Every Android smartphone has a camera app that you can use to take photos and videos. In addition, additional camera apps can be found in Google Play, such as Open Camera. But why install another app on your phone? The answer is simple: because it gives you extra options that are not available in the regular camera app. This makes photography even more fun.
The Open Camera app is free and completely open source. It is important to mention right away that this app does not replace the default camera on you Android phone. It is better to see it as a supplement, to get all kinds of nice and especially useful camera functions.
Clear (in) picture
The basis for taking a photo is the same in Open Camera as with the standard camera. You point the camera at something, tap the screen to focus and press the camera button. Do you think the photo is too light or too dark? Then tap the plusmin icon and use the slider to adjust the brightness.
Super handy is that you can then take several photos with an adjusted brightness. In most camera apps, this only applies to one photo, after which the brightness immediately returns to the default value. So you have to adjust the brightness every time and that is very cumbersome. With Open Camera you will not be bothered by this. Make sure you reset the slider to zero when you’re done.
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Screen brightness
Open Camera sets the screen to maximum strength so that you can clearly see what you are photographing. Just like some built-in camera apps do. This is quite pleasant in full sun, because the screen is always less easy to read. But when you shoot indoors or on gray days, this is actually blinding. In that case, you can turn off the screen brightness. In the settings (gear icon) go to On screen gui, scroll all the way down and switch Force maximum brightness from.
Always ready
Do you see a good moment and is it important to respond quickly? As soon as you press the power button on your smartphone, Open Camera opens immediately and you can take action. You do not have to leave the screen on continuously, which only puts unnecessary strain on the battery, or continuously unlock your phone to access the camera. Note, this only works if you have already started the app once and is running Open Camera in the foreground.
Don’t want to take pictures? Then push the app away and you can unlock your phone in the normal way to do something else. Does Open Camera not appear or do you prefer not to have it happen automatically? Tap the gear, go to More camera controls and adds Show camera when locked to what you want.
Sharp in the picture
Tap the icon with the three dots, directly under the flash settings you will find a row of options for focusing. What are the most convenient? Tap the letter A to have the camera automatically focus when you tap anywhere on the screen. The focus then remains the same until you tap somewhere again.
Use the letter C to make the camera focus continuously. You don’t have to tap the screen all the time. You run the risk that Open Camera accidentally displays the wrong focus, for example because someone is walking through the image.
Tap the infinity sign (the landscape eight) to photograph something like (mountain) landscapes. The camera is then locked at infinity and will not get confused if something comes into the frame by chance.
Contrasting light
Still at the three dots under Photo mode are camera modes that come in handy under difficult lighting conditions. Is normal Std active, which is the default setting. With Dro Open Camera tries to make very dark areas bright enough in the picture. Some noise may appear in these shadow areas because it is a photo editing operation.
Choose your Hdr then the app will take three photos in quick succession and merge them. This makes it easier to capture a high contrast, such as on sunny days. You have to hold the phone very quietly or better put it on or against it. In itself, this hdr mode can be useful, but it must be said that the hdr mode that is standard on the latest smarthones, works considerably better. The one in Open Camera is therefore especially useful if you have an old device.
Straight horizon
At the bottom of the part Photo mode is Auto-level another helpful feature. If you turn this on, Open Camera will ensure that your photos are always neatly straight. So no more skewed horizons! Because the image has to be cropped a bit to straighten an oblique photo, you do lose a bit of resolution.
That does not alter the fact that it is a very useful function. For example during a bumpy ride or boat trip. Open Camera continuously straightens the image at lightning speed, which you can follow live thanks to the white frame. This is much faster and more accurate than if you have to do this yourself during a wild trip.
Tap is click
Normally you first tap anywhere on the screen to focus and only then tap the blue camera button to take a photo. You can also do it all at once by going to the settings and More camera controls, Touch to capture to choose. Here you indicate whether you want to shoot with a single or double tap. In our opinion, a double tap is especially interesting, because it gives you the best of both worlds. Because with a single tap you keep the default behavior, and you now get a second method via the double tap.
Exposure bracket
Tap about halfway through the part Photo Mode on Expo {} to have the app take three photos each time you press the blue camera button. That will not be three exactly the same photos this time, because the second photo is exposed shorter and the third photo longer. This is called an exposure step. Very useful if you have little time or desire to change the brightness of photos every time via the plus sign.
By turning on this function, you just print and you automatically get three variants. Afterwards you only have to choose the most beautiful variant. In addition, you can merge these three photos in a photo editor and further adjust them to taste. That is what the hdr mode of this app also tries to do, but unfortunately it is less good at it. Whichever camera mode you use, don’t forget to tap Std to return to normal photo mode.
Make an exposure bracket and choose the best image afterwards.
Set up yourself
Unique to Open Camera is that you can largely indicate yourself what you will and will not see on the camera screen. This way, you can organize the interface of the app yourself, as it were. You do this via the part On screen gui of the settings. This is how you give via Onion placement where you will see the icons. In addition, you can add extra icons to the screen for the functions you use the most, or remove them because you use them little or not at all. Also with Camera preview you choose which extra information you want to see or not.
Hidden functions
Even more (professional) extras become available as soon as you go to the settings, scroll down to Camera api and set this to Camera2 api. This gives the app more direct access to the camera, which enables many special camera functions.
Then go to Photo settings, then you can go through Exposure bracketing indicate how many photos will be taken as soon as you get Expo {} activates. There may now also be five instead of three. Furthermore, you set with Exposure bracketing stops how much the exposure of the photos from the exposure bracket must differ from each other. This is on by default 2, but that is also allowed 0.5, 1 or 3 to be. With a low number, the brightness per photo differs significantly less than when you set a high value.
Shift sharpness
Back on the camera screen, you can also select the letter via the three dots icon in the focus options M. tap. A slider will then appear with which you can focus on something very precisely with your hand. Or you choose at Photo mode in front of Focus {}. At which Expo {} the exposure differs per photo, is that at Focus {} the focus. With the top slider you focus on the closest point and with the bottom one on the furthest.
As soon as you tap the blue camera button, the app takes three photos with the focus automatically shifting from the start to the end point. This is very useful for close-ups or macro photos, where focusing is always very difficult. For example, you focus on the front and back of a flower or mushroom and look afterwards what the best photo is. Or you merge them again in a photo editor to get the entire subject in focus. Also nice, you can take a photo where the background is a bit blurred and you immediately get one with a blurred foreground. Please note that you have to put the phone down for this, this will not work by hand.
All in all, we have only lifted a tip of the veil, because Open Camera is packed with useful functions so that you do not get photographed out of it quickly. In addition, you can of course also film with it.
Choose two points between which Open Camera automatically varies the sharpness.
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