Use your ZenFone's Manual Mode to take better pictures

Taking pictures on Auto Mode with a smartphone can be the easy simple way to get what you want. Point. Shoot. But the problem is that sometimes you can’t get exactly what you envision. Maybe you want to see streaks as a car goes by, or your pictures are coming out a bit yellower than you’d like. This is where Auto Mode fails and Manual Mode can be superior.

There are five functions that allow you to adjust the settings prior to taking a shot:

• White Balance
• Exposure Value
• ISO (Photosensitivity)
• Shutter Speed
• Focus
  

White Balance

When you’re in Auto Mode, the auto white balance can make your pictures look too warm or too cool under different conditions like fluorescent lighting, or in daylight. Notice how in this shot, the Auto White balance is a bit yellow. By tapping on the WB icon, we can readjust on the slider to make the image a bit closer to the real thing.

Exposure Value

Here we have an example of how to use the Exposure Value setting. In this case, I thought the image was looking a bit bright, so I adjusted the value down so the image of the department turned out darker like I wanted. By turning it up, the sensor would be over exposed.

ISO (Sensitivity)

This helps to adjust how sensitive the sensor is to light. By increasing sensitivity, the output image is going to be much brighter, and there will be noise introduced in the image. With low sensitivity, the less sensitive the image sensor is, and less noise will be apparent. Sometimes having higher ISO as in lower lighting conditions is necessary to capture the shot you need.

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is how long the shutter is open to take in light. You will want to use this in tandem with your ISO and EV to get the shot you want. If you have a low ISO and long shuttespeed for example, you can create pictures like the one I made below.

Focus

The focus function on the ZenFone 2 will allow you to manually focus on different objects in your image. You can focus more closely for macro shots, or focus on objects further away like in landscapes. See the difference in the same shot when I adjust the focus distances.

There you have it! You’ll need to tweak and practice taking shots using the different tools in Manual Mode for the camera of your ASUS ZenFone!

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Reposted from: ASUS MyZen

https://myzen.asus.com/2016/01/13/use-the-zenfone-2s-manual-mode-to-take-better-pictures/

Nice! This should be helpful for photography enthusiasts on exploring the full potential of the Zenfone's pixelmaster.

Nice share.. I hope PixelMaster will have extra features soon as this app got no recent updates.

Wow! This is what I'm looking for! Thank you! 

Nice read. Very helpful. 

Thank you once again for the photography tips Nikko. This helps specially for us newbies in this.

Anyone who knows when ZE551ML will have an update on camera w/ 30sec. Long exposure? Thanks.

Nice. It helped me a lot as a beginner.

My zenfone 3 max 5.2 doesn't have manual mode! Help!

Nice thread. Very helpful. Thanks for this.