So you want to take better pictures? [Guide]

[Muessig]

This is an EXCELLENT article and thanks for taking the time to explain. Now I want to just go buy a L1020 now.

Thanks for the kind words!

Added some example pictures to the end of the guide to show the kinds of results it's possible to get.

 

[eroselim]

Hello, sorry for this very newbie question, (i am not really into photography, but the time I saw your post, seemed like I want to be one Lol)

How do you do Focus shot? Where only the thing in the center gets the "NOT-Blurry" effect of the camera? I am just using the in-built camera of L620 Don't want to have some third party application though.

 

[KUMAR MAYANK VIPAL]

cool man..learned a lot about cameras.thank you

 

[Muessig]

Hello, sorry for this very newbie question, (i am not really into photography, but the time I saw your post, seemed like I want to be one Lol)

How do you do Focus shot? Where only the thing in the center gets the "NOT-Blurry" effect of the camera? I am just using the in-built camera of L620 Don't want to have some third party application though.

You can do this with the native camera app. Change the Scene to "Close-Up" and put your camera close to your subject. The background will be blurry. If you want more refined manual focus you can use third party apps or you can wait for Nokia Pro Camera (on 92x series first, but who knows, it might go to others later on).

 

[eroselim]

You can do this with the native camera app. Change the Scene to "Close-Up" and put your camera close to your subject. The background will be blurry. If you want more refined manual focus you can use third party apps or you can wait for Nokia Pro Camera (on 92x series first, but who knows, it might go to others later on).

Thanks Muessig, but I want to ask one more question I can't see Scene selection in my NL620 :'( Native Camera app is the built-in camera app right?

 

[Muessig]

Thanks Muessig, but I want to ask one more question I can't see Scene selection in my NL620 :'( Native Camera app is the built-in camera app right?

Yeah the native camera app is the one that comes with WP8. If you go to photo settings> it will be the very top item. It should look like below:

 

[TechFreak1]

Thank you for taking the time to write this awesome guide, which is extremely informative and easy to understand -). Bookmarked for future reference.

 

[eroselim]

Yeah the native camera app is the one that comes with WP8. If you go to photo settings> it will be the very top item. It should look like below:

View attachment 38216

Oh yea. There it was. Sorry

 

[gedzum]

I think I need a bit of advice. I love the camera on my 920, but if there is one thing I struggle with, it is getting the colour of my desk shot accurately without sacrificing too much with the main subject.

Going to post some images for reference, so please bear with me :wink:

1) Full auto on default camera



2) ProShot Cloudy White Balance. The reds and blacks are pretty much true to life. However my desk is a bit too yellowish.


3) Same settings as #2 except I turned saturation down a bit. Table colour is a bit more accurate, but at the cost of the reds and blacks.



4) Same settings as #3 except I increased Contrast a bit.This is as accurate as I can get the colour reproduction of my desktop, but the accuracy of the reds are sacrificed.


Is this a trade off I have to make or can you guys advise me on what other settings I can tinker with? Thanks a bunch :smile:

 

[HaibaneReki]

try Sunny - not so yellowish as Cloudy, but still should produce better reds.

 

[Muessig]

In ProShot there's also a custom white balance option you can use to fine tune the balance, which you might find useful.

 

[gedzum]

try Sunny - not so yellowish as Cloudy, but still should produce better reds.

Thanks man. Gave it a try and I think it struck a slightly better balance. There is still a hint of yellow at the far right, but the left side is a bit more true to the colour of my desk. I guess it could a lighting issue since my window is on the left perhaps.

In ProShot there's also a custom white balance option you can use to fine tune the balance, which you might find useful.

I can only see the preset WB settings like cloudy, sunny etc. Where abouts can I find that setting?

While I'm here, thanks for the guide. Great read.

 

[Muessig]

Where abouts can I find that setting?

Oddly enough, I can't find a WB mode called 'Sunny' and I can't find the custom white balance slider that was there before. It must have been removed for some reason. Bit of a pain but at least trying the other modes has helped you. For the record the modes I can see in ProShot are: Auto, Cloudy, Daylight, Flash, Fluorescent, Tungsten, Candlelight.

 

[gedzum]

Yeah those are the settings I see too. Maybe it changed with the last update?

And my bad calling is sunny. It is indeed the daylight setting I am referring to. I think because of the icon I called it sunny lol.

 

[HaibaneReki]

Yeah those are the settings I see too. Maybe it changed with the last update?

And my bad calling is sunny. It is indeed the daylight setting I am referring to. I think because of the icon I called it sunny lol.

actually it was me, sorry for the confusion

 

[frett]

Do you know any apps to make the picture to be square so it's just nice to be uploaded to Instagram? Not cropping, but to add white background on the picture so the whole picture will be square? You know what I mean if you use Instagram!

Check out Squarify

 

[jabtano]

Really a great defined posting of information, in general moist folks just aim and shoot as most phone cams are so-so but Nokia is changing all of that. with the information you just posted people can really go out now and play with the settings with a little better understanding of what they all do. Great posting.

 

[Roland Dombi]

saved the post. this is a life saver

 

[Neeraj Saini]

I have clicked a picture of my son. He is standing in front of the wall. Now I want to change the background i.e. the wall & change it to sea or forest or anything. How do I do that, with which software? Please help.

 

[Muessig]

Hi Neeraj, I'm currently writing a guide on post processing and I'll make sure this is in it. But for best results you should probably use Adobe Photoshop.