It seems some camera options are not very well documented. Thought I would start a thread to share tricks to help improve photos. There is another thread for tips and tricks but that one focuses on other things. Since camera is one of the highlights of this phone I figured a dedicated thread was worth it.
Here are a few I found. Feel free to share yours!
1. When tapping to focus on a point, if you do a long touch instead, it will set a focus point but add a second movable frame for exposure so you can have an exposure point that is not your focus point (IE focus on someone but expose for highlights)
2. If short tapping to focus, you can then tap/drag the focus point up or down to adjust exposure level (exposure compensation).
3. From my early tests, it looks like the camera hdr is better at recovering shadows instead of highlights. When having high contrast scene, change exposure so the highlights are better exposed when looking at picture frame. Shadow details will come out better (don't over exaggerate this or shadows will remain too dark). Adjusting exposure for shadows never seem to recover highlights properly.
4. I've seen some reviews where pixel 3 has a better exposure using their night scene function. If the mate night function yeilds results too dark, you can force the time and Iso to use (tap the icons in bottom left and right). So far I found that if I look at the picture info and see the auto mode exposed say 4 sec with Iso 400, usually keeping 4 sec but doubling Iso (800 in that case), will produce a better exposure similar to the pixel. I don't want to get into color/detail comparison between the 2 devices.. This is just to get a better exposure. Guessing they'll sort this out in a future update.
For now that's what I found that didn't feel intuitive.
Please share your findings!
Let me share my suggestions:
1. In case of pro mode ,shutter speed is restricted to 30s of exposure whereas night mode can give up to 52s (max I have seen) exposure.
2. You can try different light painting modes to achieve low-light shots as well. I tried with star trails and got good results ( but exposure gets throttled and(or) locked at some point.
3. in Pro mode, If you are taking low-light snaps in an enclosed area such that your flashlight can reach, then you will get very good photos for reasonably smaller exposure times.
4. Use tripods for all night shots (bluetooth trigger will make it even better), don't rely on stabilization unless there is ample light and that exposure time will be around 1/125 , because even night mode can be affected despite the claim that OIS stabilization will be sufficient.
5. lowering the exposure while taking close-up flash photography will help in partially retaining data that would have been lost due to flash overexposure.
Thanks,
Rakesh
Related
I have been very dissapointed with the performance of the X1 camera even after installing the R3 cab. It was imposiible to capture anything that moved because by the time it took the photo my subject had left the vicinity lol.
Following the advice of another poster (sorry, cant remeber who but thanks) I set my focus to infinity. Now, I can take full 3mp, fine quality pics, use the zoom function and capture crisp, clear images...even when the subject is moving. This combined with Resco Photo Viewer has been the final missing piece of the X1 jigsaw.......forget the X2 Ill now keep my X1 for as long as I can
Hah, I will check this out than!
Nice advice, works flawless! The pictures are not shaken anymore...
But tell me: how do you zoom? Does the x1 have the option to zoom?
Cheers
Zooming
Use the volume up and down button. Didnt work with 3mp and auto focus but works a treat now!!
just remember there is no optical zoom only digital zooma, so the more you zoom the worse the picture.
Well, even with infinity focus I can't zoom in 3mp mode. It says "cannot zoom in this quality mode". Man. Do you guys use R3A or has it nothing to do with it. Or is there a newer camera program?
oTToToTenTanz said:
Well, even with infinity focus I can't zoom in 3mp mode. It says "cannot zoom in this quality mode". Man. Do you guys use R3A or has it nothing to do with it. Or is there a newer camera program?
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Yes, have installed R3A cab so maybe that's the difference with the zoom function. Well worth doing as it also has auto flash and GPS functionality.
You can zoom as long as the image is set to less than the max (3 mega pixels for the X1). Its always been like this on every WM and nonWM phone I've ever had.
i always thought infinity would be the worst option
thnx for the tip!
Still blurry indoors for me. Are y'all saying that this solves that issue for you? Only thing that works to get rid of blur for me is to change to action mode and keep flash on, but pictures are still pretty dim.
ring-bearer said:
Still blurry indoors for me. Are y'all saying that this solves that issue for you? Only thing that works to get rid of blur for me is to change to action mode and keep flash on, but pictures are still pretty dim.
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The infinity "trick" doesnt effect the ability of camera to take good pics in poor light. It just lets you take good quality pics instantly rather than suffering the lag between button push and photo taken.
