Shooting modes for both cameras

These modes work for either the front or rear camera:

• Virtual Shot. Create 3D-like multidirectional views of objects. This is a truly amazing feature, although I’ll be the first to admit that it takes a bit of practice to get it right.

  The Virtual Shot, also called Virtual Tour in some descriptions, allows you to create a walk-through of your surroundings, like circling a 3D object. For example, you could tour your home or office, or document all the facets of a statue in a museum.

  When you enable the feature within the Camera app, do this:

  • Look at the screen and find the target pointer.

  • Adjust the way you hold the tablet so that the pointer’s in the center of the circle.

    When the target dot is in the center of the circle, it automatically takes a picture.

  • Follow the onscreen prompts to move the view to the next spot in your tour.

    Hold the tablet as steady as you can and at the same distance above the ground. Each time the target circle appears, this tells you that an image has been captured and stitched into the tour package that you are preparing.

  • Press the Stop button when you’ve completed the tour.

    You can view the results in the Gallery on your tablet.

• Download. Access and install additional shooting modes from Samsung’s Galaxy Apps store.

Shooting modes for the rear camera only

Tap Mode to see seven available special shooting styles, as shown in Figure 11-5:

• Auto. This standard point-and-shoot setting lets the camera choose the best settings. It’s usually pretty good, but sometimes we humans like to believe we are just a bit smarter than a machine; occasionally we are.
• Pro. This is, in most respects, the opposite of the Auto setting, allowing you to adjust the sensitivity of the camera’s sensor, as well as choose exposure values, white balance, and color tones.

• ISO. Your camera’s sensor is the replacement for film, and like film it can be more or less sensitive to light. In film-based photography, this used to be called the ISO value. Going for a high sensitivity, or a high ISO, allows you to take pictures in low-light conditions, although the higher the ISO, the greater the possibility of noise (graininess) in your image.

  The Galaxy Tab S2 includes manual settings between 100 and 800. In most situations you’ll want to use the Auto setting, but if you’re taking photos in bright sunlight of fast action (beach volleyball, perhaps?) you might want to experiment with a high ISO of 800, which will force very short shutter speeds to freeze the action, or an ISO of 100, which might produce a bit of interesting blur.

• White Balance. Light is made up of the visible spectrum, which is another way of saying that the color of light varies based on the time of day or the nature of artificial illumination. The early morning is usually cool or bluish; sunset is usually warm or toward orange.

  An indoor incandescent light is much warmer (toward the red or orange) than fluorescent lights or daylight. The tablet computer is pretty good at adjusting for the prevailing light condition, but just as one example you might want to play around with this setting in unusual situations that mix light coming through the window and electrical or candlelight inside a room.

• Metering. Your tablet makes the best possible exposure, adjusting the shutter speed (the amount of time the sensor records light) as well as the sensitivity of the sensor itself. But your Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK (and even professional photo gear) can become confused in a situation that has a wide range of light levels in the same scene — for example, a sunny day at the beach with deep shadows under umbrellas and extreme highlights dancing on the surf. If I weren’t so hard at work writing this chapter, I’d be off to the beach right now although there’s a fall-like nip in the air and the seals are still feeding and the sun is near setting, which means the Great White shark population is thinking about dinner. I think I’ll stay at the keyboard.

  Figure 11-6 shows your options:

  • Center-Weighted makes exposure decisions based mostly on the lighting conditions in the middle of the scene. If you choose this option, put the most essential element of your picture in the middle of the image; that’s not always the most aesthetically pleasing composition, but you can always crop the image later.

  • Matrix has nothing whatsoever to do with Keanu Reeves and an artificial reality set up to control human minds. The Matrix setting averages out the entire scene to come up with the best exposure setting.

    Matrix metering works well when the range of light is consistent — in other words, scenes where the darkest dark and lightest light aren’t all that far apart.

  • Spot is a good one for attentive, patient photographers. The tablet sets the exposure based on wherever you tap the image. The trick is to find a place that’s best for the image you want to record. Tap a face to expose best for that part of the picture, for example.

• Panorama. Use the tablet’s brain to stitch together multiple photos into one large panoramic image; this is the same idea as Virtual Shot, which I discuss earlier, except that the result is a single stitched-together image instead of a computer-created simulated video.

  Brace yourself and keep the tablet as steady as you can as you slowly move it in an arc from left to right or right to left. You’ll see a blue guide frame on the screen; when you move the tablet so that it fills the guide frame, it takes the next picture in the series. To stop shooting the pano, tap the Stop (square) icon. Panorama mode automatically stops if it can’t recognize elements of the previous picture.

