Who Needs Photoshop?! Smartphone Cameras (Almost) Do It All!
filed in Misc on Feb.01, 2011
We held out for a looooong time before jumping on the smartphone bandwagon. We don’t really use our cellphones very much, but we knew we were missing out on the experiences smartphone users take for granted. And we thought the text messaging feature could come in handy when it isn’t convenient (or wise) to be talking on the cell. It IS nice that you can send and receive a message without someone overhearing either end of the exchange. And it’s less intrusive than a phone call. So, right before the new year started we signed up with Verizon and we each got a Fascinate by Samsung, which uses the Android OS. Needless to say, we are now avid converts and never fail to sing the praises of our new phones whenever we have an opportunity.
Today’s photo was taken with the camera in my phone. I set it to use the ‘cartoon’ filter prior to snapping the picture, and what you see is the result. I did take it into Photoshop, just to see if I could enhance it a little, so the saturation and contrast is a bit more than straight out of the phone. I should say, though, that I could have made adjustments for both of those in the phone, but failed to do so. Anyway, I think the filter makes a great cartoonish photo, and with really no effort or special skills needed by the user. Couldn’t be easier.
As good as the phone’s camera features are, of course, they are no substitute for Photoshop – I was just teasing about that! Still, it’s so much fun to be able to snap a photo and then send it immediately to friends or Facebook, etc., without the hassles I have gone through in the past! Sometimes it’s more important (and fun) to share the event immediately, and the quality or fancy finishing just isn’t necessary. For times like that, the camera in the phone includes enough fun elements to give the photos a little boost above the ordinary.
Now I need to get back to my latest addiction – Angry Birds – but that’s a subject for another post!






