The festive season is upon us which means spending time with friends and family while soaking up the summer sun and enjoying the celebrations. Sony Mobile Communications recently spoke to well-known Cape Town photographer, Shawn Van Zyl for top tips to keep in mind when taking the ultimate mobile photos – ensuring a moment is never missed.
Tip 1: Patience
Always be patient, even when you have a screaming family member begging you to take the photo, but you feel deep down that it is not the best it can be. Family & friends always than you after, even if you annoyed them in the process of composing the photo. Stop, think, and take the best photo you can.
Tip 2: Exposure Set
One of the iconic features that have stuck with the Xperia series, is the infamous shutter button, allowing you the user to instantly gain access to your camera. Once the camera is open, make use of the half clip option, which sets your focus and exposure. So if you are getting ready to snap fast moment of your friends jumping into the pool, your Xperia is locked and loaded to capture that fast moment in life.
Tip 3: Lines
Lines captivate the eye, lead them from place to place within a photo. In this photo, the line starts at the top middle window and runs straight down to the fire escape walk and down to the end of the photo. The natural stains on the walls at the top, are natural line motivators, encouraging the eye to wander down the photo. Always look for the line, lead the audience around the photo
Tip 4: Complexity & Intrigue
In this photo, the placements of the subjects are important, as they tell a story. The park is secondary to the main subject, being me in the middle. I placed myself center frame with the mountains left, and empty sky right, as you see the crazy burning mountain the left, and the empty calm sky on the right, a juxtaposition of the good and evil of the world and man is caught in the middle.
There is also a leading line in the photo that leads your eye from the bottom right of the wall, left towards the bike, up the mountain, and across back to me in the middle, so photo is forever moving with having to move at all.
