Smartphone Photography

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[MIUI PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM]

PHOTOGRAPHY COMPOSITION BASIC

Good day! As i was browsing photos from the competition i noticed some of them dont apply proper composition. Composing your photos properly can give more impact to the viewer. I hope this thread will somehow give guidance to Mi photographers :)sorry if some photos have watermarks on them. i just pulled these photos from my flickr.

as they say "Know the RULES before Breaking them" Rule of Thirds

Keep your subjects on the line shown. By doing this will give appeal to your photo rather than keeping your subject in the middle.

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MIUI Photography Lesson

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Simplicity

Less is more. use less element in the photo to keep the subject the center of your attention. Keep away from cluttered background that will distract the viewer from the subject.

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Framing

By adding frame to the shot it will give perspective to he main focus of the photograph.

in this photo i used the tree/ branches as frame

here the main focus is the blurred gear which conveys movement. and i use the clock faceplate as frame

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Keep It Levelled

Keep your horizon straight and place it just on or just below the red line. heres a comparison of two shots of same photo.

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the first photo is more pleasing to look at. Leading lines

use lines that will lead the eye to the subject

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the ceiling and floor lines leads your eyes to the altar

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the bridge and floor lines leads your eyes to the couple on the bridge

the space on the petals creates line that leads to the bee. I used my canon camera on taking these photos.

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LESSON 1:SMARTPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY

BASICS

Hello MIUIers, welcome to the inaugural post of MIUI Photogrpahy Classroom! About 3 weeks ago, we ran a give your feedback contest. the response was tremendous and we have taken note of all your feedback. Be rest assured that we will roll out content based on what you have asked for. In the meantime, here's the first.

A smartphone camera is like any other camera. What you need to do to get keeper shots is actually similar. However, many people in their excitment, tend to just whip out the phone and shoot without giving any thoughts to how the photo will eventually appear. A quick glance at your own social media feed is evidence. Poorly composed shots aside, most shots are blur and washed out (or over saturated). Here are some tips that will put you on the way to better photographs.

Learn how to operate your smartphone camera

properly.

Many smartphones have a shortcut button to open the camera app. The MIUI ROM has it, once you activate this in Settings - Buttons.

Knowing how to operate your camera properly is very important. You won't want to be fiddling with the camera while the photo opportunity slips away. If you have a Xiaomi Mi 3, you can hop on down to this postto learn a thing or 2 about the default camera app.

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Hold the camera properly.

Remember, I mentioned earlier that a blur photo is most guilty of tear inducing social feeds? Well, you do look very cool when you take photos with only 1 hand. However, do take note that the result will be the direct opposite. The phone, which is usually a thin slab, is already quite hard to hold steady. Do aim to take your photos 2 handed. You can try this method of holding, keeping your elbows tucked into close to your body.

My son's hand is small, but an average adult will be able to use the left hand (finger/thumb) to touch and focus, while using the right thumb to touch and release the shutter. This 2 handed approach ensures a fair bit of stability in camera operation. You should also take note of your breathing while releasing the shutter. Quick rule, breathe in when composing and focusing. Breathe out gently and touch the shutter release at the end of the breath. (Our NS boys from Singapore will tell you that this method is also good for target practice.) The purpose of my example is to emphasise the important of keeping the camera steady. Do what works best for you. While we are talking about holding the camera properly, it is important to note thatyou should always try to take your photos in the brightest conditions (outdoors,daytime) possible. This ensures that the shutter speed will be high and further reduces the chance of blur photos.

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Our camera spends alot of time in pockets and handbags. When we hold the phone to use, the oil from our skin transfers to the phone. When it goes into the pocket/handbag, it picks up dust. Unlike a proper camera, there is a lens cover to protect the lens. The smartphone? Nothing. There is a clear cover over the camera lens. To get it clean, simply wipe it with a clean tissue, or if you have no time, the end of your tee shirt will do nicely. Or if you are really desperate, rub the clear cover over your clothes/pants/any cloth material a few times. The aim is to get rid of any dust or grime that's on it.

Concentrate on taking the photo.

I've mentioned it before in another article. Do not use the digital zoom on your phone. Go home and crop the photo instead. Also, do not use any built-in filters. Agabuilt-in, you can do it at home durbuilt-ing the photo editbuilt-ing step. Concentrate on achieving a sharp and properly exposed photo, because no amount of editing will fix a blur photo. Plus, a poorly exposed photo will take a lot of effort to correct during the editing phase. If you need a free photo editor, pixlr will do quite well.

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Photography is a way of expressing yourself. In this day and age, an 8GB SD card can store hundreds of high resolution photos. What excuse do you have to not have a photo(s) of something that you want a photo of? Unlike the days of film where you really need to plan and consider all aspects of a photo before releasing the shutter. Now, you just snap away and IMMEDIATELY check the results and snap away again, until you are satisfied. Those that fail your inspection, you simply delete. So, do not restrict yourself to the Golden ratio, Rule of the thirds, blah blah blah... Try out different perspectives and compositions, you will surprise even yourself. At the end of the day, enjoy what you do and have fun. Lots and lots of it! Now let's see what other MIUI-ers think are the most important Smartphone Photography Basics:

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LESSON 2: NAIL THAT BOKEH SHOT WITH

A SMARTPHONE CAMERA!

Today, let's talk about Bokeh. A technique that by its execution makes for wonderful photos, because a sharply focused subject stands out beautifully against a blurred background.

Before we go on, let us take a look at a classic Bokeh shot. I just picked it off randomly from the net.

"Josefina with Bokeh" by carlosluis -http://www.flickr.com/photos/paseodelsur/51805888/.

When we talk about Bokeh, we are actually describing the way a camera lens blurs parts of a photo in a pleasing manner to the eye. Therefore it is safe to say, the shallower the depth of field, the better the Bokeh.

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I'm showing this illustration, because many newcomers to photography tend to mistake a large aperture for a large f number. It's a reciprocal, so it's actually the opposite.

