Smartphone Photography Terms: Aperture, ISO, HDR

Hey, guys welcome again to your tech guide Techanalysia. Today we are going to discuss some technical points related to smartphone photography. So if photography is the only reason why you paid those extra bucks while purchasing your smartphone then this article will surely help you to understand a bit more about some camera-related technical terms

So what I am is going to do that, I'll be covering some important technical terms/smartphone camera jargon related to smartphone photography. This will surely help you to get going as a beginner, but for more professional or proficient you'll need more than just reading this article, which you'll learn with some time and practice. And this article will also help you to choose the right smartphone for the photographer inside you in your best-suited budget. 

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Smartphone photography terms: Aperture, ISO, HDR, Megapixel, Pixel size, and much more

With that said, let's get started. Here are some must-know terms related to smartphone photography that you should know about:-

At number 1 we have the most heard term in smartphone photography, it is MEGAPIXEL...

MEGAPIXEL (MP) 

Perhaps this is the most common and noticed term in a smartphone camera. Most of the users fall for the MP numbers right away. Basically, MP means-Million Pixels, which we know as Megapixels. To understand better first we must know what 'Pixel' is? A pixel is nothing other than just a tiny dot in your image and your image is made up of these millions of dots. In this way, 1MP is equal to one million pixels. Whenever you click a picture, these pixels captured the light and turns it into data. This data from millions of pixels have been combined to form an image.

If your phone's camera has a 12MP sensor it means that the image taken by it are formed by 12 million pixels. This is equal to a 4000*3000 resolution image. A picture taken by a 64MP camera packs an image of  9248*6936 pixels.

But here is a question- do more megapixels always guarantee you high-quality pictures? The answer is NO. A higher megapixel number in the camera doesn't mean good quality photos all the time. There are a lot of other things in play to produce a good quality image. The quality and size of the camera sensor play a very important role in providing a good clear detailed image. Also, software optimization after clicking that camera button plays a significant role in smartphone photography too. 

In Google pixel devices the company is offering 12MP or 12.2MP camera phones, which is quite a low number in comparison to what other companies are offering right now. But when you compare a picture captured by the Google pixel device with any device n the market having 24MP, 48MP, 64MP camera devices, you'll find that the image clicked from the Pixel devices are far much sharper and detailed from other devices.

This is so because the quality of the image sensor is far better than the others and the size of the sensor is also big in Google devices. And the software optimization of the Google phones works cherry on the cake.

So next time when you buy a smartphone for photography purposes, just don't fall for the larger number of Megapixels hype.

Now let's come to the second term which is also equally important, that is SENSOR SIZE...

SENSOR SIZE

Sensors are what reproduce the information in the light, to picture we get to see on the screen. A

smartphone's camera sensor is just similar to the old photographic films we used back then. Whenever you hit the capture button, the lens opens and it takes the light that entering and produces an image of it. The sensor size on a smartphone is the actual physical dimension of the camera sensor.

In this case size of the sensor is important because the bigger the size of the sensor, the more light it can capture, and the more the light, the good the picture quality. The size of the sensor in a smartphone is usually expressed in inches or a fraction of an inch. To date the biggest value of sensor size is being used is 1/1.33", which is employed by Xiaomi, Samsung & Motorola in their ultra-premium devices. In smartphone camera sensors you need to understand that if the value of sensor size is closer to an inch (1"), the bigger sensor you got. 

The surface of the sensor contains those tiny pixels which catch the light entering upon them. That's why a bigger sensor tends to take good bright pictures, with a big amount of the pixel onto it. 

Next on the list is PIXEL SIZE. 

PIXEL SIZE

We've already discussed a lot about pixels. Let's get straight to the point. The pixels are measured in micrometers, Often termed as 'microns'. Its symbol is '𝝁m' or just '𝝁'. One millimeter (1mm) is equal to that of 1000 micrometers (1000𝝁m). Always look for the bigger size of the pixel camera sensors in a smartphone because the bigger is the pixel is, the more it can capture the light and as result, you'll get a good quality picture

A camera sensor with a size of 2.4𝝁m pixel is far better than the pixel size of 0.8𝝁m. This will affect your low-light photography too. A camera sensor with larger pixels takes brighter and sharper images in dimly lit environments than that with small pixels. 

Next on the list is APERTURE...

APERTURE

In simple words aperture is the opening between the camera lens and the sensor, it basically controls the amount of light that reaches the sensor. The opening and closing of the blades are adjustable, which is the actual meaning of aperture in smartphone cameras. 

It is expressed in terms like f/1.7, f/2.0, f/1.8, f/2.2, and so on, this is basically called f-stops. The lower this number is, the more light will be on the camera sensor, hence the better and detailed images you get. This number is directly proportional to the overall richness and detailing of the image captured by the camera.

