It's hard to take a good picture on a cell phone. The whole point of apps like Instagram is to take cell phone pictures and make them even worse so they can at least be considered
artistic. Using a cell phone camera to take pictures of dogs? Now that's just asking for trouble. Here are some prime examples:
1. Movement - My cell phone camera doesn't have a fast shutter speed or a good auto-focus, so any movement just turns into a huge blur.
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| "What's that over there??" |
2. Lighting - My cell phone actually has "indoor" and "outdoor" modes, but there's little actual difference. The pictures I take inside are usually too dark, especially with Badger's black fur.
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| Let's just pretend this one was run through a sepia filter on purpose |
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| All I see is darkness and a mouth |
3. Flash - This is actually an extension of problem #2. My phone doesn't do red-eye reduction, and dogs' eyes are very glowy.
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| Our resident ghost dog shows off his glowing eyes |
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| "The dog in the above picture is an embarrassment" |
4. Space - I'm constantly running out of space on my phone for all of my apps and pictures. This is a problem because numbers 1-3 on this list mean that I have to take a lot of pictures to get any good ones. I usually take something like 5-10 pictures just to get one that is decent enough to post on the blog.
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| Badger knows to hide his face from the paparazzi |
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| Mushroom tries to turn away... |
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| Famous blog dog Mushroom battles for custody of Suri Cruise! More on page 5 |
So... With the only stipulations being that Llamaentity and I are absolute beginners at photography, and we probably wouldn't want to spend more than $250, what are your camera recommendations?
I gotta say...I take all my photos with my iphone. I actually like it way better than my digital camera because it takes the pictures right away, whereas my camera focuses first and my iphone is better in dark lighting too. I usually just take tons of pictures at once assuming at least 1 will turn out good. It even does facial recognition on dogs which will blur the background and focus their face!
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying you have to buy an iphone just to take pictures of your dogs, but definitely find one that takes the picture instantly and gives you the option to focus first only if you want to.
Timing is key with animals. For focus...treats usually work or a favorite toy(maybe squeaky). And ya, paparazzi tactics too...just sit and watch with camera ready as they are acting cute or funny or sweet. Calling their name sometimes make them pull a I didn't really hear you pose...try a weird noise(I like to use the sound like the teacher from Peanuts).
Good luck!
Uh-oh... This is just going to make Llamaentity want an iPhone even more!
DeleteGood to know, since your pictures always come out great.
I love Samsung cameras there the best. I have a Samsung DSL camera that I love. I can't remember the type but I think it was more than you want to spend. I would look for something that is simple like a point and shoot but high resolution & high picsels. I hope that's helpful. Good luck on your search!
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