Our mobile phones and tablets come with increasingly sophisticated cameras on board. Today we’ll take a look at ways to get great pix and fun things to do with them once we have them.
Let’s start with a few basic guides I found:
https://www.wikihow.com/Take-a-Good-Picture-On-Your-Camera-Phone
https://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/8-tricks-to-take-better-photos-with-your-phone-1783801733
Take a Selfie!
Accessories!
- My kids got me this cute little kit. It has a range of lenses (including fisheye), a tripod, and a bluetooth remote, great for getting into a pic that is more than an arm’s length or selfie-stick away.
- I am not a fan of the selfie-stick, because I am a klutz and likely to bonk somebody with it. But it is a popular option for the more coordinated.
Where to store/manage/share?
- On your device
- In the cloud
- On your computer
- Photos on Mac (iCloud optional)
- Photos on Windows 10 ( OneDrive optional)
- Transfer photos from iPhone to Mac
- Transfer photos from iPhone to PC
- Transfer photos from Android to Mac
- Transfer photos from Android to PC
- On a backup USB drive
Edit or not?
- There are a lot of simple things that don’t take a lot of time and can make a photo much better. Cropping, in particular, can make a big difference
- Photo editing can be a rabbit hole down which some people fall and never reappear!
- Photo editing can be a fun hobby all by itself!
Where to edit?
- Phone/Tablet (I refuse, just refuse, to mess with my precious photos on the tiny screen of my phone. Tablet is ok, though)
- iPhoto on iPad (2012) ($5.00 or so from App Store)
- This review raves about Google Snapseed as an editing choice for Android. It’s free.
- Computer
- Windows 10 Photos (built into operating system) (Here is a nice review of its capabilities)
- Mac Photos (built into with operating system)
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 11
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 (current version, 2018 is $69)
- Online
- Instagram, Google Photos and Flickr have basic editing functionality
- Facebook really doesn’t. Neither do Dropbox or iCloud.
Make a Slide Show!
- I think the easiest/best ones are made on a Macintosh computer using Photos Photos lets you choose music from iTunes or use their defaults to make a nice product/
- Windows 10 users can create a silent slide show using the built in File Explorer. If you want one with music, there are lots of alternatives. Breakthrough epiphany — a slide show comprised of still photo, especially one with music, is actually a video, or as we old-timers call it, a movie. Hence if you want major control over your creative oeuvre, you can use video-creation software. I thought this rundown was a helpful guide to the inexpensive/free options.
- People who keep photos on google and use the Chrome browser can use Google Slides
- There’s also a fully automatic, but sort of creepy robot-made one by the assistant in Google Photos
- You can make a slide show on your iPhone or iPad Here’s a video from 2016 showing how to use an iPhone and Adobe Premier Clip to make a slide show Apparently Adobe Premiere Clip is also available for Android
Share your slide show on your TV
- An HDMI Cable is the easiest way, with modern TV’s. Most recent laptops have an HDMI jack. Some have a mini HDMI jack. A little research is necessary. iPhones and iPads have a specialized and annoyingly expensive cable. And Androids
- Here’s a nice guide for the different ways to connect an android device to a TV
- And here’s a good one for connecting an iPad or iPhone to a TV
Share your slide show on YouTube
- Lots of slide show creators make it easy by just using the “share” button
- It’s a little more complicated, but doable, with Mac Photos slide show. Pro tip, if you want to share a slideshow created on the mac, it’s easier if you just use their built-in music, because if you use stuff you downloaded from iTunes you risk that your brilliant creation will be silent on YouTube due to copyright restrictions on the music.
Make something tangible! A frameable print or greeting card or t-shirt or calendar or mug or tote bag or jigsaw puzzle!
Most of the places that print photos will also put them on a mug or something
Many of us have, at one time or another, invested in a good camera, and we’re aware that smartphone pix often don’t measure up. But truly, the best camera for capturing a moment is the one you have with you. Most of us have our phones with us much of the time, so take some pix, and have some fun!