Let's face it; our lives are now mostly lived and displayed through our smartphones.
That means often when travelling, out hiking, at the beach, on the ski field… we don’t have the capability to take bulky cameras with us. Yet we want to capture the best photos possible, more often than not to share on our Instagram feeds.
"At the end of the day the best camera you can use is the one you have on you at the right moment" photography expert Robert Mulally told Newshub on a recent jaunt to Sydney, to celebrate the recent launch of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 9.
"If you have your phone and it has this sort of camera on it, then it's all you need," he added.
Mulally and fellow photo expert Luke Tscharke took us through ways to get creative with our photography.
When it comes capturing the landscape these guys are the go-to. Their Instagram feeds are filled with some dramatically jaw-dropping scenes.
They gave us some of their best tips for your next snapping adventure – no filters or dog ears required.
At night:
You’ve probably seen astrophotography – the art of capturing the night sky- pop up in your feed lately. Tscharke is the king of this new craze. If you are on the hunt for a beautiful star-scape, you can’t go wrong with one of his.
- Play with the shutter speed
To really see a scene at night, you’re going to need a hell of exposure. Exposure simply refers to how bright or dark the image is. That means you need to open the lens, and slow the shutter speed.
Depending on your phone, this can be tricky. On the Note 9, you head to Pro mode. Take your shutter speed to 10 seconds; increase your ISO to an appropriate level to acheive the desired effect. That allows as much light as possible into your camera, meaning you can capture the scene. Be wary – this can affect image quality, meaning you’ll probably need….
- A tripod
You may feel a bit silly carrying round a bulky tripod just to photograph the waves at night. But most are pretty small and can easily slip into a backpack for photography expeditions.
To mitigate shaking hands, Rob recommends using a two second timer or using the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 pen when the camera is on a tripod.
It also seems like a fairly obvious tip, but screw your phone doubly tight into your tripod. One of our group suffered a minor heart attack when they dropped their brand new Note 9 into the Bondi sands.
- Invest in a pixelstick
For capturing unexpected scenes, a pixelstick is the way to go. Tscahrke brought his own pixelstick: basically a magic wand of light which is going to change the way you capture night scenes.
A pixelstick enables you to make amazing light when using that long exposure we talked about. Your phone captures the pixels during the long shutter speed time – turning it into a kinetic light painting in front of the screen.
Gasps and screams of delight emerged from our group when what we thought was a man dancing around with a stick, turned into this:
Take a note out of Tsharke’s book and don’t explain to your friends what they’re about to see on their screens – the reaction is worth it.
And in the day…
- Play with panoramas
Panorama photographs – where you scan the entire scene you’re photographing from left to right to make one long photo – went through a popular stage in around 2016. It felt like you couldn’t open Instagram without seeing a warped, fish-eye festival pic.
But Mulally showed us how by experimenting with the valuable panorama function, you can capture more of a landscape then just pointing and shooting. By starting in the sky and slowly rotating your phone down, you can capture the entirety of the scene, from sky to ground.
Here is a beach scape of Bondi from popular Icebergs restaurant without using panorama.
And here it is using panorama.
The difference is astounding – and coincidentally creates the perfect specs for your phone’s new wallpaper.
This article was created for Samsung to celebrate the recent launch of the new Galaxy Note 9.
