Tag Archives: smartphone cameras

542.GP-How to use the Depth Editor and Color Pop in Google Photos

Tutorial 542 from Geeks on Tour. An explanation and demonstration of two special editing tools. Depth editor allows you to increase or decrease the blur in the background of Portrait style photos. Color Pop allows you to keep the main subject in color while turning the background to black and white.
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541.SM-iPhone:Portrait Photos

Tutorial video number 541 by Geeks On Tour. This is a quick demo on how to take a Portrait style photo using an iPhone. Note, your phone must be a “Plus” model or an iPhone X
Portrait style means that the subject is in focus and the background is out of focus. The same effect that is produced by a DSLR camera using depth of field settings.

 
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I didn’t miss my DSLR camera!

In packing for our month in Europe, I reluctantly left my Canon Digital Rebel T3i behind. See our video where we talked about what we packed to take with us.

I love my Canon, it takes great photos, but, so does my iPhone 7+ and the iPhone is a lot smaller! Besides, I’ve always believed that what makes the most difference in the quality of a photo is a few seconds spent with good editing tools after the photo is taken. I believed that back with Picasa, and I believe it now with Google Photos and Snapseed. I have no ambition to be a professional photographer, that’s a completely different story. I just want to capture my memories and make them nice to look at.

We had 4 cameras with us even without the Canon! My phone, an iPhone 7+, Jim’s phone, a Pixel XL, Jim’s Samsung Camera 2, and Jim’s GoPro video camera. I enjoyed having only one camera, no decisions to make about which one to use, just learn all I could about using the iPhone. The only time I even thought about my Canon was when we were on a train or a boat. It is so much faster to grab the Canon, put it to your eye, twist the lens to zoom in and snap. That can all be accomplished in one smooth motion, 3 seconds top. With the phone, there is always a lot of fumbling to get to the right screen, squinting to see the image on the screen before snapping, and changing your grip to be able to snap the picture. I’m sure I missed a few good shots because I was too slow, but I still got plenty of nice photos. Here are a few, with notes. Many of these would not be possible with the SLR – e.g. in-camera Panoramas, selfies, animated gifs. See lots more (445 to be exact!) in our Album.

1. Duomo in Florence, Italy

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iPhone 7+, Google Photos crop, auto, pop

2. Water lily in gardens at Florence, Italy

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iPhone 7+, Snapseed HDR-Scape filter

3. Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany Italy

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Pixel XL – panorama with a run-around-behind subject Smile

4. Begonias on our terrace at El Santucce

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iPhone 7+ using Portrait mode

5. Assisi

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iPhone 7+ Snapseed HDR-scape, text added with Snapseed

6. St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy at night

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iPhone 7+ – selfie (front lens) so good at night exposure. no editing other than crop

7. Venice

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Samsung Camera 2 – panorama with Google Photos Pop

8. Kayaking on the Grand Canal in Venice

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iPhone 7+ on a selfie stick

9. Jim at Miramare castle, Trieste Italy

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iPhone 7+ using Portrait mode

10. Boat ride in Ljubljana, Slovenia

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iPhone 7+ Edited in Snapseed, HDR-scape filter, Text added

11. Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

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iPhone 7+ Live Photo, converted to animated gif with Motion Stills app

12. Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

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Samsung Camera 2 on Waterfall setting!

 

Smartphone Photography Workshops

We will be teaching 2 sessions of our Smartphone Photography workshops at
the FMCA Convention in Indianapolis next week. If you’ll be there, come find
us in the Info center and sign up!

Thursday July 13, 2017

 

 

 

 

 

Friday July 14, 2017