When I was in photography school in the 1990’s digital photography was relatively new. I believed it when they would say “digital photography is the next big thing”. I envisioned professionally photographing with this technology someday, but what I don’t think I could even have comprehended is how accessible it would become to everyone.
Back then, photography was a technology field dominated by men. Picture taking was of little interest to everyday people. It was a hobby like ceramics is today and was not in any way glamorous. As a young girl, announcing “I want to be a photographer” was as if 8-year-old me had said “I want to be a truck driver”. I wouldn’t say I was discouraged, but I do recall a few confused adults over the years. It just wasn’t a popular field back then.
I share this random “history of me” as a reminder of how different things are today. I feel like we often forget how new this technology really is. And how our perception of taking pictures AND being photographed has vastly changed.
I think it’s wonderful that photography is now as accessible as it is. I love that the world has embraced pictures too. So today, I’m taking a moment to appreciate how far photography has come! And in the spirit of appreciation, I’m sharing some tools to make phone photography fun and some tips for things you can do with your camera phone!
Phone Photography Tools For the Picture Lover!
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Primary Rating:
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Fun Things You Can Do With Your Camera Phone!
The “Look Up” text feature has gotten crazy good!
Even I’m mind blown by this one! Open your camera and point it at ANYTHING with text on it. In the bottom right corner you’ll see a square pop up, click on that. You’ll then get a pop up with options. Select the portion of the text/word you want information on (or you can select all). Then click “Look Up” and iPhone will bring up a definition (if it’s a single word) and, the best part, it will also give you all related web content.
The useful applications for this are endless! You see a billboard or sign advertising an event, just bring out your camera app and you are directed to the website for that event. You are shopping and find a brand of clothing you love and want to see if that shirt comes in other colors. Or at the grocery store you want to know what is that mystery ingredient in that product. No need to type it in and search, just point your camera at it. And how about that random prescription in your medicine cabinet, open up your camera and you are
“Translate” ANY text!
Similar to the “Look Up” feature, you can also translate any text. Like entire pages of text immediately to all sorts of languages! Open the camera app, point it at the text, click on that box in the bottom right corner and then click “Translate”. Done.
Again, endless possibilities here! I have a trip to Germany coming up and I KNOW I’ll be pulling this one out a lot, but even closer to home I can think of times this will come in handy. A menu at a Mexican restaurant to instructions in Chinese….. Even hand written notes can be translated too.
Turn your photo into a cartoon sticker!
This one is silly, but something to impress the kids with! Select the photo you want to turn into a sticker and long press on the image. It’ll highlight that photo and then give you a pop up of options. Select “stickers”. Then select “add effect” There you will see the different options for your sticker. Select comic for that cartoon effect!
Get laundry help!
When you see the laundry symbols on a garments care tag iPhone will help you to identify exactly what those mean. Open up your camera and take a picture of that care tag. Your phone will then give you more detailed instructions.
Car troubles?
Similar to the care tag on a garment, just pull out the camera app when you see maintenance symbol pop up on the dash. This could be super helpful if you are having car trouble. iPhone will then tell you what the symbol means.
Identify plants and animals.
Have a photo of a plant or an animal? While looking at that photo, slide up. There you will see “look up” as an option. Select that to see the exact breed or species of animal and the exact plant.
Search for a sound!
Among the interesting things you can do while searching for photos, you can also now search for a sound! Type in “laughing” and you’ll get all of videos that contain laughter!
Search for groups of people.
Having trouble locating the class reunion group photo on your phone? You can actually search for groups of names together and search will show you just photographs that all of those people appear in. When in albums, look at the people that are identified. Be sure and add each persons name to those that iPhone has identified. Then when you want to search for any group of people, just type in their names and those photographs will appear!bonus search fact!! If you then look at any one photograph and slide up, you will see the option to “show in all photos” this will take you back to the camera roll to the time that photo was taken.
Let me know in the comments if you will be trying any of these iPhone photo tricks!
And be sure and follow along on INSTAGRAM and YOUTUBE for my latest tutorials and best tips for getting photo organized!!