However, away from the bulky camera and such, I've found a vent (or maybe you want to call it a breach) in that photo-shooting activity by sorting things out with my phone. Don't get me wrong though, I still love my camera; Yes, the very bulky camera. However, there are times when we have to do things that we are usually not into just to get what we want to! (Did I say that right?)
Huaweifying
Well, away from all the fuss about Huawei and the crappy politics (and lies), I have to say that I do like my phone. I would also like to try their upcoming operating system but probably since I have a working phone here I would have to wait a bit to see how things develop in the near future.
Anyway, I'm here about art. I've discovered that Huawei do have a photography contest which is on the run for some years now. Luckily, the deadline for this one will be by the end of July (and I thought it was by the end of June actually) which gives me some time to try stuff. Of course, as you may have guessed already, the first and utmost important condition is that the photos must be taken with a Huawei phone. And that is part of the challenge for me, in fact.
I was reluctant to participate first, and with the nearing end of June, I thought "Ah well, I have no ideas to shoot anything and maybe I should pass this," but then Ta Da! I've realized it's the end of July not June! So, my engines got to work again and I'm really trying to shoot with my phone, even though I kind of never liked this process (used to the more versatile options of a DSLR) but it proved to be a fun-activity, and the main key-point that may push me to shoot further, or at least try to, is the light-weight and the easy movement with the phone. But there are limitations of course which I will try to brief out after a while below.
 |
| Macro Feather |
Being creative and having a variety of options with phone-photography would somewhat require some special sets of lenses (to gain broader aspects and view, as well creativity potential). However, I've always believed in innovation. One of the most common tricks to do macro photography with your phone is to use a water drop on the lens (after covering the lens with some transparent protection like tape for example), and this is what I did here with Macro Feather shot. I've saved this feather to shoot with my DSLR in fact, but since we are at it, I've decided to work now with my Huawei. Of course it is a normal shot and not very special and I'm not expecting it to be that "attention seeker" in the contest, but after all it is a good engine grease; My engine greasing that is.
 |
| The first trial |
 |
| Eye On Coffee |
To be honest, I didn't think of using the "Double Exposure" option in Pixlr until my attempts to shoot reflections off a mirror covered in coffee did fail drastically (and I don't have cooperative family members to help out with the work). Thus, I thought "why not shoot separate images and combine them and see what we can do then?" And do I did! It took me a bit to figure out how to use this option in the app, but the delicacy of the work is not a match for the typical mouse and Photoshop work with layers on PC or laptop. But I think it is somewhat an acceptable degree here. There were some filters (outside the app if I remember) that I did use to enhance the looks as well, and of course there was the cropping all things related to that. The thing is, I'm not sure if this is considered legal for Huawei's contest or not! They did mention that the image MUST be taken with a Huawei phone, and it is fine to use a third party app on the phone to edit the photo, but no mention about merging photos and montage or collage! There is only one way to know, and that's to upload it!
This is it for now with my Huawei photo-shoots, and I'm still trying to do more ideas in that venture as I'm typing these words, but I got swept away with many things so I didn't have enough time to try many things yet.
Thoughts and Finale
I've mentioned earlier that I had my own thoughts about this trend of phone photography. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages here, but probably the cons overwhelm the pros for my case here. Nevertheless, it is a source of juicing ideas out of my brain somehow. Probably the biggest and sole advantage of phone photography is the mobility and the relative ease in which one can handle it. Probably, to me, this is the sole and the only advantage that I can see in using the smartphone to take photos (on an artistic level and not merely documenting).
Now, to the disadvantages, there are a number of them on my list, and probably I've always argued about the size of the sensor relative to the number of pixels and how that affects the clarity of the image and the print size in production later on (if there is need to be for printing), but I won't go to that right now as I'm speaking here solely about the "operation" of photo shooting by the phone.
Probably the prime disadvantage for me here, is the cumbersome controls and options. Like, the resolution would change by changing the mode of shooting in the camera (Max is 20MP, but it comes down to 12MP for maximum in some modes). Shooting in RAW is, also, a matter of mode changing (only allowed in the PRO mode). Ironically as well, the PRO mode does have a shutter speed control, ISO control, EV control... etc, but NOT aperture control. To control the aperture alone, one must use the Aperture mode which controls only the aperture without any other controls. It's a mess of options and I'm not sure if this is only in my Huawei phone or in other phones and models as well.
Another thing that makes it such a cumbersome operation is the flash control. One might be able to control the flash in the phone itself but usually in a "higher" level of photography we tend to move the light source away from the camera to add depth to the image. I know that there are probably some innovative lighting solutions that can be controlled with smartphones but of course I won't be venturing into that yet. Not now, not in the near future. For this reason, I've been using some external light sources (LED torches) when shooting, as in the case of Macro Feather and Eye On Coffee.
There are a number of stuff that I still didn't get a hang of them yet, like how long exposure works (there is a special mode for Light Painting) and a number of other options (and panoramas as well) but I'm sure they are not as "trendy" as a real DSLR or camera in general would be. There is also no remote control, so the timer is my only choice to take selfies if need raises. There is no "time fixing" to do long exposures, but probably there are other apps that are specialized in this process, and I do believe that most options are controlled via AI and simulations rather than real "light painting" or "long exposure" effects and looks.
Still though, I'm still trying to have fun and try as much as I can with this phone. Currently, I've been working on a pinhole made out of cardboard fixed on the lens. I didn't take any serious shot yet (otherwise I would have posted it here already), and still, I'm trying to watch videos and surfing Pinterest to get inspired, if possible!
All in all, I won''t be optimistic here at all of course. It is my first try to enter a contest based solely on phone photography (a.k.a. Phonography) and I'm trying to have fun as much as possible. There are of course those add-ons that can be added to the lens to extend its capabilities but I'll keep my approach simple and more into DIY. I would be wasting money on that ONLY if I'm taking it seriously, and that won't happen in the near future. Let's see what to shoot next now…
No comments:
Post a Comment