Xiaomi Mi 4 f/1.8, Xiaomi Mi 3 f/2.2, Redmi Note f/2.2, Redmi 1S f/2.2

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done, on a smartphone, with apertures barely bigger than a pinhole. Even at the biggest aperture, the smartphone's aperture is barely bigger than a DSLR at f/16. So how do we make those Bokeh shots with a smartphone?

There are a few ways actually. however, I'll touch upon one way that does not need much set-up and allows you the quickest possible way to nail that Bokeh shot using your smartphone camera.

Let's take a look at this illustration, which I've borrowed from Cameratechnica.

Based on the illustration, we can see that less (depth of field) DOF = less area in focus. To achieve that Bokeh shot, we want to keep as small a section in focus (less DOF) and as large a section infront and behind the subject out of focus (OOF). To achieve that without an app (fake looking) or a DSLR (large aperture, easy to achieve), we try to do a couple of things.

1. Close in on the subject. Take a step (maybe a few) towards your subject. Bring the smartphone in as close as you can. If you are taking a macro shot, switch to manual focus (if it is available on your phone, Mi3 example #7 lets you to set the Focus Mode)

and set focus to be at the nearest focus and simply move the smartphone forward and back to get your focus. Do not worry about composition. You can crop and edit later. Concentrate on getting the focus tack sharp.

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subject that will also be in focus. Move around, shift things, make sure there's no distraction in the photo. Most of all, use a background that's a distance from the subject and since it is far away from your focus point, it will be OOF and thus give you acceptable Bokeh.

In this example, taken with my Mi3, I've purposely place the Powerbank about 2m from the wall behind it. This guarantees that when I focus on the Powerbank, the wall behind will definitely be OOF! You can try that outdoors too, just make sure that whatever you have as the background, it is some distance from the subject which you are focusing on. Take a look at the next example. BTW, the hairy thing in focus are spinach flowers.

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You can do that for portrait shots too! Just ask your subject to come towards you and away from his/her background.

If you noticed, between the 2 examples used above, the first photo looks nicer, because it has a more uniform background. In the second outdoor photo, the background is more distracting. This takes away some impact of your photo because the viewer's eyes tend to wonder towards high contrast areas in the photo. A good point to bear in mind when taking photos. A good example is the next photo I took of a butterfly. The background is quite uniform, which helps to make the butterfly standout from the background.

With this in mind, I would like to remind you, that it is a little hard to achieve a Bokeh shot if the outdoor lights are bright. This is because the camera will choose a small aperture, to prevent overexposure. A way to get around this problem, is to manually choose an ISO on your

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smartphone that is the lowest. Again, this option may not be available on your smartphone. But if you are using the Mi3, it is option #8 in the settings.

Go out there now and shoot shoot shoot! Remember, "film" is free. You can always delete what you don't want, to free up space on your smartphone.

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LESSON 3: MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY, THE

SMARTPHONE WAY

A good day to all! Before the start of today's lesson, I would like to introduce a guest writer for the MPC series. He is non other than@jenz1! I'm sure many of you have be enthralled by his photographic skills using just a puny smartphone. In the spirit of sharing, Jenz1 will show us unselfishly, how he makes the photos happen. So without further ado, read on for the fantastic Macro Photography, the Smartphone way Part 1!

If you're interested in sharing your expertise with us, feel free to contact me!

- allakazoo

Of all the photography styles, I enjoy macro photography the most. Macro photography has a way of making ordinary things look extraordinary. It shifts our perspective on the world and the subjects we shoot, it makes mundane things seem fascinating and amazingly cool. You will never run out of subjects when you favour macro photography.

What is Macro-Photography? Simply put, they are images taken from a close distance, with a very shallow focal length, showing great detail and often isolating the subject from the background.

Here’s a sample:

(All photos in this thread is taken by @jenz1 with his Mi 3.)

Got you interested? Let’s take a closer look, shall we? Pun intended : )

There are two ways we can take macro photos using our mobile phone. The first, is by using the macro mode on our phone setting and the second, is via a macro-lens attachment. Both can be used interchangeably while shooting a subject and will definitely turn-up some interesting photos for you.

In this 2-part tutorial, I hope to pass along not just my technical knowledge, but also my passion for macro photography.

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There are some basic rules when shooting macros, this is true for both with and without macro lens attachment.

Keep it steady

In macro mode, your slightest movement is amplified. You’ll need to prevent camera shake as much as possible. Here are 3 suggestions to keep your photos nice and sharp.

1. Before pressing the shutter button, inhale and then exhale slowly till your lungs are empty. Hold still. In that moment before your next inhale cycle, release the shutter.

2. Prop your elbow or finger on something sturdy so your arms don’t move from the weight of your phone. Tucking in your elbows against your body also helps.

3. Get a Tripod. There are now tripods being sold with mobile phone holders or mounts and are relatively cheap. This is the best and steadiest solution. The Best Time to Shoot

As a rule of thumb, (for outdoor settings) it’s always best to shoot during early morning, around 6 – 8 AM and afternoon, 4 – 6 PM. During this time, insects are at their most calm state. They are less agitated and would almost always welcome you to take their photographs. For indoor settings though, you should be more concerned with lighting than anything else. Macro shots works best with good lighting conditions and there’s no problem with that outdoors, but indoors, such is not the case.

Places and Objects to Shoot

There is a certain feeling to macro photography that is zen-like and intimate. It gets you close to your subject and lets you see all the details and makes you appreciate small wonders all around us. A garden is a good place to start and flowers are a good subject. They offer great colors and variations. Plus, they keep absolutely still!

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with macro lens attachment

Macro Photography via Macro Mode (no lens attachment)

Before we dive into macro-photography, let us first understand some basic features available to us on our phone. To get started, Launch you camera app, hit the menu key (3 horizontal stripes) and go to Settings>Advance settings and turn off simple mode. Hit the back button twice and you are back to the view finder. You will now notice a few changes when you hit the menu button. Find the [+] icon, that’s where you’ll find Macro Mode. Tap on that and you’re ready to go. I usually keep other settings at auto and just post-process after.

