets the focus of the subject when I draw the camera nearer or farther, thus setting the depth of field for the image. Depth of Field refers to the distance between the nearest and the farthest point in an image that still appears sharp. You can also set it manually in your smartphone if it has this feature and choose which area of the image you want it to focus. The color is kind of dull, isn't it? Let's enhance it a little. Time to open the SnapSeed app. To tune image: I

Imagine yourself taking a little break in your balcony, sky gazing and there’s…a big blue moon! That is a great sight! And you want to capture it but all you have is your smartphone. You want to take that shot anyway but all you got is this….a white dot.  And no matter how you zoom in your camera or change your position, you still got the same white dot. Wish you have a better picture to show? But there’s a little trick for that. I think no smartphone can capture the moon that big yet, maybe, because it needs better, bigger lenses. I had a similar incident like that before, though it was not a blue moon. On the same month of October last year, the news spread about the sight of the red moon, some people called it blood moon or hunter’s moon. We did saw that beautiful moon with our bare eyes but since we were still at work, we didn’t have the chance to take a picture. We want to remember that moment anyway so we decided to do moon gazing after work, though the moon had gone fart

Ever wonder how to create this? Let me show how to do it. First, take a good photo from your smartphone. You can think of any subject that you can find around your place.  Second, install Snapseed and VSCO apps to your mobile. These will be our apps for today. Third, be ready to use the Brush and Detail tools from Snapseed. For the Brush, use Dodge and Burn. After brushing black to everything around the subject, set the Structure from Detail tool to 15 or more, depends on how you want it. As for me, that would be enough to complete the black background. Don't forget to save. Fourth, we will use VSCO this time to finish the photo. Use one of the black and white filters to create a nice blend. or watch this video and follow the steps. Click the Full screen square button at the bottom right side of the video to enlarge it.

Even when I was still a teenager, I was already envious to people who could capture pictures beautifully with their high-end cameras. I wished I could own one too. Later I thought, “Do you really need these expensive stuff just to get a good picture?” That’s when I start experimenting with my Asus Zenfone Go. It’s not even the latest model but I was glad I had it in my hand. After diligently reading stuff online, asking friends and explore some tools, I found my shots gratifying enough to get featured. If you just started photography, maybe you don’t need to buy expensive DSLRs yet, though you may have that option. My Zenfone Go’s camera is just 8 megapixel but so far I have taken a lot of good pictures with it. Aside from that, the other trick is your picture editors. If the mobile doesn’t have much in its camera settings, you can always lean on to your good friends. I mean someone like snapseed, vsco, etc. They’re really good friends!   So far, I have what I need in my Zen