Google recently released a photo-taking app, Google Camera, available for free for all Android smartphones and above. The application is, in some ways, very innovative especially because it makes some advanced functions simple and automatic.
In addition to normal shots, in fact, it allows you to take particular photos with a blur, panoramic or even three-dimensional effect with Photo Sphere.
It's worth investigating and seeing how to use these features to get the most out of Google Camera on Android .
Opening the Google camera you can immediately activate the special functions by swiping your finger from the left side to the right.
1) Lens blur
The first special function of the Camera starting from the bottom is the Lens Blur.
With this mode it is possible to take photos that have depth of field, putting some subjects in focus, leaving the rest in the background a little blurry.
When taking the photo, you can improve the quality of a blurred image by keeping the subject centered and then stay still by slowly moving the frame upward when the arrow appears.
Even if there was an acquisition error, you can swipe your finger from right to left to see the photo just taken, wait for the processing and apply the blur effect manually, after shooting .
Touch the blur button, choose a point and then swipe your finger left or right to increase or decrease the effect.
The same effect is available on the Google+ Photos app, among the editing options.
It's not as good as the same effect as a digital SLR, of course, but for photos from a smartphone, it's a powerful feature.
2) Panoramic photos
This feature is quite classic now and is present a bit in all cell phone cameras.
The Google Camera on Android guides the panoramic shot by indicating precisely where to frame left and right and automatically saves the image, composing the various shots so that it looks like a single large photograph.
3) Photo Sphere
Photo Sphere were introduced on Android 4.2 and are an evolution of panoramic photos.
In the Photo Sphere the panoramic shots are not only on the horizontal dimension, but also on the vertical one.
In practice, shots are taken on the right, left, above and below which are then joined together in a single image.
The result is a bit like that of Google Street View photos in Google Maps to take pictures of an entire environment, even indoors, and combine them into a single spherical 3D photo that can be explored.
Like any type of photography, this feature has a few tricks that can help you take better photos .
The important thing is to move the body around the camera and not the other way round, this is because the application puts the photos together, at best, when the camera remains still.
Another recommendation is to take photospheres by holding the smartphone vertically.
Considering that a complete sphere is made of 5 lines and 41 photos, we must start with the central row which is made up of 13 photos maximum.
The top and bottom lines are 10 photos maximum while the top and bottom lines are 4 photos per line.
Obviously it is not necessary to make spherical photos of 41 photos, they can also be done with only three lines of photos, of 6 or 7 each.
If you don't want to keep one of the shots, you can cancel the most recent shot with the button on the left that goes back.
The Photo Sphere obviously does not work with moving subjects and if there are people in the frame they must be as still as possible.
To see the acquired PhotoSphere, swipe from right to left with your finger, touch the 3D photo and then touch the PhotoSphere key to see it move.
The same function is available in the Android Photos app.
The Photo Sphere can also be viewed on the Photosphereviewer.net site where there is also an explanatory tutorial.
4) Automatic and manual exposure
For occasional photographers and those who want to take fast shots, automatic light exposure is sufficient.
However, if there is low or too much lighting, if the environment is too dark or too light, you can activate the manual exposure mode and adjust the aperture of the camera.
To do this on Google Camera, swipe your finger from the left to bring up the menu and then tap the Settings icon at the bottom right of the screen.
Then go to Advanced and activate the manual exposure switch.
Go back to the normal camera, tap the three dots button and then the + and - button to change the brightness.
In reality the camera continues to automatically adjust the exposure, but once stabilized you can change the exposure.
The Google camera also has HDR mode to balance scenes that are too bright and too dark and have uniform lighting.
If you are not satisfied, you can always install another application among the best camera apps for Android and iPhone to take photos with your mobile phone