Macro mode has a limited range and can only focus on an object around 5-3 inches away from you. Closer than 3 inches IS possible but the camera would have a hard time focusing. But you’re welcome to try ^__^ One thing good about the MIUI camera is that it has a 6.06x maximum zoom. Which is actually quite rare for a phone. Needless to say though, it really not advisable to use digital zoom, but in some rare cases this can

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be an advantage. I will discuss this later. Macro Mode Outdoors

Shooting outdoors is the most ideal since you won’t lack for subjects, (insects, flowers, dew drops, leaves, twigs, grass, soil, everything is fair game) and above all, there’s sufficient light courtesy of the sun ^__^ Here are a sample of a macro mode only shot (no zoom. cropped via Pixlr)

There’s no particular skills necessary here, just get up close, focus on your subject and shoot. Of course, there is still composition, but I’ll save that for the next tutorial (teehee). Right now it would be best to just shoot whatever you fancy.

Shooting Indoors

Now this is where It gets a bit challenging. Indoors lacks sufficient light. But there are things you can do indoors that would still be quite fulfilling like these sample images:

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Of course you are not limited to just office objects, you can also shoot food using macro mode and get some pleasant images. Just don’t forget. When Indoors, good lightning is imperative.

As you may have heard countless times, digital zoom IS crap. I would loosely quote Uncle Ben here: “With great zoom, comes great noise.” Hehe. But as I’ve mentioned earlier, there are rare cases where you can actually use it. Here is a shot of a jumper spider, it just dropped on my work station, moseyed around like I wasn’t there. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my macro lens handy so I did what I had to do. I shot with a digital zoom.

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Macro Mode and 6.06x digital zoom

My Mi3 exceeded my expectations here. For an indoor shot with low light and at 6.06x zoom, It turned-out pretty well.

By now, you would have figured out that you can touch the part of the screen where you want to focus. This works great for large subjects like flowers or animals but can be pretty tricky if your subject is thin like vines or very small insects.

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The trick is to first focus on a leaf or a large object which is at a distance similar to your subject. In this case, I would first focus on the leaf on the left, then slowly shift the camera to the spider’s web. It takes a while for the camera to change focus, so we can use that to our advantage here. Well, that’s about it, for this tutorial. Next week, I’ll talk a little about composition in macro photography and shooting with a Macro Lens attachment (Yey!). This is where it gets really amazing folks, so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading!

Just to whet your appetite, here are some samples of macro photographs with the macro lens attachment. Enjoy and stay tuned for Part 2! ^__^

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Yes, the conclusion of @jenz1's 2 part series on Macro Photography is here! I shall not dwell too much and get on with it. Shall we?

-allakazoo

Macro Photography is my swag

(All photos in this thread are taken by my Mi 3) Macro Photography – Part 2

We're back with another lesson in macro photography. As you might recall from the previous tutorial, there are two ways to we can shoot macro through our mobile device. One is through the macro-mode option in

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camera setting and the other with a macro lens attachment. We're done with the first one. Now, we're going to get close, really-really close to our subject. Ready? Let's get started!

In this lesson, we will need an additional attachment for our phone, good thing Xiaomi has manufactured one for us - the Xiaomi Wide Angle/Macro Camera Lens.

With a macro lens attachment, I usually shoot with Macro mode on. The camera app focuses faster in this mode than when it is set to auto as it will not focus on further distances.

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Here are a few shots taken with a Macro Lens attachment. All other settings are on Auto.

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To be able to take this kind of shots, you would need to get really, really close to your subject. Like 1-2 inch close. Depending on the how large (or small) your subject is.

There's a bit of a disadvantage though when using auto-focus and macro mode. The camera tends to favour brighter or larger objects to focus on rather than what you really want focused. If this should happen to you though, It would be best to switch to Manual Focus mode.

Manual Focus Mode

In manual mode, it’s best to slide the slider to zero (0) to get a shallow depth of field (DOF). In this mode, you need to find the optimal distance from your subject to get a sharp focus, again this will depend on the size of your subject. Try to experiment with a small inanimate subject first to familiarize yourself with the distance needed. As a Rule-of-Thumb, for subject half an inch and smaller, get as close as a quarter of an inch. And for larger subjects, around an inch or two.

Know when to use Digital zoom

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and sometimes add unnecessary noise. But during bright and sunny days, it can be pretty useful if you really want to see the intricate details and patterns on your subject like the eyes on this dragon fly for example,

Photo taken with a macro lens attachment and 2x zoom

However, this is more of an exemption than a rule. It’s still best to shoot at normal, then just crop the picture to your liking.

Other Considerations

Because of the shallow DOF we work on in macro photography (especially with a macro lens) we have the added ability of creating very pleasant bokeh not possible with other shooting styles. Again some example:

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Techniques to Get Great Bokeh

As an added bonus, (I was inspired by @allakazoo’s bokeh lesson) I’m going to share some techniques of my own. This is how I get nice looking bokeh (I know, it a great contrast to how I look haha!)

Technique 1

Technique 2

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Of course you’re not just limited to these background. Wet leaves and sparkling water gives great bokeh. You can also try to attach your macro lens to your phone and just use it to look at different textures and backgrounds to see what they would look like before using it as a backdrop for your next photo shoot.

Conclusion

Macro photography gives a novice an almost 100% success rate of creating beautiful and amazing photos. Considering that the things you will shoot are mostly underappreciated and invisible to the naked eye. With that said our mobile cameras still aren’t perfect and some post-processing can give your photos that extra “uhmp.”

(For the benefit of full disclosure, some of my photos presented above aren’t SOOC (Straight-Out-Of-Camera). Some I have post processed. These are some of the apps I use: Pixlr Express, Snapseed and Perfectly Clear. I’d love to share some tips and tricks regarding these apps but I’ll save these discussions for later XP.)

As a parting note: All the great equipment in the world can never really help you take great photos if you don’t practice often. So go out there,

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If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you're not out

there, you'll only hear about it.

– Jay Maisel

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LESSON 4: MAKING A TIMELAPSE VIDEO

WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE

Yes, it is time for another installment of PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM! What we want to talk about today is,

How to make a Timelapse Video

using your Xiaomi Smartphone. I have decided to make my timelapse

video using the Redmi Note. However, before we proceed, let's talk about what we need to do/prepare to make a timelapse.

