This morning was one of the first really cold ones. 64.4F according to the math. For Friday the expected high is going to be even lower.
This photo was the scene this morning as I stepped out the front door. Dark clouds lining the sky. Wind blowing in from the south east. A cold one.
My phone camera is the only camera with my during the morning. I want to leave my bicycle at home during the winter and take walks to work with my compact camera. Especially in the early morning when there isn’t a lot of light. I’ve taken some good photos in these low light conditions.
If you’re an Android user you’ll be familiar with PRO mode. It gives you an option to set the ISO, fool with the white balance and then adjust the exposure too. There is also a spot metering option. Something interesting which I might try in the next few days is the ratio option.
I like flipping the phone on its side and taking landscape shots. I will include the full landscape from the photo above.
I’ve tried the PRO mode a few times before. I don’t often use the exposure settings on my phone camera since it happens in the editing process. There seems to be a big difference in the two modes I think mostly related to the exposure. In the normal mode the scene seems a lot brighter.
I did some reading and one article mentions RAW files in PRO mode. I haven’t seen this option on my phone so it could be related to the Android version or perhaps the phone type.
In the past I’ve used the mobile version of Adobe Lightroom. It had the option to take photos using the app and this gave me some good results with longer exposure photos.
The phone camera is a great tool for me but I feel it is a bit of a crutch for me. Because it is always handy I often leave my other cameras at home and tend to fall back on this. It has it’s upsides but I don’t get the same experience (or quality) from the photos I take. And I feel disappointed in not opting for a proper camera.
Many photographers have made a name for themselves using phone photography. Nothing wrong there. For me, it’s not what I really have in mind for my work. I’d rather shoot with my Kodak compact camera and get a bit higher quality photo and a better all-round experience.