Pocket photography (3) starts from the basics: focus and exposure value.

In the first two sessions of Eu Young's palmprint photography class, we talked about two settings that I often use: "auxiliary grid" and "photo scale brings different visual sense".

This time in the palm photography class, we returned to the basics. Let's talk about focusing and exposure value's compensation this time.

▲ Xiaomi MIX2 shooting

First, the choice of focus, what is the biggest difference between taking pictures with a mobile phone and taking pictures with a camera? Some people will say that you can take photos with you at any time, and I will say it is "convenient". This convenience is based on many aspects, one of which is the change and choice of focus. Whether it is a camera or a mobile phone, the current models have the function of changing the focus position. On the camera, we need to change the focus position through some focus modes or using the direction keys and joysticks. Recently, micro monocular cameras can also focus by touch.

Of course, the mobile phone changes and selects the focus by touching. In this way, it is very convenient to choose at a touch. We can use the following picture to illustrate the change of focus of the mobile phone.

Bring the focus to the middle, with the subject in front of A Lang.

Bring the focus to the left. The theme is behind A Lang.

Through the above set of methods, we can actually see that if you can choose the focus manually, you can not let the mobile phone choose the focus at will, and secondly, you can make the composition more flexible.

If you choose and change the focus and shoot with a mobile phone, the effect will be more obvious if you focus on close-up shots. For example, you can get good results, such as the food you often take, or some close-ups.

In addition, whether it is a mobile phone or a camera, I highly recommend adopting the "portrait" mode or turning on "face recognition". Nowadays, new mobile phones basically detect the appearance of faces and automatically focus on people's faces, so that more accurate and clear photos of people can be obtained.

▲ ASUS Zenfone 4 pro shooting. In general food shooting, changing the focus in time can also make the subject more obvious.

▲ ASUS Zenfone 4 pro shooting. If you focus your phone at ordinary times, sometimes it will automatically focus in the middle of the picture, so the close-up dragonfly is easy to lose focus.

▲ Xiaomi MIX2 shooting. In close-range shooting, because the depth of field is narrow, if there is no good focus, you may get a clear picture in the distance but not in front. Moving the focus can make your good composition more divided!

Second, exposure value's increase or decrease compensation Generally speaking, exposure value includes: aperture, shutter, ISO collocation. Many people are often in a hurry when using cameras. But don't worry, Palm's photography class is a lightweight article. Here we will take the daily shooting success as the theme, and briefly explain the adjustment of exposure value.

As I said just now, although exposure value contains three elements, basically the shooting on the mobile phone is automatic, and these exciting values will not appear on the screen. But we can still see a very intuitive presentation on the screen: "brightness change"

This is where mobile phone photography, or digital cameras and miniature monocular cameras are more convenient than monocular cameras in the past. You can see on the screen whether the brightness of the photo is what you want.

Now exposure value on the mobile phone is very intuitive. Generally, when touching the screen, you can increase or decrease the border around the focus, and the brightness of the picture will change accordingly.

▲ If you feel that the brightness of the picture is not enough, press the focus and pull up the direction of the brightness icon.

▲ If you feel that the brightness of the picture is too bright, press the focus and pull down the direction of the brightness icon.

Here, I can also mention what scenarios will need to be applied to the increase or decrease of exposure value.

Generally speaking, when your pictures are mainly light colors, such as snow, beige coffee shop walls, backlight, etc ... In these scenes, there will be misjudgments in the metering of mobile phones and cameras, so it is suggested that exposure value can be compensated upwards.

When your picture is full of dark colors, such as street scenes at night and dim retro decorations, the camera will misjudge and need more exposure value, which leads to too bright. At this time, it is suggested that exposure value can be lowered to compensate.

Recently, however, mobile phones are very popular to identify scenes with AI. At this time, we can make adjustments with twice the effort, because if the AI database is complete, they will automatically help you compensate after the recognition environment is successful.

▲ Huawei Mate 10 shooting. Generally speaking, for a scene like snow, we need exposure value to compensate for the misjudgment of photometry.

▲ Huawei Mate 10 Pro shooting. And if it looks like a street scene at night, you need to ask exposure value to compensate for the misjudgment of photometry.

▲HTC U 1 1 shooting. If exposure value's compensation is appropriately increased or decreased, you can also take photos with beautiful colors and brightness.

Many times, focusing and exposure value compensation adjustment are actually carried out at the same time.

We change the focus to the subject we want and adjust it by observing the change of screen brightness, which is also the most common action I take when taking pictures.

I also found several examples to show that this can change the focus and increase or decrease the photos of exposure value.

▲ Xiaomi MIX2 shooting. Tungsten filament bulbs like this are quite beautiful in shape. I will first use the change of focus to make the bulb body clear, and adjust the compensation of exposure brightness to make the filament brightness just right.

▲ Xiaomi MIX2 shooting. Backlighting is also a subject I often shoot. By changing the focus, I can easily be in the right position I want. Backlight sometimes causes the whole picture to be dim. At this time, let the picture be brighter to compensate, not only to shoot through the context, but also to have beautiful spots behind it!

▲ Huawei Mate 10 shooting. The retro lighting in this street is similar. Focus on light. Generally speaking, the brightness of the picture will be slightly reduced, leaving only lights. At this time, you can slightly increase the brightness and increase the light spots in the back street, and the overall picture will feel more balanced.

Finally, in addition to the mobile phone, the exposure value compensation of the camera is added.

For cameras, there is usually a "+/-"button or menu. After pressing it, we can use the arrow keys to increase or decrease, or the camera's unique scroll wheel to operate the increase or decrease.

Some cameras, such as my favorite camera Olympus PEN F or Ricoh GR, have separate dials or buttons that can be adjusted faster.

▲ The Olympus PEN F in the picture is a camera that separates exposure compensation into turntables.

So, this time, the photography class in the palm of your hand came. Although choosing the focus and exposure value is the foundation, we can do more extension in the future through these foundations.

Starting from the basics, we will gradually have some extensions in this unit, such as more practical shooting methods or ways of observing light ... and we will also be in these palm photography classes one after another ~

I wish everyone can master the focus and exposure value after reading the article and take good-looking photos!

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