Getting the most out of your Nseries’ camera

The Nseries is all about imaging. This is obviously an important feature seeing the success of imaging devices like the N73, N95, N95 8GB and most recently the N82. Seeing the quality imaging hardware and the  exceptional images that are the result of this, it shows how important imaging is to Nokia.  But a camera is only as good as the photographer. Sure, manufacturers are constantly putting in “smart” features that  try to correct and make masterpieces using our admittedly less-than-ideal shooting habits. Mastering the art of photography takes a lot of knowledge and practice, which in many cases takes years to master. There are however a few easy tricks that are easy to remember, but in the end make a huge difference.

Filler Flash

Flash is used to illuminate a scene and for this reason people tend to associate Flash with dark or low-light conditions. That is in fact one way of using flash, but have you thought about using your Nseries’ flash during the day? Most cameras including the Nseries devices have the flash set at a default to auto mode, which only activates flash in low-light condition. Setting the flash to always “On” can come in handy during the day by making your subject stand out. The key to doing this is settings the flash to “On” instead of the default “Automatic.”

Go around taking pictures of your subject in daylight with the flash set to on, you’ll be amazed at the results. The first image on the left was taken without flash and the second one on the right had flashed turned on. See how the subject pops out? (click on the image for full size)

 

Digital zoom is bad, really bad.

You heard that right, digital zoom is bad! Unless you have the N93 or N93i which do have optical zoom, it might be best to stay away from the zoom function on all other Nseries phones which all have the digital variant. Why is digital zoom bad? Well, because by definition digital zooming cannot be cannot be categorized as zooming. Digital zoom basically enlarges a portion of the image, making it look like the camera has zoomed in. In other words, the camera crops a portion of the image and then enlarges it back to size. It is for this reason that image quality is lost. Next time you want to zoom in on a subject, just burn a few calories and get closer. The images below show the difference on the N95 8GB. With the first picture on the left I stood from a distance and zoomed all the way in, the other one I just got closer to subject. I did the same thing with the two other shots.

 

Selective Auto-focus

Sometimes the camera’s auto-focus has a mind of its own. It focuses on a certain object and leaving the subject that you wanted out of focus. Sometimes it has trouble focusing (especially in dark conditions) and the images remains out of focus (indicated by the red bracket instead of the green one). A trick to combat this is to aim the camera at an subject that has a similar distance from the camera and do a half-press (pushing the shutter release button half-way in) allowing the camera to focus properly indicated by the green bracket.  With your finger still holding the shutter release button, turn  your camera back to your subject and press the shutter button all the way in. Voila!

Once you master this trick you can do all sorts of neat effects like the one below. Notice how in the first picture on the left the Gnome is in focus while the two bottles in front are a bit blurry? This effect puts emphasis on the Gnome instead of the bottles. This was done by pointing the camera towards the Gnome and letting it focus, than turn to recompose the shot to include the bottles. The second pictures on the right is exactly the opposite: the bottles are in focus and the Gnome is blurry, making the bottles the main subject. This was done in the same way: point your Nseries towards the bottles and do a half-press to let it focus, recompose the shot to include the Gnome and take your shot.

Rule of thirds

When taking pictures people tend to place their subject in the middle of the frame, which is fine, but a bit boring. You can make the shot a lot more interesting by using the “Rule of thirds”, a guide to off-center placement for your subject. Imagine dividing the frame in three sections, both in the vertical and horizontal position. The 4 intersecting points are the places where you should place your subject to add some life to the shot. Luckily, most new Nseries devices come with Gridlines to aid you in the process. This can be enabled using the  Camera’s gridline option on the right.

Once you have it turned on, keep your eye at the 4 places where the lines intersect (indicated in red). Use this location to place your subject. In my example in the first photo I put my subject right in the middle of the shot.  In the second picture I applied the rule of thirds, which makes the shot a lot more interesting.

Comments

[Ravindra @ Symbian-Life Blog]

Great post and the comparisons are very illustrative!!!!!!!!!!!!And thanks for giving us some knowledge about using the gridline.

[Nokiottolo89]

Nokia 6120 macro setup!!!

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http://img260.imageshack.us/my.php?image=17032008039wq3.jpg

[zxon]

There are two kinds of digital zoom.

One type is as you indicated in the blog, where the phone crops the image to the "zoomed" bit of the image and then enlarges the picture, therefore decreasing quality. This is the technique used on the N95.

Another type is when the image is simply cropped, but not enlarged. In truth, this doesn't decrease image quality, but it means that you're not taking your photos at the expected size (e.g. 5MP for the N95). You could be taking photos at 3MP, 1MP or even at QVGA resolutions if you zoom in far enough. This is used on some other Nseries phones, such as the N70.

It's worth noting which of these techniques your phone camera or regular digital camera uses, but in the end they're both pointless. The former decreases quality so you may as well get closer (as you've pointed out), and the latter just crops the image which makes me ask "Why zoom in at all, when you can crop the image yourself?".

All in all, an excellent guide. I know how to use the gridlines now :)

[Meraj Chhaya]

Very interesting article, will really help in my shots :)

[Ultraman666]

Nice thoughts good idea with the flash thanks

[wcoenen]

Nice trick with the auto-focus.

I was aware that you could get and keep the "green focus square" by focusing on something else before taking a shot, but I did not realize that you could use this for anything other than messing up the picture :)

As an aside, do you have any insights to offer on how the auto-focusing process actually works? Does it use a metric of "sharpness" on the perceived image while adjusting the lens? Has the red LED anything to do with it?