Tips & examples for close up photography using the Galaxy S2 Camera pt2

Below are the first attempts at close up photography I've tried using the Galaxy S2 Camera that have been post-processed using Photoshop. Admittably, I have some way to go!!! Both images have been cropped to tighten the shot, and the images have been colour adjusted. For example, you can see that we can get a sharper image of the daisies by taking a further away shot with better focus, and blowing up the subject. We can also use colour adjustments on 'shadow', 'highlights' and 'midtones' to bring out the desired detail.

Some general tips for Close up shots that I most definately need to apply in future are to: 1. rest or clamp the camera to something if at all possible to avoid blur and increase focus. 2. Play around with the 'Exposure value' and 'ISO' settings for each intended shot. 3. Take the shot further back in the highest resolution. 4. Get the lighting right by using an A4 white sheet. 5. Don't be afraid to take far more shots then I think I'll need.

Tips & examples for close up photography using the Galaxy S2 Camera pt1

When taking extremely close up shots with the Galaxy S2 you will likely want to choose 'Macro' setting, or opt to manually focus. In my experience Macro works well, and requires you tap where on the screen you want superfine focus.

When taking outdoor shots in bright settings, it will help to select 'Outdoor Visibility' from the camera settings menu. 'Outdoor Visibility' will illuminate your screen to make it easier to see what you are shooting, though bare in mind that what you see on screen will not correspond to the luminance of the actual photograph taken. Below are some examples of close up shots I've taken using macro. These shots were not cropped and represent the original distance from the subject.

As you can see from the latter shots, even though I used 'macro' and pressed on screen the focal subject for focusing, the images are not as sharp as I would of liked. Instead the background seems to be sharper than the foreground subject. A recommendation in future would be to take the shot from slightly further back, so as to sharply focus the foreground subject, and crop the image in post-processing.

Some general close up photography advice would be firstly to use a white sheet or black sheet to increase or reduce illuminance on the subject.

Another trick I've heard of but have yet to try, is to choose a low ISO setting, and turn on the flash. This means that you can be left with sharper and more illuminating photos.

For each image below, you can click on them for full resolution:

Day shot - Macro - 'Mushroom'

Day shot - with Flash - 'Mushroom'

Day shot - Macro - 'Mushroom'

Day shot - with Flash - 'Mushroom'

Day shot - Macro - 'Daisies'

Day shot - Macro - 'Daisy'

Day shot - Macro - 'Daisy'

Tilt shift video on the Galaxy S2 Camera

Geek.com report on extraordinary results using post processing of footage shot with a Samsung Galaxy S2 Camera:

Tilt Shift Lincoln UK - KakePipe.com from Stu Kennedy on Vimeo.

According to Stu Kennedy; "Tilt-shift is a technique often used in small and medium-format cameras that use tilt for selective focus. However, in the case of the Galaxy S2 camera, the tilt-shift effect was added afterwards with After Effects 5.5. Kennedy used the Time Line feature in After Effects and reduced each clip to 27 percent of its original time. The camera was at 30 fps and he edited it in Vegas 10." (Geek.com, 2011) Catch the full article at: http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/samsung-galaxy-s2-captures-miniaturized-city-with-time-lapse-tilt-shift-video-20110721/