Smartphone camera settings

Your smartphone camera has many helpful settings available that you may not utilize, understand or knew existed! Let's take a moment to review what it all means. I am using a Samsung Galaxy S3, your settings menu may not look the same, but the terms are transferable.

 In-camera effects are a fun way to mix up your typical portrait. It's easy to add filters after the shot is taken; these settings are meant to save you that extra step. Pictured: negative effect.

Changing the exposure value in your settings is helpful if you are in an extremely bright or dark space and the camera's automatic settings are not able to achieve a properly lit image. Below is an example of -2, 0 and +2 exposure adjustments. I am sitting indoors lit by an overhead incandescent.

 Guidelines are helpful when composing an image. The overlay is set up to use the "rule of thirds" as a reference. See the "composition" post on this blog for more help in composing your photos.

When turned on, auto share shot allows you to easily connect the devices you want to share pictures with by bringing the devices together back to back. Contextual filename pairs with GPS tag, adding the location where the photo was taken to the filename saved on the device. Voice control allows you to snap a photo with vocal commands such as "smile", "capture", "shoot", and "cheese".

Don't want to hand your phone over to a stranger for the group shot? Want to take a selfie without arms extended? Use your timer, just be sure to focus the frame before setting.

GPS tag works with the location settings in your camera to add metadata to photo files. The geographic location will be added, so this is helpful while exploring during vacation and adding images to Google Earth but should not be used everyday for security and privacy reasons. Parents should take care that children with smartphones are not using this setting. 

Photo note allows you to "write" on the back of your digital photos in various colors and widths of pen. When the image is displayed in your gallery, a peeled back corner looking button will appear in the top right corner. This is a fun and easy way to add and memorable facts to your photos. Photo frame will give you framing options for your image.

 For more tips and tricks on using your smartphone camera, watch this 3-minute video from COOPH.