Equipment needed

 Redmi Note (smartphone*)  Tripod

 Mobile phone bracket (see photo)

* I need to point out, that on our Xiaomi phones, there is a timelapse function that allows us to take photos at regular intervals and stitch them into a video directly (idiot proof). I'm no expert in phones, so I'm not sure

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if it is a feature on other phones. But hey! This is a MIUI forum, so I'm assuming most of us here are Xiaomi phone users?

Some things to think about

Although a timelapse typically lasts a few seconds, maybe a minute or two, the time you need to prepare and then execute is typically quite long. For example, a video is typically 30fps. So, you need 30 photos to make 1 second of video. Now, if the timelapse video setting requires a photo every 3 seconds, then you need 90 seconds to make a 1 second video. Now that you have an idea how tedious making a timelapse video is, you will appreciate it better.

The next thing you need to consider before starting to make a timelapse is power. If the phone needs to be on video camera mode for two hours, you better make sure you have enough battery power. I can guaranteed you that with the screen on for the next two hours, the battery drain will be severe. Don't say I never warn you...

Having said that, I will also make sure that the phone's setting for Display - Sleep is on Never sleep. I know, it will continue to capture frames even if the screen goes to sleep. But somehow, I just feel more secure when I can monitor the video capture process. Anyway, I usually make sure I have more than 50% charge on my phone. If not, I'll charge it before I begin.

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Is that all? Nope. Don't forget that this is a phone you are using. Is the phone you are going to use, your primary phone? Will someone call you midway thru the video session? Now that's definitely gonna mess up your video for sure. So, do remember to turn ON Aeroplane mode before you start!

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Ok, you are almost ready to start shooting. I have on a few occasions, been slightly irriated, when the video camera hunts for focus. Turns out, the Focus mode on the video camera is at CAF (Continuous Auto Focus). So, before you begin, go into settings for the Video Camera and change the Focus mode to Tap. This will ensure that the focus is fixed and will not change during the entire session. But if your timelapse is of a flower blooming and you need to go close up, then CAF is a better bet. Try it out and give your comments here.

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Post editing

So, the video is done and you are ready to show the world your work. What's next? To make your video more appealing, you need to edit the video you have a little.

Anyway, the file my Redmi Note outputs, is a video file. As it is a timelapse, there's no sound recorded. Only photos stitched together. But, to make it nicer and more appealing to others, transfer the file to your computer and use an video editing tool to add music and stuff like titles, captions, credits, etc. I'm a Windows user, so most of the time, I use what's freely available. The Windows Live Movie maker is perfect for what I need.

All said and done, the following is a typical product of what I take. Scenery timelapse. I'm planning a sunset or sunrise timelapse soon. I've also been very impressed with flower timelapse videos. Will definitely do one too. :) I'm still feeling around and learning. So do give me some pointers if you have any to share. Thank you!

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NEW INFORMATION

Since this article was published, many have commented that they would like to do the same on the Mi 3. So having updated my Mi 3 this evening, I decided to make a timelapse using the Mi3. I'm no longer running the MIUI 6 Beta ROM, having moved to the MIUI 6 Dev ROM. The version I'm running is 4.9.14. So here goes.

First, you need to make some settings on your Mi 3.

In the video camera, Slide to the right for Options and tap on Fast-motion. Go back to the Video camera, and tap on the gear at the top for Settings. Select your Time lapse interval. OK! You are all set and ready.

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LESSON 5: POST-PROCESSING: MAKING

GOOD PHOTOS BETTER

This post was edited by jenz1 at 14:52, Oct-08-2014

UPDATE 10.08.2014

Congratulation to our L6 winner, @Iakwbos.

Good

job

here

!

Also thank you to everyone who participated. You guys are awesome!

You can also see outstanding photos submitted here

.

After the skip from last week, were back with another installment of PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM! Yey! But before we begin, I know some of you are wondering: "Why is Allakazoo's name spelled J-E-N-Z-1? And whats with the stupid grin on his face?" Sorry to disappoint you but obviously Im not allakazoo hehe...

Anyway, Im taking over for this week's tutorial and going to share to you some tips on how to give your #miphotos that extra oomhp!

So without further ado, here is Lesson #6,

POST-PROCESSING - MAKING GOOD

PHOTOS BETTER

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First, lets set something straight. Post-processing your photos isn't cheating and definitely not a crime (unless over-done and edited way too much.) Every Pro Photographer worth his salt knows that post-processing is essential to make a photo "pop." Much more so with mobile phone photographers, Post-processing compensates for the weaknesses in our cameras.

If you happen to be a member of photography group or chanced upon one. You might come across the word SOOC or

straight-out-of-camera. This means that a photo was captured, saved and shared as is.

That's it. But let's face it, a PERFECT picture isn't easy to come by does it? In this lesson I'm going to teach you how to use a FREE app called Snapseed. So head on over to the Playstore and download it. Don't worry, I'll wait. Done?Let's get to it then.

Example #1

1. Select the Picture: Open Snapseed and tap on the camera icon with the plus sign found at the top right corner. Choose the photo you want to edit from the gallery. (You can also take a photo directly from the app, but I like to use the MIUI camera so I just pull the image into the app from the gallery.)

2. Crop for the Right Composition: The first thing I usually determine is whether I want to crop my images or not. But more often I find myself cropping to improve composition and framing. Tap the "CROP" module then use the icons on the left to choose the aspect ratio and the icon on the right to toggle between landscape and portrait. When you're done, tap on the "check" on the lower right. (I'll be refering to this check as "OK" from here on out)

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3. Rotate to Get the Right Angle: I also try rotating the image a bit to see if it would look better from a different angle. To do that, tap on STRAIGHTEN.

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4. Before v.s. After: You can always check how your image looks like before and after applying your choices just by tapping on the image.

5. Automatic: Before applying any further tweaks, I always try the "Automatic" option. Usually Snapseed does a pretty good job of figuring out what needs to be done.