Sonus said:
You can zoom as long as the image is set to less than the max (3 mega pixels for the X1). Its always been like this on every WM and nonWM phone I've ever had.
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I have my camera set for 3mp and fine quality, have just double checked and it seem that with the R3A cab installed the zoom function is available with all of the focus options.
hey thanks for the advice, it really helps.
biernes_atrece said:
i always thought infinity would be the worst option
thnx for the tip!
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As a photographer I can hopefully shed some light on this - the percieved 'shutter lag' that most people experience on consumer grade cameras and cellphone cameras has nothing to do with shutters (actually nearlly all of these don't have shutters, but 'hot' shutters where the imaging sensor is just sampled for 1/x seconds), but to do with focus acquisition. On a DSLR, focus is performed using phase-detection using a seperate and extremely quick method (also hence why DSLRs have reflex mirrors).
On cellphones, where there's a far smaller sensor, and no room to beamsplit with mirrors, autofocus is done by measuring contrast on the main sensor, focus is moved in increments from MFD to Infinity, contrast of the image measured, until the sensor detects the maximum available contrast, then focus locked at that point. Because this has to essentially traverse the entire focus range (which admittedly isn't that huge), and is performed on a small sensor with fairly low contrast, the process isn't fast. It is decently accurate though.
By setting the focus to Infinity, the camera doesn't focus, as focus is just fixed at the further possible focal point. This would usually present an out-of-focus issue, (and it still would), but due to the depth of field relationship to sensor size, a camera with a small sensor has a large given depth of field, and, the hyperfocal (the point after which all distances are in acceptable focus) is relatively close, and the depth of field at infinity also encompasses a large slice of distance. Because of this, a large amount of the image will always likely be in focus, especially for stuff that's not right in front of the camera, and the delay of focusing is eliminated, so when you hit the shutter release, the photo just takes, and it's likely in focus just fine
flashpanda said:
As a photographer I can hopefully shed some light on this - the percieved 'shutter lag' that most people experience on consumer grade cameras and cellphone cameras has nothing to do with shutters (actually nearlly all of these don't have shutters, but 'hot' shutters where the imaging sensor is just sampled for 1/x seconds), but to do with focus acquisition. On a DSLR, focus is performed using phase-detection using a seperate and extremely quick method (also hence why DSLRs have reflex mirrors).
On cellphones, where there's a far smaller sensor, and no room to beamsplit with mirrors, autofocus is done by measuring contrast on the main sensor, focus is moved in increments from MFD to Infinity, contrast of the image measured, until the sensor detects the maximum available contrast, then focus locked at that point. Because this has to essentially traverse the entire focus range (which admittedly isn't that huge), and is performed on a small sensor with fairly low contrast, the process isn't fast. It is decently accurate though.
By setting the focus to Infinity, the camera doesn't focus, as focus is just fixed at the further possible focal point. This would usually present an out-of-focus issue, (and it still would), but due to the depth of field relationship to sensor size, a camera with a small sensor has a large given depth of field, and, the hyperfocal (the point after which all distances are in acceptable focus) is relatively close, and the depth of field at infinity also encompasses a large slice of distance. Because of this, a large amount of the image will always likely be in focus, especially for stuff that's not right in front of the camera, and the delay of focusing is eliminated, so when you hit the shutter release, the photo just takes, and it's likely in focus just fine
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Thanks for the mini lecture. I've been trying to get good bokeh/DOF blur on my X1 and K850, this helps in telling me which settings to focus on (no pun intended)
harveydent said:
Thanks for the mini lecture. I've been trying to get good bokeh/DOF blur on my X1 and K850, this helps in telling me which settings to focus on (no pun intended)
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Heh, you're welcome. If you're trying to get narrow DOF/bokeh effects on your X1 and K850, I'm afraid to say you're pretty much out of luck, the (tiny) imaging sensors on phones leads them to have a very large depth of field at any given aperture. Your best chances for getting the smallest depth of field and best bokeh possible is to have a subject extremely close to the X1, focus near, and have the background seperated and relatively far away.
flashpanda said:
Heh, you're welcome. If you're trying to get narrow DOF/bokeh effects on your X1 and K850, I'm afraid to say you're pretty much out of luck, the (tiny) imaging sensors on phones leads them to have a very large depth of field at any given aperture. Your best chances for getting the smallest depth of field and best bokeh possible is to have a subject extremely close to the X1, focus near, and have the background seperated and relatively far away.
