A smartphone is a photographer’s best friend. Not only is it a high megapixel and ultra portable camera, but you can also use it to get creative when you’re shooting with your DSLR or CSC. Lots of photographers like to explore their creativity using accessories like prisms, mirrors or flashlights to create effects in images, and any smartphone can be used in a variety of imaginative ways.
The phone in your pocket is a Swiss Army knife of creative photographic accessories, so next time you’re looking for inspiration give any of these neat tricks a try.
1) Create an arty reflection
Did you know you can use your phone’s powered-down screen to create arty and abstract reflections in your pictures. You’ll need to remove your phone from its case so the reflective surface is as wide as possible, and give the screen a buff to remove any smudges.
Give the screen a quick polish to remove any marks
It’s best to shoot in Aperture priority so you can control the depth of field and help blur out the edges of the phone. Dial in a wide aperture of f5. 6 and your camera will select a good shutter speed. You’ll want to set your active AF point to the area of the frame where your main subject will be.
Set your camera to Aperture priority to control the depth of field
To create the reflection simply hold your phone lengthways in front of your lens – screen side up – and try angling the phone’s screen to different positions until you find a pleasing reflection. It works best when you position the phone towards the bottom of your lens or to either the left or right sides. You’ll need to adjust the zoom to frame correctly, then once you find an arty composition focus up and take the shot!
The finished result!
2) Use the screen to paint with light
Painting with light is a fantastic way to get creative in the dark, but don’t worry if you can’t find batteries for your torch, the light from your smartphone is all you need to make spellbinding pictures.
There’s a variety of apps you can download to begin exploring the world of light painting. Just search ‘light painting’ in your phone’s app store and take your pick, but Light Painting Free is a good place to start if you’re on Android. This app transforms your phone’s screen into a coloured line or dot, so you can use it in the dark to ‘draw’ within your images. You can select a variety of colours or even set the light source to rotate through the colour wheel.
Use your smartphone to create arty light painting effects
You’ll need to set up a on a tripod or something stable to keep your camera perfectly still during the exposure. Set your camera to Shutter priority to take control of the time of the exposure. To allow yourself long enough to create your light painting, set your shutter speed to 30 seconds, and dial down the exposure compensation by 2 stops. Activate the self timer, and set it to 10 seconds to give yourself long enough to get in position within the frame.
Once your hear the shutter click, move your phone around within your scene with the illuminated screen facing towards the lens to paint with light. At the beginning it might take a bit of experimenting, but it’s very easy to get the hang of and incredibly addictive, and you’ll soon be letting your creativity run riot.
With a little bit of practice you can get really creative with light painting
You can also light paint using your camera’s LED flashlight and illuminate still life subjects. To do this you’ll need to be in a darkened room with no other light sources. Fix your camera to a tripod to keep it steady and avoid camera shake. For the shooting settings, set the ISO to its minimum – usually this is around ISO 100. Set your camera to Manual mode (M on the mode dial), set your aperture to f/22 and your shutter speed to 15 seconds. Focus up on your subject (it might help to have the lights on at this point!), and once it’s set switch the focusing to manual to lock it off. Set a 2sec self timer and press the shutter. When the exposure starts, begin shining your torch on your subject, painting it with light on all the areas you want illuminated.
Use the light from your phone's LED flashlight to paint still life images
3) Light up your shots with the flashlight app
The LED flashlight on your phone can also be used in place of a flashgun if you suddenly need extra light in your shot. While it not be a fraction as powerful as a dedicated flash, it can certainly get you out of a pickle when you’re shooting in the dark. You’ll need to shine the light fairly close to your subject and increase your camera’s ISO, but it’s a foolproof way to quickly capture a well-lit shot without a flashgun.
If you’re feeling extra creative you can combine the phone’s LED light with coloured gels to create more arty effects and mimic the look of a gelled off-camera flash setup. It’s even better if you can lay your hands on more than one phone as you can produce coloured cross lighting effects without the need for any studio gear!
Combine your phone's LED with coloured gels for more interesting lighting
4) Make a frame within your frame
You can also use your smartphone’s camera as a prop to create a modern take on framing the image. Traditionally photographers use framing as a compositional tool to help focus attention on the central subject in the shot. You can give this technique a contemporary twist by shooting through your phone’s screen with the camera app open.
You’ll either need to set up your camera on a tripod so your hands are free or get someone else to hold the smartphone within your shot. Switch your camera to Aperture priority and select a fairly wide aperture like f/5. 6, this will boost the framing effect further by blurring the background of the image. Hold the smartphone in front of your camera’s lens as if you were taking a photo with your phone, then focus up your DSLR or CSC on the smartphone’s screen and take the shot.
Create a frame within your frame
5) Shoot quirky portraits
Rather than using your smartphone’s camera as a central framing device, you can also use it to capture quirky portraits or behind-the-scenes selfies. Simply ask your subject to strike a pose while taking a selfie with the screen facing your lens and focus up on their phone to create a portrait within a portrait.
Capture a 'behind the scenes' selfie
To give this a comedy and abstract twist, try loading up funny facial features like an amusing smile full screen on your phone and get your subject to hold it directly in front of their face. You might need to adjust the zoom of the phone image to help it match up with your subject, but you’ll create quirky pictures and it’s a great way to inject a bit of lightheartedness into a shoot.
. digitalrev.com2017-9-7 03:00
