Snappin$, Apping and Sharing iPhone Photography with Tony Smith

REFERENCE NOTES

FOR BETTER IMAGES . Keep your lens clean. . At night, focus on a light source to reduce noise. . Beware of blown highlights, adjust exposure before shooting. ' Take lots of photos in all light conditions and get to understand how the lens and sensor handle light, especially bright lights and the sun. ' Practice keeping the camera still. Lean against something when you can or prop up your device and use the self timer, 3 or 10 seconds. Use the volume control on the Apple headphones as a cable release, also good for covert photos. Avoid cluttered images as controlling depth of field is near impossible. Consider the background more than you would with a regular camera.

SET UP YOUR CAMERA

Go to settings, photos and camera and change these settings.

Grid. Turn on, Rule of thirds, useful aid for composing pictures and keeping the camera at right angles.

HDR. Keep Normal Ficture. Turn On. When you take a photo in HDR mode a "normal" copy will be kept as well as the HDR version

Auto Brightness. Turn Off. Otherwise you will not see the image on the screen in true light"

QUICK CAMERA ACESS

You can access your iPhone native camera without having to locate the App. On the lock screen, in the bottom right hand corner is a small camera icon, touch with your finger and move upwards to open up the camera - and yon are ready to shoot.

Alternately, open the Control Centre. This is the little screen that pulls up frorn the bottom centre of your phone. The camera icon is in the bottonn right corner, tap to open up the camera and you are ready to shoot.

CAMERA SHUTTER OPTIONS

With the camera activated you can shoot in five ways; . The button on the front. . The volume controlon the left side. " The volume control on ear phones. . The self timer, 3 or 10 seconds . Bluetooth remote control e.g. iPega, available from Amazon on line. . For silent shooting remember to turn the sound off (and on again when finished!).

Page 1 of5 FOCUSSING

You can focus in 3 ways . Do nothing. Just point your camera and it will focus automatically. . Tap the screen where you want to focus. A square will appear, this is your focused area for this shot only. . Tap the screen and hold your finger for longer and a yellow rectangle will appear at the top of the screen containing AE/AF LOCK. Your camera will now retain the focus at the same point for as many photos as you wish to take, until you tap somewhere else on the screen to change the focus point.

EDITING WITH BUILT IN SOFTWARE

To start, with a photo on the screen, tap the blue word edit.

Top Menu lcons R to L . First step tap the magic wand icon to automatically auto enhance the image. lf you like the result tap done and finish, lf you don't then tap the magic wand again to return to the original. Having saved the automatic changes you can reopen the image and edit further if you wish. . The top centre icon removes red eye. . The top left icon reverts the image to the original "as taken".

Bottom Menu lcon L to R . Rotate lmage. Note 2 new icons have appeared. Tap the left one to rotate in g0 degree increments. Tapping the right icon opens up a menu of aspects ratios. Choose and reposition the image. . Photo Styles. Choose and tap done. . Light, Colour, Black and White. Tap to open, drag your finger across the image strip and tap done when finished. For finer control tap on the new icon that has appeared on the bottom right above the image strip and work through the list. Adjust by dragging your finger from side to side. Tap the icon to select the next and when finished tap done. . NB You can return to the image on your device at any time and revert it to "as taken".

ABOUT EDITING

The iPhone's built in image editing software is intended to be used on the phone and it works well. I find other apps difficult to use on the smaller screens of the iPhone 5s and earlier.

The 6+ with it's larger screen is idealfor editing with all apps, but in my opinion too big for using as a camera.

Editing is easier and more enjoyable when the image is transferred to an iPad, the bigger the screen the better. The newer Retina screens are superb. lmages can be edited on a Mac or PC using conventional software, Photoshop, Lightroom etc though will not be able to use the Apps described here and discussed in my presentation.

Beware, should you progress with your iPhoneography and wish to exhibit your images or enter competitions. Any image that has been worked on, however little, on a computer cannot be entered as it is against the rules of all such competitions.

