Secret to the perfect snap
Turn your followers envy-green
ENVY. It can be a powerful emotion, fuelled well by photos of others enjoying their summer holidays.
So what’s the secret of creating great pictures with a good phone?
Australian photographer and Instagrammer Samah El Ali shares some of her best tips.
1. Shoot during “magic hour” for even better results
Magic hour is a term used by photographers for images captured at sunrise (and just after) or at sunset (and just before).
The golden glow creates a stunning mood and will turn any location into a gorgeous visual.
2. Manually focus and expose
Manually focusing/exposing gives you full creative control and will allow you to achieve more desirable results to suit your aesthetic.
Tapping on your screen, on or close to the sun, will result in a perfectly round sun. If you feel your scene is underexposed (too dark), you can tap and hold, then scroll up/ down to adjust the exposure.
3. Experiment with long exposures
Long exposures are a great way to turn an ordinary scene into a moody capture. SlowShutter is a user-friendly app with various settings that allow you to achieve different results. There are other apps to do this also.
To achieve a long exposure, you will need a tripod, but if you can lean your phone on a rock in a low-wind area, it could work too.
Ensure Capture Mode in the settings is set to Motion Blur.
Experiment with the blur strength until you’re satisfied with the result – a good starting point is to set between middle and high.
4. Take your phone for a dip!
Whether you enjoy a summer day by the beach or in a pool, or you happen to come across a deep puddle, underwater or over/under shots are fun to capture and allow you to create and share fresh perspectives. 5. 2x optical zoom Ever been disappointed when you review a photo you took from a distance and notice you’ve zoomed in far too much and it’s pixelated or blurry?
If like my iPhone XS Max, your phone has a dual lens, take control of your zoom by using 2x optical zoom. 6. Rainy day? No worries! During summer, storms can be expected, but it doesn’t mean fewer opportunities to create or capture memorable moments.
Look for puddles where you can compose cool reflection shots.
It is best to turn your phone upside down so the camera is closest to the water and almost perfect symmetry can be achieved.
Apple admission as iPhone weakens
APPLE shares were sent tumbling in after hours trading on US markets recently as concern among investors that the company has reached peak iPhone began to materialise.
Apple shares entered a brief trading halt as the consumer tech giant announced it would not meet revenue targets because of lower than expected demand for its most popular device, especially in China.
The company forecast US$84 billion (A$121b) in revenue for the first quarter, below expectations of US$91.5 billion (A$131.8b). After becoming the first company to hit a US$1 trillion (A$1.44 trillion) valuation last year, Apple has seen its perceived value smashed in recent months. Investors were Apple has reached peak iPhone. particularly spooked when the company announced in November that it would no longer provide the unit sales of its iPhones, iPads and Macs each quarter – a practice it has maintained for decades.
In a letter to investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook took the rare step of downgrading projections and explaining why the company got it wrong. Depending on the dataset, the last time it had to do such a thing was 2002 or 2004. So, it’s been a while.
Apple believes the fact that it offered discounted battery replacements following revelations it was intentionally slowing down older iPhones, also weighed on new iPhone sales.
“Tim Cook finally says it: Repair hurts Apple’s profits,” wrote Motherboard editor-inchief Jason Koebler.
Apple also cited supply constraints for some products, including its latest watch and iPad Pro as a drag on revenue.