By Señior Tech from the March 2015 Edition
If you have a recent version of a Smartphone, you have both a digital camera and video recorder built-in.
The four top Smartphone platforms, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Blackberry all come equipped with varying quality cameras.
My Wife and I both have iPhones, so I will talk mostly about that platform; but the other platforms are similar. In photo mode the phone’s camera shoots photos in either square (image size = 2448 × 2448 pixels) or rectangular format (image size = 2448 × 3264 pixels).
Going back through my camera photo albums, I found this photo, which I took last summer. It is a photo of one of our friendly neighbors trying to get at my nuts.
This photo has not been manipulated and is the original image. Using a $0.99 App called Camera+ I enhanced the second photo to highlight colors and cropped the image to provide a better composition.
In the third photo, I added a Vignette to focus attention on the squirrel.
The whole process took less than 3 minutes.
Taking photos with your phone’s camera is easy. If you don’t like the results, then delete the image. Depending on the memory size of the phone, you can keep thousands of photos in your pocket or purse. Who doesn’t want to show photos of their kids and grandkids at a moments notice? You can even setup a quick slideshow complete with transitions and music. And as you can see above, editing your photos on your phone is a snap.
The same is true of video. The phone has video capabilities that rival some hand held units, including some features like slow motion and time-lapse. There are also a number of video editing apps for both phone and tablets.
If you have a cloud account, you can set it to share the photos so they load to the devices you choose. The photo you take on your phone will load to your computer and tablets automatically.
The best camera is the one you have available. Since most of us always carry our smart phones, you will always be sure to catch the photo you want to remember;such as the one below.
Photos can be processed into hardcopy photographs at most retailers. The images can be downloaded to their processing equipment using Bluetooth (they will assist you if you are unsure how to do this.
There are literally thousands of photo Apps available that have filters to automatically give your photos that certain mood. Or, if you are more creative, there are Apps that let you control all aspects of image manipulation.
The images taken on your phone can be edited on either the phone, tablet or on a computer.
I would like to write more articles that appeal to your technical questions. If you have a technology problem or would like information on technology products such as: computers, cameras, TVs, software, or device apps, please send your questions to techguy@senortech.ca.
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Manzanillo Sun’s eMagazine written by local authors about living in Manzanillo and Mexico, since 2009
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