smartphone photography

MIUI Photography Lesson

[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 ThirdsKeep 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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https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixlr.express

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixlr.express

http://en.miui.com/thread-39565-1-1.html



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SimplicityLess 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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FramingBy 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 LevelledKeep 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 linesuse 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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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. Alright, that's all for MPC Lesson 2. Now it's your turn!

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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 ShootThere 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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macro mode only

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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 OutdoorsShooting 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 IndoorsNow 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.Surprisingly, here’s what I got:

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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.

You would find it difficult to focus on object this thin.

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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

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option in 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 ModeIn 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 zoomNormally, you would want to avoid using digital zoom, It blurs the details

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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 zoomHowever, 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 ConsiderationsBecause 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 BokehAs 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 2Look for other source of light and shadows.

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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.

ConclusionMacro 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, and shoot, share and inspire.

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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 MaiselHappy macro shooting guys!

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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. Here's what I did just now after dinner. Enjoy!

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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 #11. 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.

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 #2For 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

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editing process. I know what you're thinking: "This photos already looks 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.

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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.

Good luck and keep on shooting!

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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 COLORIZEI use photoshop CS3. You need basic knowledge. Here's how

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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. Layer>New adjustment layer>brightness/contrast

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

Right click to increase the size of healing tool. then click on the bubbles.

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The fun part COLORINGCreate new layer

Set it to overlay

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Choose the brush tool

Then right click and choose 300pixel soft brush

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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 milkIf 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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Here are the results

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Mi color

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Looks like flavored snow cones

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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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PILIPINAS!!!

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DIY Home Studio ShootPart 2Part 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 Shot2. Top – Down Shot

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3. Bottom – Up Shot

Here are my tools & logistical requirement1. 1 X Xiaomi Mi3 or any capturing device2. 1 X Lightweight Tripod With Mobile Phone Holder3. 2 X Single Colour Backing4. 1 X Object ( For Me, That is my Optimus PrimeFigure)5. 2 X User Manning The Camera6. Natural Day Lighting Condition (Sunlight)

The Frontal ShotThe 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 ShotThe 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 ShotThe 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.

Here are some samples photos which I had took.

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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.

16.2. Keep something sharp

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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-Focus20. 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.

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22.4. A Matter of Distance

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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

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25.My son doing his best Master Chief impression

26.5. Also a matter of Backround27.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.Practice...

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32.33.7. Practice34. 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! 35.

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36.8. Your not limited to Cars and People37.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"Shoot, Share, Inspire! "-- Lennox Lente

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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 16:93. 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 photo5. 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)So what do you prefer? 4:3 or 16:9? sound-off below!

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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

put on your image.

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

image. Hit the green check button

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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.

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...


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 lookI just focused under the flame.*Advanced user can use manual focus and set the Exposure Time Between 1/5000 to 1/100

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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)and click it out...boom

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Type 2 : Capturing Object in front of source

1.Try to focus on the part that is closest to the source.. just like I focussed on the bars

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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 colourB.Yesterday filter if you want yellowish image...high on saturationC.mono if you want shadowy photography

Dont worry if you did got much dark photos you can still edit..

1.Increase saturation creates yellowish tint2.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

LightingAmple 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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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”

This Is BL23 Signing Off.

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8. Once you've finished the necesssary adjustment in "Contrast" tap on "Overlay." Overlays are images you can put on top of your image (which are a bit transparent.) Tap on "Space" and choose one of any available. You can slide left or right on the overlay images to see more.

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9. Here I chose "Ascella" and gave it a "Fade" of 75%. You can also tap on "Rotate" and rotate the overlay to give it a more natural proportion.

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10. Once thats done, Tap on "Adjustment" again and then hit "Color."

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"Saturation" controls how vivid or how dull the image color is and "Lightness" controls the image's color lightness. Here, I gave the image a saturation of 10 and lightness of 7.11. Now the FUN part. HUE! Hue controls the color "shades" in which you see color. Tap on "Hue" then slide the slider left or right to produce some interesting colors. Here, I chose to give the image a little bit of green color to bring about a more festive atmosphere. (But it's really up to you what color you want it to be.). Once you've chosen a color you like. Tap on "Apply."

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12. Now all we have to do is to save our edited image. But before you hit the "Save" button on the upper right corner, HERE's AN EXTRA TIP. You can put a watermark on your photo by using Pixlr.

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12a. tap on Adjustment button and select "Add Image".12b. Choose a PNG image from your gallery (here I created a personal watermark in Adobe Illustrator and saved it as .png with transparent background) Tip: You can adjust the size and rotation of the image by doing a two-finger pinch and rotate.12c. You can also use the "Type" button (far left corner of first image above) to insert text. (read: your name)13. You can now tap the "Save" button and we're done! Easy right?

There are a lot of things you can do with Pixlr Express. The secret is to explore, experiment and exercise!Oh, before I forget, here are a few photo to help you on your way.

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Happy shooting MIUIers!

