Even if you don’t have the latest and greatest smartphone,
the tools for your photography can go beyond the more commonly used ones like
the portrait and lowlight modes. With a reasonably up-to-date operating system,
you can have voice-activated photo sessions, create wide-screen images, record
video at different playback speeds and visually search the internet.
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The exact feature set depends on the camera software you’re
using as well as your phone hardware. Here’s a quick tour of the things you can
do with default apps like Google Camera for Android and Apple’s Camera app for
the iOS system on its
iPhones.
Get hands-free help
Your phone’s virtual assistant can handle part of your
camerawork to quickly get the shot. For example, with the Google Assistant,
just say, “OK, Google, take a picture” or “OK,
Google, take a selfie” — and
Google Camera pops up, displays a countdown and snaps the picture. You can also
tell the Assistant to share the photos, start recording a video and do more.
Google Assistant is available for Android and iOS.
Apple’s Siri assistant also responds to many requests. The
software opens the iPhone’s Camera app if you say, “Hey, Siri, take a photo,”
but leaves the actual press of the shutter button to you. Phones running iOS 12
or later can use Apple’s free Shortcuts app to create routines that Siri can
run when instructed — like opening the camera and then automatically emailing
the picture after you snap it.
Bixby, the assistant software on many of Samsung’s Galaxy
phones, takes photos and videos on command as well.
Go wide with a panorama
Want to take a picture that’s too wide to fit on the
camera’s screen? You don’t need an extra app or a phone with a wide-angle lens.
You just need to use the camera’s panoramic mode, wherein you take a series of
photos and the software combines them into one big picture.
Open Google Camera and swipe to the left along the
horizontal menu at the bottom of the screen. Tap the Modes button, select
Panorama and press the shutter button while you slowly move the phone to
capture the shot. In Apple’s Camera app, swipe to the left, select Pano and
follow the instructions on-screen. You can also ask the Google Assistant or
Siri to open the camera directly in the panoramic mode.
Google Camera’s Modes menu also includes a Photo Sphere
option for going full circle and capturing a scene in 360 degrees. On the Photo
Sphere screen, tap the shutter button and let the software guide you. (While
the iOS Pano mode doesn’t go the full 360 degrees, the Google Street View app
brings Photo Sphere to the
iPhone.)
Alter time with video
Google and Apple’s camera software include modes for adding
cinematic effects to your video. The time-lapse setting speeds up the playback
of slow events like sunsets or storms rolling in. The slow-motion setting
records normally and then decreases the speed of the action in the clip, which
adds drama to video of sports scenes and animal antics.
To get to the settings in Google Camera, swipe to the left
on the horizontal menu to Video and select the recording mode — Slow Motion,
Normal or Time Lapse — along with the speed you want; smaller rates like 5x are
usually better for shorter recordings. In Apple’s Camera app, swipe to the
right on the menu until you get to Time-Lapse or Slow-Mo; tap the quick-toggle
button in the upper corner to adjust the resolution and speed.
Keeping the phone steady makes for a better time-lapse
video, so consider a tripod if you don’t have a solid place to prop up the
device. And slow motion typically works best outdoors, away from certain types
of indoor lighting that can cause flickering in the video.
Tap into the internet
Google Lens is image-recognition software powered by
artificial intelligence. And it may already be on your phone, as it’s included
on the Modes menu in Google Camera, in Google Photos and in the Google Lens app
for Android. Those with iOS devices can find it in Google Photos or the Google
app. (Samsung has a similar Bixby Vision app for its phones.)
When you point your camera at something (or open a photo
you’ve already taken) and tap the squarish Google Lens icon, the software
analyzes the image and searches for related information over its internet
connection. Google Lens can identify animals and plants, look up products,
recognize landmarks and do more.
Google Lens can also translate text in an image and uses
augmented reality to show the words in your preferred language. It’s not quite
the “universal translator” of science-fiction lore, but it’s getting there.
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