  Panoramas work best when there are simple but recognizable backgrounds, like trees or windows. Shooting against empty skies or blank walls may confuse the camera, which may confuse the image, which will confuse you when you try to make sense of what you’ve got.

• Virtual Shot. A computer-stitched-together panorama movie made up of individual images.

• HDR (Rich Tone). This option gives you an image that records only HDR (high dynamic range) tones. Your camera takes three quick pictures at different settings and then combines them into a single image that includes exposure values you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to record directly. For example, it can deal with both deep shadows and brightly lit objects.

  HDR won’t work well if the object is moving fast or if you’re moving the tablet as you take the picture.

• Shot & More. When you take a burst, or series, of photos, this mode can allow you to apply special features such as best photo, best face, drama, and panning shots. Remember: “Film” is free, so experiment to see if the tablet can see something you might be missing.
• Dual Camera. Again, this is a strange feature but sometimes worth an experiment. This mode takes pictures or videos in a variety of styles using the front and rear cameras at the same time. There you are in the image, and there is what you are looking at.

Shooting modes for the front camera only

These settings only work with the front-facing camera:

• Selfie. Yes, here’s the way to take a picture of yourself with the Taj Mahal over your shoulder, or a photo of you posing with the President of the United States or your bridesmaids or some random dude. You’ll see the image on the screen of the tablet before you take the picture. You can apply effects to make yourself look less like yourself, if you want.
• Interval Shot. You can have the camera shoot a series of shots at a set interval — every few seconds or every few minutes — and then choose the best images from the group. (Are you thinking this might be a way to discover who is stealing the candies from the jar on your desk? It just might be enough to send the felon away to the big house.)

Camera settings for both cameras

Tap Settings from the Camera screen to customize more details of the camera. See Figure 11-7.

• Grid Lines. This tells the camera to display a set of grid lines on the screen as you prepare to take a picture. This is helpful in making sure the horizon is level or that buildings are upright and not tilting (with the possible exception of the Leaning Tower of Pisa). The grid lines are visible only when you’re taking the picture; they aren’t recorded in the file.

  Grid lines are, for me, are essential when holding a thin, flat, rectangular tablet camera at arm’s length. It’s considerably more difficult to hold a tablet camera steady than a standard camera held at your eye level and braced against your face.

• Location Tags. Your Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK has a built-in GPS receiver, which can tell the device where in the world you are. This function records that information (as latitude and longitude) in the data for the file; you can later use an app on your tablet or a program on a desktop or laptop computer to look up the location of those geographic coordinates and tell you where the picture was taken: Pisa, Italy at 43°43'N, 10°24'E.

  The strength and accuracy of GPS signals can vary from place to place. Sometimes they’re weak inside buildings or in areas between buildings where the view of the horizon is blocked. Weather conditions can also affect GPS signals. If you leave Location Tag turned on, the tablet applies the last good signal it had to your photos, updating your position any time it can. See Figure 11-8.

  In a perfect world, most of us would say, “Yes, of course. What a nifty special feature.” But some people worry about privacy. What if that picture ended up in the hands of someone else — someone you don’t want to know where you were when you took the picture? If you send your pictures to someone else by email, or especially if you upload them to the Internet, you lose control over whatever information is embedded in the file.

• Review Pictures. You can turn on or off the brief display of pictures after you’ve taken them. I generally leave this on, so that I can review the photos to make sure that there’s not a fern growing out of cousin Arthur’s head.

• Storage Location. If you install a microSD card in your Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK (which I recommend), here’s where you can tell the tablet where you want your photos and videos stored.

  In general, you should store your photos, videos, music, text files, and the like on the memory card and leave the built-in memory for apps.

• Volume Key Function. Your options are
  • Zoom Key. Pressing the + or – side of the Volume key zooms you in or out; your Volume key is set up this way already.
  • CamKey. You can make the Volume key into a shutter release key for photos.
  • Rec Key. If you make the Volume key work as a Record key, pressing it in the Camera app starts or stops recording a video.

• Reset Camera Settings. If you’ve adjusted your camera — and I hope you will — you can quickly return all settings to the original — like when first you unboxed your Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 NOOK. This is an all-or-nothing reset, and it only affects camera settings.

Camera settings for rear camera only

• Video Stabilization. This little bit of technical magic slightly reduces the effects of shakes or bounces while the video camera is recording. I say slightly.

Camera settings for front camera only

• Beauty. When the camera detects a face, it sets exposure so that skin tones are well lit and skin is smoothed, a makeover without makeup or surgery. It works better in close-up portraits than in distant images, and some results are better than others.
• Gesture Control. More magic: Hold the palm of your hand out, facing the camera, and look for a yellow box on the screen surrounding your hand. Now take your hand away and the camera will take a picture a few seconds later.