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[PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSROOM] L16: REDUCE NOISE AND GET GOOD PHOTOS

IN LOW LIGHT It's thursday again and you all know what that means right? It's MIUI Photography Lesson time!I've read so many complaints about how our phones can't get good pictures in low light and how it's too noisy. To some extent I agree with them. The MIUI stock cam could use a little more optimization since we already have a very capable hardware in our phones. However, with that said, I also give props to MIUI for making a cool and pleasant camera interface and for giving us some great MANUAL CONTROLS!One reason why we get mediocre if not bad photos is because we rely to much on Automatic Settings. We never bother to experiment and read-up on the basics. Most user's concerns about bad photos in low light conditions can be easily addressed just by understanding some basic photography concepts like ISO, EXPOSURE and SHUTTER SPEED (Exposure Time). Its just a matter of knowing what, when and where to use these.So now in-behalf of Photography Team member @Alpo430, (all text in italics are from his original Thread post) I'm republishing his work so new and even some seasoned mobile photographers alike can understand and get less noise and great photos even in low light.This is...

LESSON 16: Reduce Noise and Get Great Photos in Low LightManual Controls


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Have you ever tried capturing photo on low light condition? Mostly it will be blurry or grainy. The grain that we see is called noise. Noise affects the quality of the photo. For example:

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1.5 sec / 800 ISO (Full auto)You can clearly see the noise in the photo. its not a good quality.So what's the cause of this noise. Well in this case it's due to high ISO.To make it simple, ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor to light.The higher the ISO the more sensitive the sensor is to light. Since I took this photo in full auto mode. The camera sets the best time of exposure and the right ISO. And the setting is 1/5sec 800 iso. Basically the higher the value of ISO the more noise it will produce. So if you’re using manual exposure keep it to 100 ISO to keep the noise at minimum.Another variable is the time of exposure. Have you heard the clicking sound when taking a picture from a DSLR camera? That sound is the shutter closing. The longer the time it shuts the longer the time the sensor of the camera is exposed to light thus making more light available to the sensor. Example 1/5 sec, it means the shutter will shut in 5th of a second. To be easily understood the higher the denominator in the fraction(1/2500) the faster the shutter closes. when taking photo of moving subject keep yout eposure time at least 1/60 to 1/100. if using 2sec exposure time use tripod. Because in the span of 2sec the shutter is open and any movement to the camera or subject will cause blurry picture.Here are some comparison photos taken at a constant time of exposure(1sec) and the ISO varies

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1 sec / 200 ISO

1 sec / 2500 ISO

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1 sec / 3200 ISOWe can see that as we increase ISO the more noise it will create but the picture gets more light even when the exposure time is constant to 1 secondNow we have set the exposure time to 2 sec(maximum for our camera).

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2 sec / 3200 ISO (over exposed)

2 sec / 800 ISO

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2 sec / 100 ISOAlthough the 800 ISO is brighter we can clearly see the unpleasing noise in the photo. By using 2 seconds exposure time and ISO 100, we are able to take a photo with less noise. and the exposure on the last photo is acceptable.So in low light scenario, if you have tripod at hand and you have a still subject, use manual exposure to get the best result. Set your ISO to minimum (100) then adjust the exposure time until you get the properly exposed photo. If in case you set ISO to 100 and the exposure time to 2sec maxed, that's the time to slowly adjust the ISO until you get the proper exposure but in the expense of noise in the photo.So that's it. I hope you got a lot from reading this week's lesson. Feel free to leave your suggestions, comments, photos and/or request for next MPC lesson below. Happy Shooting MIUIers!

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This one is taken down on the floor tilted up. You can see the wall/posts are leaning and converging vertically.

4. Don’t judge a book by its cover. :)Sometimes a boring looking building façade offers a whole lot of interesting interior design. Try to look for interesting shapes, lines, curves, color etc. Most churches have interesting interior. The lights shining through the


windows and doors can bring dramatic effect to your photo. Also remember to bring tripod. If tripod is not possible to bring, bump your ISO up. But expect a grainy photo, just clean up in post editing.

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5. Symmetry/leading linesSymmetry is part of nature. So when taking photos try to find symmetrical details. This will make your photo more interesting to your viewer. You can also use leading lines.

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Like in this photo of a church’s ceiling the lines leads your eyes to the altar. Which makes the viewer look at the picture longer.6. Down lowTaking a low angle shot will givethe impression of taller subject. So when going to a photo shoot, wear comfortable clothes. If you’re wearing shorts try to bring mat to kneel/lie on.

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Light House in Pagudpud

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7. Color? Black and white?As for my experience black and white gives more contrast thus making more impact to the viewers. Photo of city lights will definitely be more interesting in color. So it’s up to the photographer on what he wants to convey in his photo. If the photographer wants to share a vivid colored window pane then colored photo is best for it. Although at some point it will make the viewer focus more on the colors, rather than the structure itself.Magdalena Church

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For example the green grass is pleasing to look at. And blue skies is calming. So the eyes wander around the picture. Unlike the black and white. I’m more fixated on the church and not to the grass or the trees around it.

8. Add a human touch

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Most often it’s better to take photos without other unnecessary elements inside the photo. But sometimes it is more interesting if you add a human silhouette in the photo.

In my point of view this place iscreepy. It’s an old light house in Vigan Philippines. But with people inside the picture makes it a little bit less scary (don’t walk into the light!!!!No!!!!!).

9. Night sceneAnother dimension opens up during night time. Engineers and architects took consideration how the building willlook at night time. To take photos at night time you need tripod. Long exposure can bring more light and color to the photo.

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Go out and keep shooting!!! there's a wonderful world out there :)more photos

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