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That's what I do, actually I usually include a secondary subject in the background to make the DOF blur easily appreciated.
Plus, I have a modded camdriver for the k850 which allows manual focus. No luck finding one for the X1, though.
Thanks Crank1.
I was getting peeved about the quality of the pics and the lag.
No I get perfect pics every time! (well for a phone camera)
manual focus would be so awesome
i have the kodak easy share C1013 which has 10 mega pixels apparently. but the problem is my phones comes blurry what ever i do, even if the flash is on for some reason, but this only happens indoors and even if the lights are on...if anyone here is good in camera, can they help me pls
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7783291#post7783291
see the third photo on this thread i clicked it with the flash on
Well the third photo the picture is recular out of focus. The problem with Point and SHoots is that they take a while to focus (especially in low light) and (this with all cmeras) the shutter speed has to be much lower for the sensor to gather more light...and P&S's have tiny sensors compared to an APS-C, CMOS, ir a full frame sensor. But you should just retake that shot making sure the camera is focused and maybe add some more light on the subject to make it easier for the camera.
Are you using a manual setting? Have you dropped the camera? How close are you shooting?
wdfowty said:
Are you using a manual setting? Have you dropped the camera? How close are you shooting?
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i have tried both manual and automatic, but both come out blurry. the camera has never been droped and this occur only indoors even if there is plently of light.
jaszek said:
Well the third photo the picture is recular out of focus. The problem with Point and SHoots is that they take a while to focus (especially in low light) and (this with all cmeras) the shutter speed has to be much lower for the sensor to gather more light...and P&S's have tiny sensors compared to an APS-C, CMOS, ir a full frame sensor. But you should just retake that shot making sure the camera is focused and maybe add some more light on the subject to make it easier for the camera.
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i alway focus my camera properly, when ever the focus is right, the box thing becomes green. how to lower the shutter speed i will take some photo with plenty of light. also the the the third photo was taken in a room full of light and also with the flash on
You mentioned that the room is well lit. But perhaps you are standing in front of the light and casting a shadow on your subject?
You mentioned that the camera has locked focus before you fully pressed the shutter. But with inadequate lighting, perhaps the camera is focusing on the wrong spot?
Some cameras have a light that comes on when you half-press the shutter to help the camera focus in low-light. If your camera has this, then make sure you enable it.
Also, if you didn't crop the photo, then perhaps you are holding the camera too close to your subject. Try backing off at least 2 or 3 feet. Then crop the photo with an editor to exclude anything you don't want.
You could also check settings for your focus point. It could be set to spot focus off center, I've seen it before.
ohyeahar said:
You mentioned that the room is well lit. But perhaps you are standing in front of the light and casting a shadow on your subject?
You mentioned that the camera has locked focus before you fully pressed the shutter. But with inadequate lighting, perhaps the camera is focusing on the wrong spot?
Some cameras have a light that comes on when you half-press the shutter to help the camera focus in low-light. If your camera has this, then make sure you enable it.
Also, if you didn't crop the photo, then perhaps you are holding the camera too close to your subject. Try backing off at least 2 or 3 feet. Then crop the photo with an editor to exclude anything you don't want.
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i tried what you said and see the pics i uploaded, but still i dont find the quality of a 10 megapixel camera tho
For those types of pics you need a camera with a macro feature/setting.
good day.
The 3rd and 6th photos are blurry because your subject spans a large depth of field. In those two photos, the base of the iPhone is close to your camera while the top of the iPhone is far away. The distance between these 2 points is too large for your camera to handle (especially under those lighting conditions). Your camera needs a smaller aperture setting than it can handle for those shots.
(In the 3rd photo, the camera seems to have focused on the farthest point. Notice that the top is in focus but the bottom is blurred. In the 6th photo, it's the opposite. Notice that you can clearly see the cracks in the cardboard box on the bottom while the top is blurred.)
The others look on par with what you should expect from your camera under those lighting conditions.
Remember that more megapixels doesn't mean better quality.
The following is just a tip. Lighting is important. Try to take your pictures with sunlight. Don't depend on your camera flash. If you use your flash aimed directly at your subject to compensate for lack of lighting, your pics will look terrible more often than not. (I see from the reflection off the rear of your iPhone that you're using a lamp as your primary source of light. That's not adequate...)
Shallow depth of field is not a bad thing with good lighting. It allows you to highlight certain aspects of your subject. See the following examples.
