So far if you have been reading my columns, I have reviewed several apps that are out there. Trust me there are tons more and most of them are free or cheap unlike the iphone. This week I thought I would take a break from that and give a few pointers on getting good cell phone pictures, particularly focusing (no pun intended) on Droid phones. I think the best way to approach this subject is to offer a few suggestions in each of my next few columns. Hopefully these tips can improve you photos and help realize what the limitations (currently) they have.
1. Don’t Zoom! – If you have been spending anytime at all looking at the settings on your Droid’s phone, you have probably noticed it has a Zoom feature. I am asking something very difficult of you, don’t use it. Here is why…its a digital zoom. Most cameras these days even the point and shoot variety have digital zoom of course, but they also have optical zoom as well. Let me explain the difference and show you example images of a zoomed in shot and an unzoomed shot. Optical zoom uses actual lenses to magnify an image whereas digital zoom gives the appearance of zooming by cropping a photo, adding pixels, and so forth to compensate for lack of a motor-driven lens. Lets look at a couple of examples.
Silktree Zoomed in 4X
Silktree unzoomed
I am half outdoorsman and half technonurd hence my name thenaturenurd. I live in Texas with my wife, Melynie, 14 year old son, Cailean, and our four cats. I’ve been interested in photography since High School and mostly take landscape photographs but have also ventured into other areas of photography. My photography idol of course is Andel Adams, he did fantastic work. As a gadget nut, I hope to bring you clear concise reviews of Android photo applications and maybe even some tips for landscape photography. I look forward to the interactions…