Snappy Sunday: It's All About the Phone

So, the evolution of photography in my life has been an interesting one. I’ve always loved photography and my 1st camera looked a little like this…

From You Make Me Smile by Sabrina Dupree

Yep, I really had one of these, and still remember taking out the picture and waving it in the air to dry after pulling the film off of it to reveal the masterpiece within, hehe.

When I was in Junior High School, I had an awesome little 35mm that didn’t look half as fun as this one but I still loved it. And I was constantly saving my money for film and developing. Let’s just say, there were not nearly as many photos taken as I would have liked. Geez, film was expensive.

From You+Me=Fun by Pink Reptile Designs, Studio Basic and Studio 68

My cameras improved over the years, but it wasn’t until my 1st Digital Camera in 1998 that things changed dramatically. I was able to take as many pictures as I wanted and believe me, I did :). My first digital camera was HUGE, was less than 1 MP in quality, and quite honestly, I was terribly unhappy with the results I got with it. However, over the years, I ended up with cameras of all sizes that increased in their quality as they decreased in bulk, including a teeny little “credit card” sized number that I could never hold quite still enough.

Then came the DSLR. Ah, I was in LOVE. I started with a Canon Rebel about 6 years ago, and now am the proud owner of a Canon 60D. Do I love this camera? Yes! Is it my primary source for memory keeping at the moment. No.

And that leads me to my point. Where I am today in my photography journey. Enter my iPhone…

It sports a better camera than most of my early Point & Shoot varieties, digital or otherwise, and quite simply has become my bread and butter for snapping photos of my life. Do I still use my 60D. Well, yes. But more often than not, the everyday events of my life are documented on the device that is always tucked in my purse, or back pocket. My phone. And this is why I’m doing this post.

When the iPhone came out with it’s high quality camera (2MP in 2007 and up to 8MP now), it was revolutionary. So much so, that all other phones scrambled to keep up and now, just about any phone you can pick up has a sufficient, if not excellent little camera that can be used as an everyday memory keeping tool. And that’s what we are, right? Memory keepers! So Phoneography has become a new passion of mine. Here are a few random tips when thinking about this ever more popular field. I hope to make this a little blog mini-series because I have a lot to say on the subject :). But we’ll start with the basics.

1. Your in-camera app is fine. But there are tons of other super cool apps you can play with to add spice to your phoneography. I’d like to do a little App review for you in a future post if you are interested but for now, let’s all agree that the most popular app out there for iPhone or Android is Instagram. Don’t you just love it? Well, when I first became an Insta-holic, I was frustrated by one thing. The image quality. The images are lo-res in the Instagram app b/c it is designed to be a conduit to the social media world primarily. I didn’t love this b/c I like to print my pictures or blow them up on scrapbook pages. So, silly me… I would take one photo with my camera app of choice to save and one with Instagram to share. Holy smokes, what a pain.

Then I discovered the most simple trick. Most of you are already shaking your head at me, but I’m sharing it for the few who do not know it. ALWAYS take your picture with your camera app. I use my in-camera app the most because I can swipe the bottom of my iPhone even if it is idle and get to my phone immediately. Then, go to your Instagram app and grab that image from your camera roll to add filters to and share on Facebook. No rush. No stress. Easy Peasy.

2. Did you know you can control your exposure super easily with a simple screen tap? This is kind of fun. Before you hit the shutter, tap your screen on a dark area and again on a light area and see what happens. Yep, the exposure changes. This can give you some cool artistic looks.

3. Get more light! The biggest downside of taking photos on phones is that when the light is low, your phone is not happy. So, if at all possible, turn on the lights or better yet, get close to a window. I never (well never say never… rarely) use my iPhone flash. And am never happy with the photo when I do. Now, unless it’s really dark, this is not an issue, but be warned. If you love night time photography, stick to the Manual mode of your DSLR.

4. Take tons of pics. Just like your digital camera, these images can be deleted very easily. So snap away. At different angles. In different lighting. With different apps. Just shoot!

5. Get close. Your zoom is digital and not optical, so know that it is always better if you can avoid excessive zooming. Just get closer instead if possible. The macro features of these cameras are remarkably good, so it can handle the close encounter. Some hard core phoneographers will tell you to forget you even have a zoom. Every so often it’s needed, but for the most part, I agree with this.

6. Remember your Rule Of Thirds. Most phones will even show you the grid if you set it to, but your photo will always be more interesting if you compose your photo well from the beginning.

From Hello Austin! Alpha by Pink Reptile Designs

7. Clean your lens. Sounds simple, right? When is the last time you cleaned your Phone camera lens? hmmm…

OK, phoneography fans, that’s it for today. Now, pick up your phone, snap some pictures, then head over to The Lilypad Store to find a perfect product to scrap them with. I’ll try to head back next Sunday with some of my favorite Phoneography apps.