1st Pic, 2nd Pic, 3rd Pic
The 2nd pic draws your eyes to the bottom right corner while the 3rd pic draws them towards to the top left.
These were also taken indoors with a 10MP camera. But I used my Nikon D60 with SB-400 speedlight to bounce the flash off the ceiling.
I'm coming from an LG G2, which had a great camera in low-light situations. I noticed a knock on some reviews for this camera in same situations, and I tried it out a bit and my pics look a little grainy. What are suggested settings for the camera? Thanks.
RCizzle65 said:
I'm coming from an LG G2, which had a great camera in low-light situations. I noticed a knock on some reviews for this camera in same situations, and I tried it out a bit and my pics look a little grainy. What are suggested settings for the camera? Thanks.
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First, to remove the noise from your photos i suggest you to use the app 'A Better Camera' which has a good noise reduction process, once you downloaded it go in night mode, then go to 'other settings', then go to "shot mode settings", "night", "overnight processing", set noise reduction to maximum and shadow elimination to none, and tick the saturation check.
If you prefer Sony's camera use these settings in manual mode:
Exposure: one or two bars below value of 0
WB: auto
Resolution: 15,5 mpx
Focus mode: multiple autofocus (i think that's what it's called in english)
ISO: This is the most important setting. You can set it to 100 or even 50 to avoid noise and artifacts caused by heavy postprocessing by software. But, the lower the iso, darker the image will be. So on a sunny day it can be 50 od 100, On a cloudy day, a bit higher and in night photos 800.
Metering: multiple
Focusing: When you want to take photo, put object you want to take photo of in the middle and half press shutter button. When squares turn blue on places you want focused, keep shutter half pressed and you can then move your phone to left, right, up or down and not losing focus. That way you make your composition. When you think you have your scene set up, finally press the button all the way.
(i copied these text from the user Istic).
I don't get hdr is a separate mode and just not on by default for taking regular pictures? Wouldn't you want hdr on most of the time?
worldsoutro said:
I don't get hdr is a separate mode and just not on by default for taking regular pictures? Wouldn't you want hdr on most of the time?
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Because they wanted to appeal to photographers and HDR is a dirty word.
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Hi worldsoutro,
Photography is all about capturing light. And HDR is just another way of doing it. But it's not main way of taking photos. So, it totally makes sense to have HDR as an option. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, which in return allows you to combine whites (bright spots) and blacks (shadows) in one image. In order to create such image, the camera has to capture at least three images.
1st - under-exposed (this image will give you very nice and dark shadows).
2nd - correct exposure (normal photo).
3rd - over-exposed (capturing those whites, sunlight, anything bright).
Then software will take all three shots and compose one image. The three images is a bare minimum, and there are methods that use 7 or more images to combine into one.
The biggest downside of HDR is color representation. All colors are going to be in extreme ranges. Also taking HDR photos is probably heavy on the battery, since you are probably capturing more than one image very quickly and processing it (HDR in Huawei might all be simulated via software as well, so it might be just taking one image and processes it to make it look like HDR).
If someone has info about how Huawei has implemented HDR photography, please post! I'm actually curious now.
zed'sded_bb said:
Hi worldsoutro,
Photography is all about capturing light. And HDR is just another way of doing it. But it's not main way of taking photos. So, it totally makes sense to have HDR as an option. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, which in return allows you to combine whites (bright spots) and blacks (shadows) in one image. In order to create such image, the camera has to capture at least three images.
1st - under-exposed (this image will give you very nice and dark shadows).
2nd - correct exposure (normal photo).
3rd - over-exposed (capturing those whites, sunlight, anything bright).
Then software will take all three shots and compose one image. The three images is a bare minimum, and there are methods that use 7 or more images to combine into one.
The biggest downside of HDR is color representation. All colors are going to be in extreme ranges. Also taking HDR photos is probably heavy on the battery, since you are probably capturing more than one image very quickly and processing it (HDR in Huawei might all be simulated via software as well, so it might be just taking one image and processes it to make it look like HDR).
If someone has info about how Huawei has implemented HDR photography, please post! I'm actually curious now.
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Your description of combining exposures is correct, but you got the reasons for the different exposures wrong, underexposed is to retain detail in highlights, and overexposed is to retain detail in the shadows.
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zed'sded_bb said:
Hi worldsoutro,
Photography is all about capturing light. And HDR is just another way of doing it. But it's not main way of taking photos. So, it totally makes sense to have HDR as an option. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, which in return allows you to combine whites (bright spots) and blacks (shadows) in one image. In order to create such image, the camera has to capture at least three images.
