A better look at the windows camera.

BASIC PHOTOGRAPHY TERMS

The windows camera undoubtedly has one of the best camera UI till date. With just a flick of the camera button you're presented with all the controls at your fingertips. For people who prefer using automatic mode over manual mode, they don't have to know much. But the real fun lies in mastering the manual controls.

Let's discuss about the basic terms people come across in manual mode.

1. White balance(WB): This basically refers to how your shots look as per the lightning condition available. Our eyes have a way of adapting to the scene. A white object appears white to us despite the lightning condition. But when we take a picture that same object may appear yellow,green,orange,etc. So by manually adjusting the WB we can set the camera according to the lightning condition available so that the camera captures the actual colors. Cloudy, sunlight, incandescent, indoor light are the WB modes available in windows camera.

2. Focus: This is a term that's most used among photographers. It basically determines what objects you want to focus in your shots. You can either manually tap to focus on the object(not available for all lumia phones) or you may set your focus at a specific distance so that all the objects at that range are focused. In windows camera you can set focus for macro or far away objects as per the requirement.

3. ISO & shutter speed: These two terms are closely related to each other. ISO sensitivity refers to the amount of light allowed in your camera and shutter speed means how long the camera shutter stays on after clicking the button. When we are in a bright environment we lower the ISO to about 100-200 with lower shutter speed and we raise the value if the environment has less light. If the ISO is doubled from 200 at 1/250 shutter speed to 400 the shutter speed needs to be decreased to 1/500. The ratio of 2 applies here.

4. Brightness: This is most common term among everyone. This determines how much exposure is present in your shot. If the environment is too bright just lower the brightness and increase it if the lightning condition is poor.

 

Important note: Whenever you try to experiment with ISO settings make sure you are adjusting the shutter speed and keeping an eye on the brightness. Many times you won't be able to tinker with the brightness but you'll notice the value changing automatically as per the lightning available. Try this with a 1s shutter speed and ISO 1600.

Happy clicking!!