[Art_beyond_sight_advocacy] New Post on Photo Narrations: A blind art photographer tells her story: Part 2 taking pictures with smartphones

[Tina Paulick]

A blind art photographer tells her story: Part 2 taking pictures with smartphones <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/a-blind-art-photographer-tells-her-story-part-2-taking-pictures-with-smartphones/> 

by Tina Franziska Paulick <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/author/tinafranziskapaulick/>  

And hi again to all hobby photographers and all who want to become photographers.

I already introduced myself in my first post <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/a-blind-art-photographer-tells-her-story-part-1-nadine-introduces-herself/> . <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/a-blind-art-photographer-tells-her-story-part-1-nadine-introduces-herself/>  However, in future I want to write mainly about the different camera types we visually impaired or blind photographers can use and their advantages and disadvantages.

Most people, including myself, start or have started taking pictures using their smartphones, or tablets, the technology involved is the same.

Advantages

Always at hand

Phones offer beginners excellent means to get started. The technology in newer phones is so good, that the quality of the pictures is comparable to that of compact and smaller cameras. Usually, we have our phones always ready for a good snapshot. They think for us and no expertise is needed to use them; that is if one stays with the motives beginners generally choose: people, animals, landscapes, perhaps a smaller object in close up. Thus, we can focus exclusively on the act of taking the picture itself; judging the environment and the light and focusing on the motive.

Easy to use

Another advantage of phone cameras is that most of them adjust themselves automatically to the given environment. Consequently, the user doesn’t have to do anything. However, this is only true for daylight shots. Furthermore, blind and visually impaired photographers owning an Android or IOS phone can access and change all camera settings with the built in speech software.

Picture of a dahlia <https://photonarrations.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/rotweiss96.jpg> 

Disadvantages

Taking pictures at dusk and in the dark

Most phone cameras have weak points when it comes to taking pictures at dusk or dark. Pictures with little or no natural light can be fascinating, but here the problem with the automatic adjustment comes in. Especially photographers without any sight may want to set the flash to automatic, because it is difficult for them to judge the intensity of the natural light. However, often too bright flash tends to add too much artificial light to the picture, making colours appear too light and lines too sharp. In a portrait the skin often appears almost white and the whole picture looks somehow flat. Most phones are unable to take a realistic picture at dusk or night. These photos are often liked, because in the ideal case the motive is depicted as in adopted daylight while the background is darker.

close-up of a face. It looks yellow because the flash was too bright. <https://photonarrations.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/dsc04760.jpg> 

Motive stabilization 

Many phone cameras have an integrated camera stabilizer, which is supposed to compensate for shaking while taking the picture. Shaky pictures are blurry and flat. Colours are often barely definable; boundaries are wobbly or indiscernible. The stabilizers in phone cameras are often not good enough. Of course a steady hand is always the best help. Don’t worry too much if some pictures are shaky. Just take your time with fixed motives, than you don’t need a stabilizer.

Zoom

There are two types of zoom: optical and digital zoom. I’ll talk more about optical zoom in another post. Phone cameras only have digital zoom. That means you don’t really bring the motive closer up. The phone only takes a part of the picture and magnifies it. This can lower the quality of the picture.

Blurry picture of a scorpion. <https://photonarrations.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/img_0296_1.jpg> 

But after all these pros and cons, I have to repeat: Phone cameras are the perfect tool for beginners.

General Tips 

Here are some general tips, most of you probably know. But some of them are so simple that we tend to forget about them.

1. Keep the lens clean

We often don’t think about it: We talk on the phone or put it into a pocket and absentmindedly put a finger on the lens. Fingerprints can make the picture foggy or dull. So when using your phone as camera always bring a clean cloth like those used to clean glasses. Please don’t try to clean it with something else, otherwise the lens gets so called polishing scratches and is irrevocably damaged.

2. Don’t zoom

If you want a motive close up go nearer if possible. As described above, zooming often makes the picture grainy.

3. Push the button

If your phone has a physical trigger, that is a button on the casing, use it. As soon as you have to tap a button on the touch screen, you have only one hand left to hold the camera steady and to focus on the motive. On IPhones for example the volume buttons can be used to take pictures.

4. Beware of lighting

Photographing against the light usually doesn’t work with phone cameras. So, if you want to take pictures during the day go into the shadow or have the sun in your back or shining from an angle behind you. Sometimes it also works with the sun coming from one side. Midday isn’t the best time to take pictures. The sunlight around noon can be very bright and hard. Portraits taken in harsh light often don’t show fine lines and other small details of a face. The lighting is ideal early in the day or in long evenings before sunset. Than the light becomes warmer and a bit weaker, making edges and lines clearer and finer.

5. Be careful

And that’s true for every camera type. Never take pictures directly against the sun. I’m sure everyone knows the experiment with the magnification glass and the anthill boys like to try. With the sunlight falling through the magnifier it is very easy to set the anthill on fire. Camera objectives can have the same effect. They often consist of numerous groups of lenses. The whole camera can be badly damaged, because lenses bundle and intensify the sunlight

6. Position of the lens

And here’s another thing that is important for us visually impaired photographers that caused me problems in the beginning. Remember, the lens often hides on one edge or an upper corner of the phone, not in the middle. So you have to aim with the lens not with the middle of the phone. Otherwise the intended subject ends up in a corner of the picture where it wasn’t supposed to be.

I don’t want to make it too long. These are just some suggestions, of course there’s much more to say about the topic.

Finally, the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store offer an enormous number of apps for taking and applying various effects to pictures. However, that would be too much now. Try some of the apps on offer yourself, if you’re interested. It’s a lot about personal preference and choice.

If you have further questions about taking pictures with phones or tablets, please feel free to send me a Facebook message <https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007152855542>  or contact me at:

fotokunst at blind-click.de

Best Wishes

Nadine

Tina Franziska Paulick <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/author/tinafranziskapaulick/>  | Mittwoch, Juli 22, 2015 um 3:05 nachmittags | Tags: blind photographer <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/?tag=blind-photographer> , blind photography <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/?tag=blind-photography> , inspiring people <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/?tag=inspiring-people> , IPhone <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/?tag=iphone> , Nadine Alexander-Meißinger <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/?tag=nadine-alexander-meissinger>  | Kategorien: Friends & Inspiring People <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/?cat=352989653> , various <https://photonarrations.wordpress.com/?cat=2330>  | URL: http://wp.me/p64vId-5e