1st - under-exposed (this image will give you very nice and dark shadows).
2nd - correct exposure (normal photo).
3rd - over-exposed (capturing those whites, sunlight, anything bright).
Then software will take all three shots and compose one image. The three images is a bare minimum, and there are methods that use 7 or more images to combine into one.
The biggest downside of HDR is color representation. All colors are going to be in extreme ranges. Also taking HDR photos is probably heavy on the battery, since you are probably capturing more than one image very quickly and processing it (HDR in Huawei might all be simulated via software as well, so it might be just taking one image and processes it to make it look like HDR).
If someone has info about how Huawei has implemented HDR photography, please post! I'm actually curious now.
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Over-exposure gives usable shadows and under-exposure usable highlights [emoji16]
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So in a bright sunny day should I always shoot with HDR?
Good catch guys. Yeah, overexposure allows you to get all details in the shaded areas and preserve them. While underexposed photo would exaggerate light sources.
I suppose we are turning this into HDR topic altogether.
worldsoutro - I think you can use HDR whenever you think you will like the result. Photography is art in the end. I would say that during midday hours (when the sun light is the harshest) and at night (with appropriate light) HDR can give you some cool results.
Play around with different modes. Check out Pro mode too. You basically have a full control over the scene. It's pretty cool.
Hope it all was helpful. Cheers!
Auto (photo) mode uses HDR whenever it deems it appropriate - it's those situations where it says "sharpening - hold the device still" (also the same situations where most of the criticisms of excessive sharpening apply).
It's a less elegant implementation of the auto HDR you see in some other phones, and one you can't turn off without switching to pro mode (but then pro mode is very good on the P20 Pro and also allows all its settings to remain on auto, so usually not a big problem making that switch when you need it).
worldsoutro said:
So in a bright sunny day should I always shoot with HDR?
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It depends on what outcome you have in mind the time you take the photo. I like playing with light and although I like wide dynamic range look, I also like to take photos with high contrast, so auto mode gets played some times and I have to lock the exposure the way I want
I am using dslrs for many many years (always travelling with a backpack full of lenses) but I think this phone's camera is really amazing. In really low light situations you can take way sharper photos than what you would with a dslr when handheld, and that's something.
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I know this is an old phone and the new xperia 1 is far better. However, old but not obsolete :highfive: As an owner for almost half a year. I have been using (testing actually as I am not quite sure about the camera) the camera from time to time and here are my thoughts and the settings that creat tge best overall picture quality.
Ratio : 4:3
As choosing 4:3 can have more accurate autofocus then 16:9 and better sharpness sometimes.
Megapixels : 12mp for daily use (19mp for landscape and or objects far away)
From my testing, using 12mp can actually have less blurry pictures(Taking picture handheld). As according to sony tgat reading out a 19mp picture takes the sensor 1/120 seconds, a 12mp picture might be less than that. And since people may argue that 19mp have better detail to the picture while technically it is true. However the sensor is too small and the benefit is negligible on most of the shots.(But you still can see the difference) Night shot will get less noise too. (Its a noisy mess nonetheless )
Edit : Digital zooming in 19mp mode get much better detail than 12mp
Predictive Capture : Off for image quality (Auto if you have a shaky hands)
This is an interesting one. As sony won't tell you that turning this on can reduce chances of taking blurry pictures because the prediction analyze the viewfinder in real time(taking pictures with the dram time to time) which reduce the time of focusing and reading out picture when you press the button. (But pictures taken with it turned off sometimes have better details)
Object Tracking : On
It detects motion and counter any handshake(e.g. When taking photos on a car)
Its great to track slowly moving cars and buses too.
Also, it applies Scene Detection when you focus manually (e.g. Food mode or Tripod mode) which turnning it off and focus manually with a Blue Circle will not.
Auto-capturing : don't bother as it does not affect image quality
Lens correction : image quality
Edit : (offtopic) Steadyshot on actually fix the distortion on camcorder while taking videos.
Buttom line : The xz3 have a great sensor. That's what I can say (not lens, not software )
Offtopic : It will be great if Raw noise reduction comes to xz3 :highfive:
If you have any ways of getting better pictures, I would like to hear from you!! Correct me if I am wrong:highfive:
On Android 9 with software 52.0.A.8.131 no root
Edit : Predictive Capture on may cause ghosting on moving image. Better turn it off for better image quality.