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Stunning travel photograph­s with just your phone.

- y Marcus Wong

Shoot and create stunning travel photos on your smartphone

Everything new in iOS 12

Travel is a large part of Tristan’s role as a fellow of the Master Photograph­er Associatio­n, as he moves around Asia Pacic to accredit local photograph­ers who want to join the profession­al guild house. His work as a profession­al photograph­er also requires him to travel at times, so here are some of his top tips for getting great holiday images with your mobile phone.

# TIP 1 SHOOTING IN TRIC Y LIGHTING CONDITIONS

Tristan says times when the sun is shining directly towards your phone’s camera (like during sunrise or sunset) are some of the trickiest situations to capture, as the high contrast often makes it impossible to give proper exposure to every element in the scene.

A quick and easy way to combat this exposure issue would be to use Lightroom CC for Mobile’s camera function. Tristan especially likes this app because it lets you shoot in RAW for free.

Switch on High Dynamic Range

(HDR) mode, and the phone’s camera automatica­lly snaps three photos in different exposures, merging them together in RAW DNG format to create an image with a foreground and background that isn’t too bright or dark, like this image of the airport for example.

Tristan thought the foreground of the initial photograph was slightly underexpos­ed so he made some minor adjustment­s in the Light Panel to bring up the exposure, shadow details of the airplane, He also increased contrast, and the level of the whites to make the image appear more three dimensiona­l, and pulled down the highlights to preserve more details in the background.

To add a little more vibrancy to the image, Tristan used the Color Panel to make the image warmer by increasing the Color temperatur­e.

He also moved the Tint slider to the right to add a few more magenta tones to the overall image. He also lowered the highlights to ensure that the sun wasn’t too bright. Finally, he used the Graduated

Filter tool under the Selective Edit Panel to reduce the exposure in the background, making the colors in the image look richer, leaving an image that was true to what he saw.

# TIP 2 CREATING A DRAMATIC SCENE

When shot right, sunsets can look amazing. Unfortunat­ely, sometimes the weather can get too misty or cloudy to produce a dramatic sunset scene. You could wait for the weather to clear up, but as tourists, you might not have the luxury of returning to the same place at the same time to get a better photograph.

Thus, Tristan recommends using tools like the Graduated Filter. On his way down from the ropeway on the Asahidake side of Daisetsuza­n National Park in Hokkaido, Tristan saw an amazing sun set in the horizon. It looked amazing, but the sun was covered by thick layers of clouds, and using a DSLR proved to be too much of a hassle.

So, Tristan quickly took out his phone, turned and snapped a couple of photos on HDR mode. Although Adobe HDR DNG format produced generally good results, Tristan felt the foreground was still too dark, and the overall image lacked punch.

Thus, he increased the overall Exposure, lifted up the Shadows and pulled down the Highlights. Next, he used the

Graduated Filter tool under the Selective Edit Panel to make the scene a little colder and more saturated. Although the sky looked more purplish than normal, it was easy to remedy by making the image a little colder through the Color Temperatur­e slider.

Tristan also overlaid an orange color tone in this lter by clicking on the relevant color.

Because the ground area on the bottom of the image still looked too cold as compared to the entire scene, Tristan used the Graduated Filter tool to increase the Color Temperatur­e of the ground area, making the entire scene look more balanced.

Finally, he added another Graduated Filter to increase the saturation of the top half of the image. He also overlaid a red tone to add punch to the overall image so it’s more captivatin­g and dramatic.

# T IP 3 PHOTOGRAPH­ING PEOPLE IN NATURAL ENVIRONMEN­T

Another one of Tristan’s favorite subjects to photograph are people who have a very close cultural link to a place. Recently, he had the privilege of staying with the Kayan people in Sungei Asap, Bintulu, Sarawak.

Most subjects become shy when the photograph­er trains a big camera on them, so Tristan chose to use his phone instead, capturing images of an elderly Kayan lady slicing tobacco leaves one early morning.

Tristan captured various angles of the elderly lady to get the best possible perspectiv­e. Although there were many photos to sort through, Lightroom Mobile allows him to ag or reject a photo by simply swiping up or down on the right side of the screen as he goes through images. You can also rate a photo from (one to ve) by swiping up and down on the left side of the screen, a feature Tristan nds this pretty useful to shortlist the best photo for nal editing.

This photograph was initially slightly overexpose­d and there were many bright areas in the photo that felt too distractin­g. Using the basic Light panel, Tristan brought down exposure slightly and increased the contrast and shadows to rectify the overexposu­re. He also lowered the highlights and pulled down the blacks to make the exposure a little more even.

To optimize the photo even more, Tristan used the Selective Edit tool to draw a radial selection around the bottom right corner where the bamboo strips were. Using this, he lowered the exposure slightly and reduced the highlights as well.

Tristan highly recommends choosing using the eraser tool at the right size to brush along the adjustment area in order to get the ideal selection.

While photograph­ing people, Tristan thinks it’s important to emphasize a slight glow to their skin – especially around the face. The most effective way to do this is via the Luminance panel under the Hue Saturation Luminance. By increasing the luminance of the orange channel, you’ll immediatel­y see a stark difference.

Because he found the blue wall and the wooden oor to still be a little distractin­g, Tristan adjusted these using the Selective Edit panel and the

Graduated Filter tool. He pulled the lter down until the middle portion touched the mid-section of the lady, then decreased the exposure and highlights. Next, he used the eraser tool to ne tune the mask, bringing back the original exposure of the elderly lady’s face and mid torso.

Now, the photo looks much more balanced and the subject that draws the most attention when one looks at the image is the elderly lady’s face, rather than her surroundin­gs.

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 y Tristan Yeo, Photograph­er ??
y Tristan Yeo, Photograph­er
 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Re5ne the edges of the selection with eraser tool.
Re5ne the edges of the selection with eraser tool.
 ??  ?? Fine tune mask with eraser tool.
Fine tune mask with eraser tool.
 ??  ?? Use Light Panel to reduce exposure and increase contrast.
Use Light Panel to reduce exposure and increase contrast.
 ??  ?? Increase luminance of orange channel for better skin tones.
Increase luminance of orange channel for better skin tones.
 ??  ?? Use the graduated 5lter to decrease exposure and highlights.
Use the graduated 5lter to decrease exposure and highlights.
 ??  ?? Use Selective Edit to lower exposure of bamboo strips.
Use Selective Edit to lower exposure of bamboo strips.

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