Dear Readers: I'm new to 365 and can use all the help I can get. And here's the deal I made with myself...if I can figure out how to get decent shots with my little EVO 8 megapixel cell phone cam, then I'll splurge and buy some nice equipment at the end of my first year of 365. With that in mind, please feel free to provide feedback on my shots and please -- oh God PLEASE -- provide me with any tips or thoughts on using a cell phone camera. It's a challenge in and of itself...I don't need any more for now. Thanks, in advance, for you help!
@shamrockinmom Sherry I would just treat your phone techniques like you would on a conventional camera, still compose your shots look for interesting points of views etc, if your phone has thirds grid lines turn them on it will help you learn the thirds rule.
When I'm out looking for new sites I quite often use my phone to get quick composition views. I know on my S2 I can change most settings eg ISO, metering, white balance etc so just play around :)
Get inspired by other cell phone users as the iPhone is the most popular "camera" that 365ers use to upload here. Some great photographers here use it as their principle camera. check out @dieter who comes to my mind. http://365project.org/dieter/365
I also agree with @flagged that composing photos will be similar with any camera. Best of luck.
Learn the timing of your camera, by this I am thinking of shutter lag. With a SLR you click the shutter and the picture taking is almost instant. With many cell phones and pocket cameras there can be a fair amount of delay. Tonight I was shooting pics of a juggler. The picture I wanted was the chainsaw in the air. The picture I got was him taking his bow. Learn how to anticipate the moment.
@mcrt Yes, Mike, I've been working on that one -- a bit of a challenge. Trying to get action dance shots of my dd is near impossible for me..wish it had one of those lovely "sports" settings... BTW, I hate those chainsaw jugglers...make me a nervous wreck.
@shamrockinmom The only thing I would suggest is to work with your camera not against it. With your phone cam you have a small, very portable camera with a fixed wide-angle lens and a tiny sensor that makes it almost impossible to take anything with limited depth-of-field. So forget about smooth out-of-focus backgrounds and bokeh, close-ups of wildlife, compressed perspective distortion, and all the other cool things you can do with a dSLR, and just concentrate on what you can do well: catching gorgeous light, big wide landscapes, candids and street photos, unusual perspectives etc. etc. Experiment and have fun :)
@dieter I've been "creeping" your work - beautiful stuff. Good advice and you are correct. My husband has offered to purchase me some "cool real equipment" but I kinda want to hang out with the cell for this year's challenge...see what I can do and learn. I miss not being able to capture good "movement" or at least so far I haven't been lucky...I did capture one "bee in flight" that surprised me...luckily it was a hot and lazy day and no bee was moving too quickly... :-)
@shamrockinmom ah, yes, movement is another thing to forget! Especially hard for me as I love long exposures (for twilight colours as much as capturing motion)
I think I managed it once with my phone (out of 246 photos to date):
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When I'm out looking for new sites I quite often use my phone to get quick composition views. I know on my S2 I can change most settings eg ISO, metering, white balance etc so just play around :)
I also agree with @flagged that composing photos will be similar with any camera. Best of luck.
@shamrockinmom The only thing I would suggest is to work with your camera not against it. With your phone cam you have a small, very portable camera with a fixed wide-angle lens and a tiny sensor that makes it almost impossible to take anything with limited depth-of-field. So forget about smooth out-of-focus backgrounds and bokeh, close-ups of wildlife, compressed perspective distortion, and all the other cool things you can do with a dSLR, and just concentrate on what you can do well: catching gorgeous light, big wide landscapes, candids and street photos, unusual perspectives etc. etc. Experiment and have fun :)
Here's a few of my personal favs:
I think I managed it once with my phone (out of 246 photos to date):