My GPS Camera Phone

Photo credit: Daughter #1.

First, thank you to all of my visitors yesterday, especially those of you who commented. I’m enjoying posting an abstract image followed up by a how-to post, so if you want to be sure not to miss anything, please subscribe to my RSS feed (really, it only takes a second!).

There were some great guesses as to how I captured this photo, ranging from colored cellophane to on-board photo filters, but the magic was performed by Photoshop CS2 and a little extra something. I actually posted two photos yesterday. They just happened to be one on top of the other.

Some time ago, I posted an image using a similar technique but I used nearly identical source images. This time around, I used two completely different images – one of a cloudy sky and another close-in shot of a painting (taken by my daughter, hence the partial photo credit). Here’s how it works.

In Photoshop, open two photos and make them equal sizes. It works best to have more contrast between the photos, but I’m sure it will work with anything. Then drag one layer on to the other image. In this case, I dragged the clouds over to the painting image. This should create another layer in that image. Close the image that you just dragged from.

I left the bottom layer (the painting) set to 100% opacity and kept the blending mode at normal. (The layer blending mode selector can be found on the layers palette next to the opacity setting.) The top layer of clouds is obviously going to block out the bottom layer, so we need to make it more see-through. Here’s where I adjusted the opacity to 75% and then changed the layer blending mode to luminosity. And that’s it.

Try experimenting with blending modes and opacity percentages in general and you’ll see a lot of interesting things happen. Just remember that you probably won’t see anything exciting happen with a single layer. Add another image or text layer and then adjust the blending mode of the top layer. Some modes will lighten, some will darken and some will cause a ghosting effect. Any way you slice it, blending modes are worth a look and can amplify the effect of your images significantly.

Partial photo credit: Daughter #1 (The Big A)

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Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to see how this was done.

My children went through Montessori school, which is pretty much a free-form environment for kids to play with lots of educational materials in the form of books, music, art and other fun kid stuff. We were lucky enough to find and be admitted to Flowers Montessori (the best school in the city, in my opinion), which led to our kids getting a big head-start on the basics.

One afternoon while picking up my daughter, I noticed a lot of interesting black-and-white photos hanging on the walls. They looked so artfully done that I started to wonder about the photographer. Then I realized a common trait shared by all of them: the perspective was about thigh-high. Kids, I thought. What a brilliant idea.

Since that day, I have always let both girls take photos from the day they could hold a camera enough for me to trust them. There’s something about a photo taken by a child that evokes a feeling that no adult can capture. Kids take photos of things that the average person wouldn’t think of shooting. A television while it’s on, a toilet, a ceiling fan or the family pet while they’re eating. They bring a real-life quality to photos that professionals work to perfect over their entire careers.

Often, other parents will see my girls running around with my (shiny, expensive, breakable, fragile, non-kid-proof, please-don’t-drop-it) digital camera or camera phone and look at me like I’ve got three heads. However, they also have this look of amazement, at which point I tell them to give it a try with their little hellions kids. “You’ll be surprised,” I tell them.

“Yes,” they reply, with a forced grin. “You’re crazy.” (OK, they think that last part, I’m sure of it.)

The point of this is that kids revel in the light of an adult task, like handling a camera. Teach them to use the wrist/neck strap from the start and a few basic things, then let them go wandering. When they return, sit back and flip through the photos with them. It’s will probably be the most intense conversation you’ve gotten from your child in ages. Doing something like this will also provide your child with an abundance of creative, right-brain activity, which is unfortunately all but phased out of most public schools today.

I’ve decided to run with this on My GPS Camera Phone as a new post theme. There’s two good reasons: 1) read the above and 2) there’s no shortage of photos to post. Additionally, I ask everyone interested to submit your kid’s camera phone photos (or photos from any kid), and I’ll consider posting them.

Of course, you adults can submit camera phone photos as well. E-mail them to photos(at)mygpscameraphone.com and make sure to include the backstory, which will also be posted. You get a photo credit and a linkback to your site. How can you argue with that? Besides, if you don’t submit, I’ll just keep posting my kids’ pictures.

For most of us, the camera phone is a simple point-and-click experience with no real thought given to making the shot better. Let’s face it, camera phones have a bad reputation when it comes to image quality. However, today’s newer models are paying more attention to the camera than ever before.

In this post, I’m going to run through some commonly found camera phone photo options that you may not be aware of and how to use them. For this example, I’ll be referencing the options of my nearly-indestructible Casio G’zOne, type-V camera phone. The G’zOne camera settings can be accessed by switching to the camera and then selecting the right menu button for the options.

