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Many people are rarely without their phones these days. So it is easy and convenient to take photos with our phones.
Do you have any questions? Advice? Tips and tricks for phone photography? And good editing apps or other tools?
Me, me! (first to raise her hand 🙂 )
Mary, do you have any tips or tricks for taking selfies? I seriously can not do it to save my life. I am horrible at it. I joke and say that it is because my arm is too short. But honestly, that is a big impediment. I rarely take photos of myself cuz I just think that’s weird, but sometimes I would love to get a “selfie” of me with someone else. And I stink at it! I need like a “Taking Selfies For Dummies” book! 🙂
Ha ha. Our favorite? Stagger! People think that you should all group together like a traditional portrait. But nope, fill in the foreground, center and background.
I have short arms too so I tend to hand the phone to someone with the longer arm. That person should be in the front. Everyone else should stagger into the frame from there. Hold it up higher to fill more of the frame…plus gravity pulls down so your neck and cheekbones are better accentuated. tee hee! More flattering for us women. ha ha
Worse case, use a selfie stick or phone tripod. I’ll throw it on a gorilla pod because that gives just enough length to make it work. Use the 3 second timer so you don’t have to press the button yourself. https://amzn.to/2DbkMrb
I prefer the gorillapod because it’s smaller, flexible and easier to take into places like Disneyland. Selfie sticks are banned there.
Great tips! I’ll take any advice I can get. I honestly need to practice, I just think it’s weird to always be taking photos of oneself. Definitely not my thing. I want Rhett to get good at it so he can do it for us haha!
That gorilla thing is cool. I think I got something like that in my camera package. I need to test it out! We got a free selfie-stick a few years back, and yes, they definitely work good for dorks like us, but like you said, they can be a problem taking them to some places.
I like the new camera overall. I want to play with a few more functions before I do my review on it. I had the time to watch a few tutorials on it a few weeks ago, and that helped too. I would like to play with the manual photo settings and try some of that out. I just have no idea what I’m doing. So, I need to watch a few tutorials on that first. I think overall, I will get better photos. The quality is better because the technology is newer, and the zoom is better. Videos? I’m torn on that. I feel like I’m not necessarily getting “better” quality. It’s just “different.” I’m having this issue with movement (like filming Rhett riding his bike), that when you watch the video back, the movement is like too fast, too zippy to see it clearly. Hard to describe, but does that make sense? I’ve noticed this on newer TVs too. When there is fast movement, it can look really weird, and not in a good way. It looks bad. I’m assuming on a TV though, there is some kind of setting to change the quality.
But on these cameras, there’s no real way to change the output. When you film the same thing on say, an IPhone, you don’t get that at all. There aren’t really “settings” for the video stuff on this camera, obviously because it is not primarily a video camera. So, once again I’m torn about the video part of it. I think if I want the kind of video quality I’m looking for, I would need to invest in a video camera alone. And, I’m just not willing to spend that kind of money, especially on technology that gets old so often. If I needed video for my job or something like that, I could maybe justify it, but for me, I can’t justify it just for the movies I like to make. If money was no object, yes, I would just get me a kick-ass video camera and be done with it. Plus, it doesn’t solve the issue of travelling with all this stuff. Because I don’t want to lug a camera & a video camera separately while travelling. Which is the appeal of these multi-function cameras. I guess it’s a trade off for everything. If I can’t solve or improve the movement issue with this video though, I probably will have to do something about it because it is pretty terrible. I don’t think anything is “wrong” with the camera or anything, I just think that is the way it is filming.Before Christmas, we visited a light display place & someone from a local TV station was filming there & they interviewed Rhett 🙂 I was checking out her gear & asking her about it. When she told me the price, I was like DAMN! But, I was secretly jealous of how awesome it was haha!
i feel ya on the video.
Fortunately the DSL and mirrorless systems have the capability to use manual settings to get the look that you want. Movement and action type photography or filming needs to be able to be captured at a fast speed. So when a camera’s sensor is trying to figure out what it’s capturing, that’s where you get those jerky movements. But you still have your go pro right?I know, right? Most of the really good quality video I see of, say, people I watch on YouTube, comes from a dedicated video camera. They invest in it for their work, which makes sense.
Yeah, I still have my GoPro. It is super fun to use underwater, which has been the #1 thing I’ve used it for. We have gotten some cool action stuff with it too, like Rhett wearing it at baseball practice or while riding his bike. It’s a pretty basic model, but it was a great starting point so that I could explore whether I liked it or not. And I’m not opposed to spending money to get a better GoPro model. I have concerns because the company has been in trouble & has issues, so maybe I’ll look at another brand of action camera. And, that may solve my dilemma. If I want to get a really good “action” shot, maybe improve my GoPro and use that for those shots. Use my combo camera for my regular photos and for regular video.
I am looking forward to trying the manual photo settings. I think if I get a few basic rules of thumb down pat, I will be able to make use of it in manual mode. I like the option of being able to do so, even if I don’t actually do it very often 🙂
Actually, most youtubers and videographers use DSLRs. I think I only had 1 wedding videographer actually use a video camera. Most had the same gear that I did. It’s their post production stuff (software) that was different. The lifestyle videographers I’ve studied with use their DSLR set-up too. The capabilities are really good. Courtney Holmes is a lifestyle filmmaker that I like to follow. She has the same set-up that I have. Finishing my first film is one of my resolutions this year. LOL I’m still learning how to effectively use the correct fps (frames per second). But that’s a whole other language than photography. It doesn’t come second nature to me like photography does.
But like most things, if you learn the technical aspect of it, you don’t need to invest in an expensive set-up. A good DSLR with a good lens will get you on the right path. And if you have a specific style, then you invest in the gear for that particular style.
Yeah, that is true. Many of the videos I do like end up using a DSLR. That is cool that they can do double duty. Always a good thing!
Here’s a fun little set with the kids at Home Depot. Taken & edited with my iphone.
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