Manual Mode on the V30 - Tips for beginners (like me)

Hey all, so I still love the camera on the V30+. If my past blogs weren't giving enough praise... I think this is the best camera on a smartphone I've ever used period.

Here's the thing, everyone has an opinion. Some people are like me and think this camera rocks! Others say it's a great camera, but prefer to use other software like Google Camera for it's auto-processing and still others love the camera for it's manual and RAW image mode so they can process the images on their own.

So, I started gathering tips from folks on the best way to use manual mode .

I thought I'd share some some of those tips here...

First thing to note - it's really about what YOU like. Forget what other people see/think. Your pictures should be the way you want to see them. You're going to use a lot of your own manual settings and manipulation of the images to share what you ultimately want. This will usually vary for each camera and software you use.

Camera's on smart devices have a fixed lens aperture - meaning you can't choose the depth of field like you can with your standalone camera. Depth of field is defined as "the zone of acceptable sharpness in front of and behind the subject on which the lens is focused." or how sharp or blurry is the area behind the object you're shooting. This is often done via the smartphone software and various apps that are available. Think the 'blur' effect when using food mode on the V30+.

Shutter speed - how quickly the camera shutter opens and closes. Careful here as you want to make sure you get your shutter speed fast enough to not show your hands shaking. This isn't a factor if you mount your camera to a stand, but with our phones we're more likely to hold them.

What is the blur effect desired for your subject and your hands?

You'll need to understand the type of photo you're taking. Is the subject standing still or in motion? If they're moving and you want to grab a freeze frame of the action - a football player - you'll want a speed of 1/500 or higher.

If you're looking for more of an action blur you'll want lower.

You can use 'Touch Metering' on the phone to sort of quick focus on the subject you want to shoot. Just tab on the subject on the screen and the focus is automatic.

ISO - ISO stands for International Standards Organization, and it is a standardized industry scale for measuring sensitivity to light. The lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speed - The higher the ISO the more 'noise' or heavier the grain. Some of this noise can be fixed in digital software after the picture is taken.

So, I asked for feedback on what to do and how. Here's what I've been told and what I'm going to try:

How to shoot in Manual Mode with the V30+

open the camera app > select mode> select manual

Start in manual mode by tapping the "auto" button - circle arrow with an uppercase 'A'.

Use Touch Metering as mentioned above - tap the screen on your subject to focus.

Now play around with the shutter speed. This is marked with the 'S'. You want to try to set it to stay 'steady' in your hands while being able to capture the object.

Now check the ISO settings to ensure enough light into your picture.

There's another thing here to the left marked by a WB. This is white balance. White balance helps to get the colors in your picture to be as accurate as possible. In most cases 'Auto' white balance on this phone is outstanding. I tend to find my colors are true and natural to the subject, but I haven't tested it in all situations. If you're not getting the colors you truly see, you may want to mess around with the White Balance settings. You can also edit this in an editor later.

Of course, you could take out a LOT of the guess work with all the above and utilize 'Graphy' which is a database of top quality pictures and their settings. You can select a similar image to what you're about to capture and the Graphy app will tell you to add more or less of the settings mentioned above. It's a pretty cool way to at least learn about the settings and see what you like best.

I'm not going to get into photo editing from here. The thing about manual mode is you can have the camera take both a JPEG with the LG V30's own processing software AND also save a copy in RAW at the same time. RAW is what you'll want to do for photo editing. You can use apps like Lightroom, Snapseed and Photoshop for post production of your RAW images. From Manual Mode > click settings cog > turn on 'Save as RAW'. This will save in both RAW/DNG and JPEG.

So, I hope this was helpful. I for one had no idea where to even get started. This will be my initial guide to get me going. Pictures to follow in subsequent blogs!.

Oh, by the way I didn't mention the EV (Exposure Value) option in manual settings. EV is used to lighten and darken your photos... however you wouldn't use EV (and may not be available) once you start setting your own ISO and Shutter speeds as you're already telling the camera what to do manually.

Have questions about the V30+? Ask me here!

The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts of Sprint devices and offer opinions freely to the Community. Each Product Ambassador shares their own opinions of these devices, therefore the information in this post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprint. As a matter of fact the PA's do not represent the company in an official way, and should not be expected to respond to Community members in an official capacity. So what I'm really trying to say is, my opinions are my own. I am not a Sprint or Device Manufacturer spokesperson. I just love to play with new tech, talk smack and help people when I'm able. I also like to write/blog about tech. Hope you follow me here and feel free to comment. Thanks!!!