Page 2 of 5 SNAPSEED

There are numerous YouTube tutorials on using this amazing editing software, and my favourite, photo editing app, that will do better justice to it, and be more informative than I can. Just "snapseed " and choose the newer tutorials as these will be up to date with recent changes and improvements.

MY ESSENTIALAPPS All available from the Apple Apps Store. Some, or alternatives, are also available for Android 'phones from the usual source.

To purchase Apps you need an iTunes account (as I have) or, I am told you can purchase with a iTunes gift card purchased from WH Smiths and others, but do check first.

SnapSeed (see above) My main photo editor - Photoshop for the iPhone?

PhotoslnfoPro Professional metadata reader. Reads image data, and users can add copyright, rate the image and attach info.

AndlfTouch lnteractively corrects radial and perspective distortions.

TouchRetouch Several tools for cloning out unwanted elements.

Lucid Tunes images with one click. Fantastic or useless but worth trying first on overexposed and grainy images.

Pixelmater A fully blown editor but I only use it for the brushes. I use after SnapSeed in my workflow to make fine adjustments to exposure and saturation, localised sharpening and for realistic blurring of backgrounds. Set brush opacity very low and build up the effects. iResize For enlarging an image before extracting a section, restoring size after an App has reduced it and enlarging an image for printing.

Facetune Great for improving the looks of spotty females and for brightening teeth and sharpening and brightening eyes. Don't over do it!

Superimpose For combining two or more photos into a new image. Cutting out elements from one photo to add to another and saving those elements in a library for use in other images. Excellent range of Photoshop like blending modes.

Distressed FX Excellent first venture into adding textures to images. Creates great images but does reduce the size of the image. Upsize afterwards with iResize (see above).

Page 3 of 5 Mextures Add film grain, choose from over 150 originaltextures plus light leaks and gradients. Build up your image with an infinite number of layers. Save your formulas for use on other images.

Photoshop Mix The best App for cutting out an image and changing the background using the familiar tools in Photoshop. Saved images can also be opened on your computer in Photoshop and Lightroom.

PhotoSync lf your images are not transferring automatically to your devices and computer, and if you want a second option, this App is essential and very good.

There are thousands of apps for image editing and manipulation and (as I found) they are so inexpensive it is too easy to just keep on getting more and more. Be strong, don't. Keep to your favourites and keep practicing until you can use them without having to think about what you are doing.

SOCIAL MEDIA Build up your friendships with like minded photographers. Be aware of the risks and don't share your personal life on line. lf you don't want to be "public" then only allow "friends and family" to access your posts.

There is an etiquette amongst serious photographers on Facebook: no selfies, no photos of your dinner, no family interaction and no watermarking your images with your name. There is lots of help on line if you are considering joining up. I recommend it but do be careful. lnstagram As much a social site as one for photography but good fun and easy to upload. From SnapSeed you can upload to lnstagram and to Facebook together.

Flickr Over 100 million users. Not my favourite though I do keep a presence there. Easy to set up but it will cost you $50 pa to remove adverts. ls it worth it - you decide?

500 pixels My favourite photo site. Elegant website makes images look good. Get an "awesome" account for $29 for unlimited uploads. Get almost immediate feedback after posting. lnfectious.

Page 4 of 5 INSPIRATION

Type iPhoneography into Google and you will find lots of wonderful, artistic and beautiful images all created with mobile phones that have never been near a computer . Here are a few links to start you off.

lPPAAwards www.ippawards.com Check out the gallery tab on the top menu and dig into the categories.

The App Whisperer www.appwhisperer.com

Mobile Photo Awards mobilephotawards.com Check out winning images from previous years (top menu) and then choose by category.

IN CONCLUSION

I do hope I have inspired to take to the streets with your mobile phone and that you get to enjoy this liberating photography as I have.

Tony Smith www.taffysmith.com www.f acebook. com/taffypix www. i nstagram. com.taffysmith

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