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6. Edit it Yourself! Fortunately for us, the image didn't improve much with AUTOMATIC selected. (Yes, FORTUNATELY. Because if it did, there's no point in continuing with this tutorial. Haha.) Moving on…

7. Tune Image Module: The bulk of my post-processing is done in the "TUNE IMAGE" module. Here, you can increase/decrease brightness, ambiance, contrast,saturation, shadows and warmth (or white balance). For the benefit of those who aren't familiar with these controls, here's a brief description of what they do and how they affect your photos:

 Brightness - Swiping to the right brightens the photo, while swiping to the left darkens it.

 Ambiance - The Ambiance control is a special type of contrast that controls the balance of light in a photo. It can be used to balance backlit photos or to accentuate contrasts throughout your photo. Swipe right for photos where the subject is darker than the background. Swipe left to increase the contrast of dark objects and create a slight glow around darker objects. This is especially helpful in photos that are slightly flat.

 Contrast - Swiping to the right increases the contrast, while swiping to the left reduces the contrast.

 Saturation - Swiping to the right increases saturation, or vibrancy, of the colors. Swiping to the left decreases saturation. A value of -100 will result in a photo completely without color.

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 Warmth - Use the Warmth control to adjust the color balance of the image. This is helpful if the image was shot in a difficult lighting situation. Moving the control to the left will cool the image, making it bluer and less orange. Moving to the right will warm the image, making it more orange and less blue. At the extreme ends of the control are the ability to correct for fluorescent and other more extreme colorcasts.

8. Just Scroll: It may take some figuring out how to use the app but once you get the hang of it, it becomes very simple. When you're in a module, just scroll up or down to choose from the available options and scroll right (to increase) or left (to decrease) the levels.

9. Brightness: With brightness selected, I scrolled right 'til I reached the brightness I want at +14.

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10. Ambiance, Saturation and Warmth: Scrolling up and down, I quickly set the Ambiance to -32, Saturation to +7 and Warmth to +15.

11. Details make all the difference: I'm a bit satisfied at this point but I wanted my dog's fur and the grass to be more detailed so I go to "DETAILS" to fine tune the photo's clarity. You can tap on the magnifying glass to see the difference in increasing or decreasing the options. So, inside DETAILS, I first choose "Sharpening." My subject is a bit blurry at +0 so I scrolled to the right and found +100 to be good (you can slide this down a bit. I don't normally go this high unless absolutely necessary.) After that, I scrolled down to "Structure" and set this to + 39 to give the fur some texture.

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12. Final Adjustments: We're almost done, but since this is kind of a portrait shot, let's add a tweak one last time. So swipe on the modules and select "CENTER FOCUS" and tap on the icon with a star and selectPortrait 2. You can still adjust this by tapping on the image and scrolling up or down and left to right.

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13. Done! The last thing to do now is to save your masterpiece so hit the on the top bar. Saving… Done. Congrats!

BEFORE

AFTER

Example #2

For this example, I'm going to assume you've already got the hang of navigating inside Snapseed. So this would just be a quick rundown of my editing process. I know what you're thinking: "This photos already looks

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good as is, why edit it still?" You'll gonna ruin it you say? Well we'll know soon enough.

1. Automatic first: In this photo, I used HDR mode on my MIUI camera to bring out more details but I find my subject a bit dark for my taste. So I open Snapseed and tapped on 'AUTOMATIC". I'm satisfied with how it brought out the clouds so I tap OK and move on.

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2. Selective Adjust: Next I go to "SELECTIVE ADJUST", tapped the plus(+) icon at the bottom and tapped on the face. Now you can see a letter "B" inside a blue circle (I’ll refer to this as Selective Adjustment Point or SAP.) You can scroll on that and adjust brightness, contrast and saturation.

3. Make it better: I went ahead and brought the brightness to +58, then created another SAP and placed it on the arms. I gave it a +32 brightness. Tip: You can make the area you want to selectively adjust bigger or smaller by using a two finger swipe.

4. Different Ratio: I'm a bit satisfied with the aspect ratio andhow my subject is composed so I go to CROP, chose 3:2 aspect ratio, cropped it according to the rule-of-thirds then clicked OK.

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5. Drama: But, I'm not quite satisfied yet, so I go to DRAMA, tap on the star at the bottom, chose Bright 1

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6. Adjust again: I find it too bright so I tap on the image and scroll left to bring the filter strength to +50. Then scrolled up to Saturation and brought it down to -22. Now all that's left is to...

7. Done! Save the image to my gallery by hitting SAVE and I'm done!

Now doesn't that look nicer?

There are a lot more things you can do with Snapseed so I suggest you experiment with it. There are also tons of other photo editing apps on the market to give your #miphotos that extra oomph. Listed below are few of my favorites apps:

 Pixlr Express  Aviary

 After Focus  Perfectly Clear

Do take note that with hundreds of photo editing apps and thousands of filters available at your disposal, it's easy to go over-board with the editing and effects. It's nice to experiment, but there's a difference between POST-PROCESSING and PHOTO MANIPULATION (That'll be next.)

The key to post-processing is bringing-out the best while keeping your photos looking natural as possible. Just keep it simple. keep it clean.

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LESSON 7: DIY HOME STUDIO SHOOT

PART 1

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[PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM]

CLOUDS IN THE STUDIO

Good day!!!

I’m going to teach you how to capture this photo.

It's exciting because you cannot predict what kind of figure or shape you will capture. In a studio setup, you can control how much light will hit your subject. Also the direction where you want the light to hit. In this setup, I use 14 watts compact flourescent light. I want it not too bright because my subject is not the glass but th clouds inside the glass.

Its is very simple here are the things you need. - Wine glass

- Clean water - Lamp

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- Milk or any colored, non staining liquid. but i prefer milk so i can color it after in photoshop

- Mi phone and piston for trigger

- Phone stand. improvise as long as it is steady

and cooling fan :) its really hot with the lamp shade ON.

That's how my setup look like. After setting it up. Go to your stock camera and set AF andmanual exposure.

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When using AF mode, be sure to focus the brightess area in frame to make the background consitent black all around. By doing this, the white milk will be highlighted and it will be easy coloring the picture in photoshop.