Option 1: Resolution
As mentioned in a previous post, the camera resolution can make or break the quality of your photos. The G’zOne has resolutions ranging from 120×160 pixels to 1200×1600 pixels. More pixels means larger images and more flexibility with what you can do with them. The drawback, however, is that more pixels will reduce the amount of photos you can store on your camera phone due to the larger file sizes. In my opinion, it’s a trade-off I’m willing to take, even with a phone that doesn’t have expandable memory.

Option 2: Self-timer
The G’zOne self-timer feature allows you to set a shutter delay for three, five or 10 seconds. Why would you need this for a camera phone? Consider your body position when taking a camera phone photo: arms extended and raised up, steadied by nothing but sheer willpower. Unfortunately, willpower isn’t going to get you that clear shot. To get the clearest possible shot, prop up your phone, compose the picture and shoot with a shutter delay. This allows the camera to be completely still while doing its work and makes for much better photos. As an added bonus, you can be in the shot, too.

Option 3: Flash
As expected, the flash on a camera phone isn’t going to be much. In fact, it’s usually so weak that I make every effort to avoid using it. The G’zOne flash is interesting in that it comes on for a second, presumably to avoid red-eye, and then the picture is taken. Most other camera phones have similar weak flashes or none at all. If there’s something worth shooting in low light, try working with the self-timer and the brightness settings to capture it before using the flash.

Option 4: Brightness
The brightness setting allows you to manually adjust the exposure level of the camera, providing you with more flexibility in variable lighting conditions. Let’s say there’s a great shot of your friends on the beach, but the sun is blazing and the light bouncing off the sand is blowing out the exposure. An easy adjustment to the brightness level will usually bring the image into something more identifiable. Likewise, low light conditions can be overcome somewhat by increasing the brightness.

Option 5: White balance
For the most part, you will leave this set to “auto,” probably because it isn’t worth manually setting or you have no clue what it’s for. In a nutshell, different sources of light emit different color temperatures, which cast different light colors on your subject. The white balance settings – incandescent, fluorescent, daylight and auto – provide you a way to compensate for the different light you will be shooting in. Auto usually makes for a decent color exposure, but sometimes it has no white to reference, thereby resulting in washed out images. If you really want the shot, manually adjust the white balance to match the light source.

Option 6: Shutter sound
Yes, shutter sound is exactly that. On or off, sound or no sound. Why should you seriously consider this when taking camera phone photos? Let’s say you’re in a nature preserve and you spot a rare animal that hasn’t been seen in years. Quietly, you take out your camera phone (because you forgot your digital camera), line up the shot and capture it. You can hardly contain yourself as you frame the next shot, only to realize that the animal ran off because of that annoying camera clicking sound. Upon reviewing the one shot you did take, it turns out that the photo is blurry and unrecognizable. Nobody believes you and you’re labeled a gold-digging hoaxer, forever ruining your career as a naturalist. All because of the shutter sound.

Option 7: Color effect
With the advances in freely available photo editing software like Picasa, I personally feel that utilizing on-board photo effects is unnecessary. However, if you aren’t into geeking out on processing photos all night, then these are for you. With settings like mono (monotone or black-and-white), negative, sepia and normal, you can achieve neat effects right when you capture the photo.

Now go try it out
Hopefully, this clears up any confusion for some of those unused features on your camera phone. The next time you’re out and about, experiment with the camera settings. You might be surprised at what your camera phone can produce.

Author’s note: In my opinion, the Casio G’zOne type-V is far superior to the type-S, with the only potential drawback being the lack of bluetooth capability. The type-S has bluetooth, but all other features are inferior to the type-V. Compare them and see for yourself.

Wordless Wednesday 22 contributed by Mirage at Mirage as Usual. Check out her other camera phone photos!

More Wordless Wednesday photos at the WW Headquarters.

Your GPS Camera Phone: guest post by Melinda at Funny Dog Picture.

I was at work a couple months ago and I saw an employee of mine at work on his day off walking out of the store with a large bulge in the front of his zip-up hoodie. It was apparent that there was something in his jacket and thinking that the only reason to do that is to steal, I went after him. Turns out he came in to try to get someone to switch shifts with him and did not want to leave his new puppy at home! When he pulled down the zipper and showed my the dog I had to pull out my cell phone and take a picture!

Taken with a Nokia 6133.