Split-tone on a phone Ben Brain

Takes control of exposure and adds a traditional effect to a woodland scene

Despite the lack of precise exposure controls such as aperture and shutter speed on a smartphone, you can still take some charge over exposure on your phone. For example, the Exposure slider on the iPhone camera (new in iOS 8) allows you to easily make your images lighter or darker.

In this woodland scene, I wanted to capture the light through the trees, which essentially means I needed to overexpose the image. Previously this would have been tricky, but now it was a simple swipe of the finger. There’s a bunch of camera apps for both iOS and Android with this feature.

Of course I was also able to process my image on the spot. I used VSCO Cam to quickly add a yellowish hue to the highlights and a subtle dark blue tint to the shadows. This references the traditional darkroom technique called split-toning, typically a messy chemical process that took ages to master, now a few swipes of the finger away. This is a readily available feature on image processing apps.