Low values like f/1.4, f/1.7, f/1.8 mean a wider aperture than that of a higher value like f/2.8, f/2.2, f/2.4 mean a narrower aperture which is not good for low light photography, though it is useful in daylight conditions.  

Next up on the list is FOCAL LENGTH...

FOCAL LENGTH

The term focal length refers to the distance between the sensor and the point where light converges and focuses on the image. It is measured in mm. Focal length actually gives you an idea of the type of lens and angle of view/ field of view. 

A lens with a short focal length like 22mm, 26mm will produce good quality landscape pictures because it is giving you a wide angle of view capturing more area. This basically acts as a wide-angle lens. The larger focal length of a lens means you'll get more close to your subject and the remaining details will appear less focused in the frame. This is basically portraited photography, where you need to focus more on the subject rather than the other things in the frame.

A larger focal length results in a reduction in angle of view and more magnification, which is basically happening in a telephoto lens. The focal length of this telephoto lens is double the length of the wide-angle lens. 

Ultra-wide angle lenses have a wider view than that of a wide-angle lenses because they have a very small focal length. 

Next, we have on the list is IMAGE STABILIZATION...

IMAGE STABILIZATION

Image stabilization is the feature in a smartphone that reduces any kind of shakes while taking a picture and shooting videos. The basis of technology used to achieve stabilization is categorized into two parts, if it is done mechanically then it is called Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and if it is done by software tweaks/digitally then it is called Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS).

OIS is generally for capturing shake-free pictures. It's uses floating lenses, gyroscopes, and some small motors in the mechanism. these all elements are governed by a microcontroller that compensates for any movement and shakes in the camera by moving the camera lens bit accordingly. if the camera moves to the left, then the lens will move to the right. 

EIS is generally for video stabilization and is done so by software processing effect. Basically, EIS breaks up the video into small frames and then compresses it to the previous frames. In this process, EIS identified any unwanted shakes of movement in the frame and then rectify them.  

Next up on the list is AUTOFOCUS...

AUTOFOCUS

As the name itself suggests, it gives more importance to the subject you actually want to capture in that whole frame. Smartphone manufacturers mainly use two types of Autofocus in their devices:- 

1. PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus)

2. Dual Pixel Auto Focus

1. In PDAF light coming from a specific point or subject hits the opposite side of the lenses with the same intensity. These rays are in phase. In the PDAF method, the photodiodes on the sides of lenses measure any phase difference. Then it will shift the focusing element in the lens to bring out the clear focused image on the sensor. 

2. In Dual Pixel Auto Focus, works similarly with PDAF, but it utilizes more focus points across the sensor. Instead of focusing on pixels, each pixel consists of two photodiodes that will collect any phase difference and then move the required direction.

Now moving on the list next we have is ZOOM...

ZOOM...

There are three types of zoom which is being used in smartphones nowadays:-

1. Digital Zoom:- This is achieved by the software capabilities of the phone. It's basically cropped the image and then it expands the photo digitally to fit the frame. This degrades the picture quality every time you zoom in.

2. Optical Zoom:-  It is way better than digital zoom because it uses the hardware part. In this basic camera lenses shifts their focal lengths using the telephoto camera provided. You'll find this optical zoom feature in multiple-camera setup phones only. 

3. Hybrid Zoom:- It takes the best from both worlds. It uses both digital and optical zoom and software enhancements to get better results while zooming. Ad the result is far more impressive than using the optical and digital zoom individually. 

Next on our list is HDR.

HDR

HDR means High Dynamic Range. Whenever you take pictures with  HDR on, the camera takes multiple pictures at that time with different exposures with the help of software, and then it combines all those pictures into the final photo with a perfectly balanced exposure. Basically, HDR maintains a balance between the dark and light areas of the frame into the final image. In this way the resulting picture will neither bright nor dark, it'll perfectly be balanced by HDR itself. 

Now coming to the end we have last on our list is ISO...

ISO

The term ISO Defines that how sensitive your camera sensor to light is. In simple words it means, the lower value of ISO means the sensor will reflect a very low amount of light, making the image dark and dull. And by increasing the value of ISO, the sensor will become more sensitive to light, making the resulting image brighter. It is done by the low aperture value and fast shutter speed. The higher ISO value makes the picture much brighter but at the same time, it produces more noise or grain in the image. The combination of pixel and sensor size determines how high you can increase the value of ISO in dimly lit conditions. 

Generally in a smartphone's manual or pro setting, ISO values are given in the multiple of hundreds like 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600.....and so on. 

CONCLUSION 

So these were some basic smartphone photography terms used in photography that you should know about for capturing a perfect picture by a smartphone. Apart from this, there are also some more terms you need to know for improving your photography skills, but today I covered those ones that are a bit more technical and confusing. Remaining you can easily figure it out by yourself with continued effort and practice.