After doing the steps above, you are ready to shoot. Place a ballpen inside to make sure where you drop the milk. It should be in focus.

This is how you should compose your picture. Secure your phone in your tripod or phone stand.

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After that hold your piston volume racker (set it in headphone as camera trigger) then drop a spoonful of milk and CLICK!!!

You will have one chance everytime you shoot. Because you need to refill new water after each shoot. because a few drops of milk will make the water murky. So be sure to time your clicks. Heres the result.

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This photo was edited in photoshop. I adjusted the levels and contrast.

Time to COLORIZE

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Open the photo you have taken in photoshop then create level adjustment layer.

Play around with the level adjustments. The goal is to make the background to solid black without loosing too much details. Also by sliding the white arrow to the left will make the milk brighter.

Then make a contrast adjustment layer.

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Slide the contrast bar to make the milk have more depth. Also the background will be more black.

When you are satisfied with the result CTRL+SHIFT+E (Flatten) or go to Layer>Flatten Image

You can clear up bubbles from the glass or smudge by using spot healing tool.

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The fun part COLORING

Create new layer

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Choose the brush tool

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While on the new layer you have created and after selecting the color you

like you are ready to color the picture.

Just click and drag the mouse on the area you want to color. If the color is

too bright decrease the opacity.

You can choose as many colors as you like, just be sure to color only the milk

If you need to erase some color just use the eraser tool. it is two item below

the brush tool.

After coloring, flatten the image then save your work. dont forget to save it as JPEG (under the dropdown menu on extension file .jpg).

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I colored the glass bottom to make reflection of colors inside the glass. Mi CLOUD :)

I colored this with different shades of oranges. Dark orange on the inner part of milk to create depth or 3d effect

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DIY Home Studio Shoot

Part 2

Part 1 of my tutorial on DIY Home Studio Shoot introduced the basic of setting up your own home studio. Continuing where I left off, I am back with part 2 of my tutorial to share with our users how to position your mobile phone (Camera) to achieve various perspectives of photography using the same object.

I will be sharing with users 3 basic perspective shoot in this tutorial using the same figure in the same position.

These perspective shots are : 1. Frontal Shot

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3. Bottom – Up Shot

Here are my tools & logistical requirement 1. 1 X Xiaomi Mi3 or any capturing device

2. 1 X Lightweight Tripod With Mobile Phone Holder 3. 2 X Single Colour Backing

4. 1 X Object ( For Me, That is my Optimus PrimeFigure) 5. 2 X User Manning The Camera

6. Natural Day Lighting Condition (Sunlight) The Frontal Shot

The frontal shot is where the lens of the capturing device is being placed in parallel with the object. The photo resulting from this shotis similar to what a normal person would see when standing or sitting straight up and looking straight at a specific object. This is where the whole object is in focus of the user's sight giving it a equal and balanced feel.

(Here's Looking Straight At You) The Top-Down Shot

The top-down shot is where the lens of the capturing device is being placed above the object. The photo resulting from this shot gives the user a perspective similar to that of an aerial view of the object. This is where the top of the object is heavier in focus as compared to the bottom of the object.

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(A Bird’s Eye View of Things) The Bottom-Up Shot

The bottom-up shot is where the lens of the capturing device is being placed below the object. The photo resulting from this shot gives the user a perspective similar to that of looking at plane flying across the sky or watching a full on a clear night sky. This is where the bottom of the object is heavier in focus as compared to the top of the object.

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(A Majestic and Gigantic Look Of Things)

I hope by sharing these tutorials with our shutterbugs here, I hope to see more interesting and better photos to come. So Shutter bugs, start your shuttering.

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[PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM] L10

-PANNING: THE ART OF MOTION IN

PHOTOGRAPHY

Hey MIUIers! I'm back again with a "NEW" lesson for the PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM! (Okay... okay. This isn't really new since some of you might have already read this during the MIUI Photography Team Contest.)

Don't worry though as I've included a bit more detail here to help newbies and would-be action photographers to take great panning shots. So here is Lesson #10!

Panning: The Art of Motion in

Photography

I have searched the forum far and wide to see if this has been discussed or at least mentioned here before. Just as I expected though, nothing turned-up. There's a good reason why I expected to turn-up empty handed with my search. Panning shots are never easy. It's not something one can do without practice, patience and thorough grasp of the basics.

No one can guarantee a perfect panning. Even pro photographers with SLRs struggle sometimes. Panning is not about movement, it IS movement, and doing it with a mobile phone makes it the more challenging but all the more rewarding!

In concept, panning is easy, set the shutter speed to slow, follow your subject in its plane of motion, tap the shutter and you're done. But it's how you handle the detail of the concept that determines whether you get a great image or not.

Where to Start?

This is pretty basic but would greatly help you grasp the concept of panning. 1. Whip out your phone and fire-up the camera

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2. 2. Get your Mi Bunny and Focus the camera on Mitu (Oh.. don't have a Mi Bunny? Too bad. Want one? Join some contests here in the forum and you just might win one!)

3. 3. While the camera is locked-on Mitu, rotate your whole body to the right (keeping Mitu in focus.) Tap the shutter button midway through your rotation and don't take the focus off of him until you complete your rotation.

4.

5. See Mi fly!

6. Things to consider when doing panning shots with a mobile phone:

7. - We can't control shutter speed (SLRs have have it easy) 8. - Continuous Focus is very limited and lags at worst

9. - Lighting conditions determine how harsh or soft your blur will be 10.- There's a significant lag between shutter press and the phone

actually taking the image.

11.Knowing these weaknesses, we can more understand how to approach and do panning, the mobile way:

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12.

13.

1. Shoot when It's dark (or at least a bit)

14.Since we can't control shutter speed. One way to force the camera to allow for a slower speed is to take photos at dawn, night or early morning (but making sure that your subject will fall on a well lit/bright area) Note: you can also try to set your camera to HHT mode or HDR

mode to force the camera to shoot at a slower shutter speed but I won't guarantee it. )

15.

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17.In panning, you strive to have something in the picture sharp, it's not necessary to have every bit of your subject in focus. Just enough sharpness to hold a viewer's eye.

