How to take better cell phone photography

You don't always have to rely on buying the new cell phone on the market in order to take great phone photos, you just need a little bit more creativity and improve your photos everyday.

These photos were taken with the samsung captivate i897, 5mp camera.

//changelog
Alright :) so here comes the samsung captivate sample photos after it's been flashed to Android 4.2.2, CM10.1 :)Notice that the old stock froyo didn't have all these lovely options, if you're familiar with photography and SLR cameras, you'll love the new features-In camera HDR-Manual exposure-Manual focusing (including macro now)-up to 1600 ISO-Better Panorama engine.


I think that's enough words and I'll let you enjoy some sample pics.

Click images to view bigger size

Black background: This was taken at 4:00PM , using the sun as lighting.
The key is to isolate anything else from your key element, the main focus you want the viewer to see. Use exposure settings in your phone and black clothing to get your background right, make sure the light doesn't reflect on the cloth.

Demonstrating the use of the rule of thirds. If I've centered the image to the key element, it would probably look less good and too dull, try not to always put your main focus to the center.

Retouching is a great way to improve your photos, play around with saturations, contrast, brightness and curves, make sure not to abuse it , it will cause bad effects if so, retouching gives a more lively effect especially if your phone gives dull colors.

Play around with light and objects around your reach and learn to compose scenes, learn to use your phone's exposure settings to get you the desired lighting, in this scene, Four soda bottles were used and a 17 inch notebook, the light comes from a white page and the built in exposure functions in the phone helped give the blue tint.

Well that's all I have today folks, I hope you enjoyed the small article and don't forget to leave a comment below in case you have anything to add.

How to unbrick Samsung captivate I897 (stuck on semaphore boot logo)

If you're reading this right now it It's possible that you've got your samsung captivate bricked, or so.

Please take some time to view this thread and thank DesignGear for some info he has done:
 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731989

You should be able to fix it with this method if your problem is in the following list:

-Samsung captivate stuck on boot screen
-Samsung captivate stuck on semaphore logo

-Samsung captivate white / grey battery charging icon when plugged in.

-Samsung captivate won't make salad

In my case, I've had my captivate on CM10, a ROM failed to install (RemICS-JB v4.0) and the phone got "bricked".

Here is a picture of how it looks like:

It doesn't go anywhere, you can't go to any settings or anything, it just stays there.

"So how do I fix this?"

The first thing you need to do is to take off your sim card and your sd card, also take your battery off as it's the only way to turn off the phone. Then comes some steps.

Step 1:

Download and install the correct USB drivers for your samsung captivate if you are using windows.
Don't know how to use google? here are the links:

Windows (64 bit)
Windows (32 bit)

Step 2:

Download Odin(the One click downloader) (I897UCJF6 - Odin 3)
The links can be found here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?0w2y31maz8mdom4
http://www.multiupload.com/XAZUYNXSC1

(thanks to Designgears for the upload)

Step 3:

Enter download mode - this can be done by re-inserting the battery, plugging the phone to a cable (do not power on) and press both the  + and - buttons.

When your captivate is in download mode, it should look like this:

Step 4:

Keep your phone plugged into your computer while it's on download mode, and launch Odin

 Let it recognize your device and click on "Start"

 It should give you a bunch of all the mumble jumble you need to know if you want the details. This is the part you go to the kitchen and make coffee while waiting for it to finish.

When it's done, it should tell you "PASS!"

Your phone will reboot afterwards, then go to some sort of self configuration from the recovery mode and reboot again, it might reboot a few times but just wait for it to finish.

There you have it!
The phone should be fully working again and will be back to the old android you had.

I hope this worked for you and have a nice day sir.

Featuring: ThatPentaxGuy

So who in the world is Agus Purnomo? 

Agus , also known as ThatPentaxGuy, member of the group "PHP: Photographer Harapan Palsu" claims to be an "Amateur photographer" , most of his works revolves around Cosplays and figures, altough he does other forms of photography too.

"Hello there! I'm just yet another amateur photographer that usually take pictures of various events and stuffs. I also love to do some street and astrophotography." - ThatPentaxGuy

Agus uses a : Pentax K-r camera and SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL lens

Enough with words, I'll let you stay on here and enjoy the pictures :)

(click image to zoom)

 (click image to zoom)

Another loveable aspect of his works is the smooth and attractive Bokeh.

A type of something that gets you asking "Is he really an amateur?" 

(click image to zoom)

 (click image to zoom)

 (click image to zoom)

 (click image to zoom)

All credits goes to ThatPentaxGuy.Say hello to him at: https://www.facebook.com/thatpentaxguy