18.

19.

3. Pre-Focus

20.I saw this biker about a 50 meters from where I stood. I anticipated how close he'll be to me when he pass. So focused my camera on the pavement about 3 meters away, then waited for the biker to enter my view finder then just followed along his motion path then took the snap.

21.

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23.The farther the subject is from you the slower it will appear to be going and the easier for you to follow and pan. But the closer the subject is to the background, the sentation of movement will be more pronounced

24.

25. My son doing his best Master Chief impression 26.

5. Also a matter of Backround

27.The usual idea of having a clean background in other photography techniques doesn't apply to panning. It doesn't matter if you have a whole lot of stuff back there. It's going to be in motion. The more stuff -- the more motion

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28.

29.

6. When Shooting People...

30.... Keep at least one face sharp. This is actually an accidental shot. I was following the woman on my phone camera. (No, I'm not stalking her XP) she was walking oh so slowly when two kids walked by. The result..

31.

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32.

33.

7. Practice

34.It's always best to pratice the techniques and choices you make to shoot panning. It's good to start with something with a linear motion like cars out on a highway, or ask someone to run or ride a bike by you. Or ask a kid to do some jumping like the above pictures. They'll love you for it!

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36.

8. Your not limited to Cars and People

37.You can also try panning on animals. I snuk-up on this chicken. Focused my camera on her then chased after her. All the while keeping the camera focused (I'm so evil sometimes haha)

38.

39.

9. And of course -- SELFIES!

Panning makes for some interesting selfies hahaha!

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial. If you have any questions, suggestions or violent reaction, feel free to leave a reply on the comment section below. Tata

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[PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM] L11

-UNDERSTANDING ASPECT RATIO

After having some advance shooting tutorials last week, let's get back to something more tame and basic. It's always good to have a good grasp of the basics. So let's dive in shall we? Here's:

Understanding Aspect Ratio

and Know When to Use Them

For any one who has fiddle with their Camera Settings (wether its MIUI 5 or 6) you would have stumbled upon the Picture Size (v5) or Camera Frame (v6)

MIUI 5 Camera

On MIUI 5 its a bit complicated since you're presented with a lot of MP sizes and resolutions (It's also a bit unclear which is full screen and which is standard). Don't worry though, I've already taken the liberty to make your life easier. Here's an illustration how each resolution compares to each other:

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Illustration A.

So in recap:

0.8, 2MP, 3MP, 8MP and 13MP are all 4:3 (Standard) and 0.9MP, 2MP, 6MP and 10MP are all 16:9 (Full Screen)

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In MIUI 6, its been made easier for you as you only have two choices. Standard 4:3 and Full Screen 16:9.

STANDARD 4:3 shoots @ full 13MP and Full Sreen 16:9 shoots at a slightly lower 10MP.

What is Ratio and Why call it 4:3 and

16:9?

Without going to too much technical detail, 4:3 just means that for every 4 pixels of width you will have 3 pixels of height. The same formula goes for 16:9, for every 16 pixels of width you will have 9 pixels of height.

Below is an illustration of how Aspect Ratio works in regards to our camera. I shot this two image of Mitu, one in 4:3 and the other in 16:9 aspect ratio. I gave the 16:9 image a transparency of 50%, placed it directly on top of the 4:3 image and viola! Surprise! Surprise! 16:9 is actually just a cropped 4:3!

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In a perfect world, 16:9 aspect ratio should have some extra pixel on both sides like this:

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Apparently that's not the case here, and we have to live with it for now. So technically, you are capturing a much bigger picture and a whole lot more of data with a 4:3 aspect ratio than a 16:9. Knowing this, I would recommend that you use 4:3 next time you shoot, then just crop the image to your liking with a photo editor.

Also let's not forget that photographs are normally printed on paper with 4:3 aspect ratios (3R, 5R, 7R etc.) Picture frames are also created for 4:3s only. (I've yet to find a photo frame with a 16:9 aspect ratio, not including custom ones of course.)

This doesn't mean though that you should always stick to a 4:3 ratio. 16:9 has it's advantages too:

1. Videos look better in wide screen format (just don't shoot videos vertically while in full screen mode. Why? Just don't.)

2. Landscape photos looks better in 16:9

3. Photos also looks nicer when viewed on mobile phone screen, tablets and LCD TVs (since they share almost similar aspect ratios)

4. Having the viewfinder in fullscreen mode makes it easier to compose you photo

5. It takes less storage space (not much, but if you're a Scrooge with storage space then 16:9 is the way to go! hehe)

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[PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM] L12:

PHOTO EDITING - MAKING ORDINARY

PHOTOS POP

Here's another Post-Processing lesson for all you MIUIers out there.

This will be a short lesson, but if you can grasp the concept, and practise it then you're well on your way to making ordinary pictures look extraordinary. Here is

[PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM]

LESSON 12: PHOTO EDITING – MAKING

ORDINARY PHOTOS POP

This technique is also sometimes called Low Key Photography. I'll be using an app called PicSay Pro (this is a paid app) but you can download the free version available at the Playstore

HERE

Note: Some apps will work just as well like Pixlr and Photo Editor .

This is how your finished photo should look like:

You can download this photo to follow my tutorial or just experiment with. Enjoy

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So here we go!

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4. Once you've chosen the perfect aspect ratio, hit the green check button on the upper-right corner to confirm your selection

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6. Here you can choose the color of your paint, brush size and style. You can also tap at the “eraser” to erase unnecessary paints you

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7. Now start filling the border of your image with the paint brush like so:

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8. To fill-up the remaining small areas, you can zoom-in on the picture by doing a two-finger swipe-out

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9. Choose a smaller brush and start filling the remaining areas. This will take some time but I assure you your effort will be well worth it. 10. Once you filled-up every nook and cranny of the

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11. Congratulations and good job so far! But we're not done yet.

12. Well need to make some adjustment to really make it seem like it was shot like that and not edited so…

13. Tap on the “Adjust” button again and tap “Exposure/Contrast” here you need to lower your exposure a bit and raise up the contrast so that the dark areas of the image will blend with the background a bit.

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14. You can also go to “Adjust” and select “Curves” and curve the graph to further define the contrast between the light and dark areas while keeping the whole image's colors intact and not losing too much details.

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15. Now the only thing left to do is to Tap on the “Export” button at the lower right corner and select “Save picture to album” and choose where you want it to save.

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16. And now we're done!

A few more notes, you can also experiment with other colors and

filters by tapping the "Effects"You are only limited by your

imagination!

Here are other samples of what you can do to your

photos:

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I hope you enjoyed this tutorial us much I enjoyed making it. If

you have any suggestion for future lessons, feel free to leave

a comment below! Thanks and have fun!

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[PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM]

L13-EXTRADARK PHOTOGRAPHY

Hello! Miuiers presenting you a new exciting edition of PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM (Briefly discussed in the Photography contest)

Now discussed in detail.. EXTRADARK PHOTOGRAPHY

After days of research on different techniques, I present you an easy and simple form of extradark photography.

I searched the whole forum to find anytopic related to this one but did'nt find any..so tutorial is here..

Info:

Extradark photography is a combination of lomo+saturation and shadow photography. Some great results can be obtained with the help of this technique

Getting started:

1.Technique is quite easy any newbie can get an awesome shot. 2.Lets start...open up the camera & let the screen shine..

select an object/objects which you wanted to be part of your picture.. take a good look at source of light...

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Type 1:Capturing Source of light

(i.e candle or anything else)

1.Choose yesterday filter(Optional-I like yellowish images)

2.First of all don't Focus on the source of light cause it will darken the image too much ,focus as close as possible..take look

I just focused under the flame.

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3.Set the Ev as low as possible i.e set it till u get view (I generally set it between -1.0 to -2.0 sometimes not required)

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Type 2 : Capturing Object in front of source

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2. Set the Ev for which you'll get the Best Shot...and Then capture...boom

Type 3: Capturing simply the object away from the source

1.Focus on the brightest part of your camera frame i.e the part that looks brightest...just as I focussed inside the red circle..

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2.All done Ev adjusting is not important here if you want you can..as experimentation leads to great photos sometimes and then boom capture it..

About Selection of Modes and further editing: A.Normal if you want image in same sort of colour

B.Yesterday filter if you want yellowish image...high on saturation C.mono if you want shadowy photography

Dont worry if you did got much dark photos you can still edit.. 1.Increase saturation creates yellowish tint

2.Increasing contrast decreases extra light Some Great Images So far:

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[MIUI PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS] FOOD

PHOTOGRAPHY MADE EASY

Part 1

Have you ever stepped into a nice restaurant orcafé to enjoy your delicious meals and want to snap a photo of your deliciousmeal to remember how good it was ? But you have one problem; you just cannotseem to take the best picture even when you are armed with the latestSmartphone with the best camera module.

Fear not, here is the next lesson for MIUIPhotography Class: Food Photography Made Easy Part 1

Lighting

Ample lighting is important when taking foodphotography. Good lighting will made the colour of your food looks good. Alwaysremember Nicely Coloured Food are always tantalising / mouth watering good. Atip is to illuminate your food is Sunlight (Natural Lighting).

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(Home Made Apple Pie & Green Tea Latte)

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YourFood-Props

Your Food is the main star of the photo but alwaysremember that no matter how fantastic your star is, you will need good propsand supporting cast to bring out the emphasis of your food. A pair of folk andspoon, a simple napkin or even a glass of water beside your main stair willbring out that star in your food.

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(Nachos With Cheese Dip & “Corn Muffin)

– Using Condiments / Utensils to bring out the mainstar of the photo -Directions

A common mistake made by foodies when capturingtheir meals is to capture their food photo from a top-down approach. This makesthe food look flats and does not give the photo any realism to it. Alwayscapture your food photo from an angel that gives it depth in terms ofperspective.

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(Simple Cup Of Tea From MacDonald’s & TripleBlue Mountain Burger) -Tilting The Camera To Offer Depth To The

Photo-Alright, I shall end part 1 of my tips and tricks.Do stay tuned for more in the upcoming “Food Photography Made Easy Part 2”

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[PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM L15] PHOTO

MANIPULATION: HAVE FUN WITH COLORS

Hello fellow MIUIers! After two weeks of absence, where back with another installment of MPC!

First off, Thank you to everyone who have continually supported the PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM through the year by leaving your "Thank you's" and encouraging words. It means a lot to us. These maybe small gestures but combined, gives all the contributors for MPC motivation to continually give you photography tips and tricks to help you maximize your Mi phones. Secondly, I apologize for two weeks of no MPC Lesson. We had to take a break and give way to awesome prizes and contest for everyone here at the forum! (That's way better right?)

Lastly, Thanks to everyone for your support on the recently concludedPhotography Thread Contest. You're all awesome!

And now here is our new Lesson.

Photo

Manipulation:

Have

Fun

with

C

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See the picture on top?Would you believe it came from this?

So you took a very ordinary photo of something. Don't throw it away just yet. Maybe we can do something about it. But first we need to download

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Pixlr Express. You can download it FREE from the Playstore. or clickHERE. (BTW, if you're going to search for it on the playstore, make sure you

download "Autodesk Pixlr Express" there are at least two FAKE pixlr express app there. You've been warned ^_^)

1. Fire up Pixlr Express. You'll be presented with below homescreen

2. Take a new photo or choose one from your gallery. (You can also make collages in Pixlr but that's for another lesson)

3. Tap "Adjustment"

4. Here, you'll be presented with dozens of option to edit your photo. Tip: Before you do any editing to your photo though, tap the "Auto Fix" button first.

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5. I kind of like how "auto fix" brought out my subject from the foreground so I'll keep it like that. Tap "Apply"

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6. Next thing to do is to crop the photo and rotate it a bit to compose it better. So hit "Crop" and compose your photo.

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7. Once you're done cropping, tap on "Brightness" or "Contrast" then slide the slider either left or right. You'll notice in the image below, I set the values at -42 (Brightness) and 16 (Contrast). The goal here is to darken the sky and still have the tree branches and leaves show up by increasing the contrast.