The iPhone 14 Pro’s camera upgrades should appeal to photographers, filmmakers and creative types on TikTok and YouTube. Apple made several significant improvements to the iPhone’s camera hardware, like adding a larger, 48-megapixel sensor. The 14 Pro also uses Apple’s revamped image processing system, which is supposed to improve image quality in darker environments. Factor in the new A16 Bionic chip, and you get features like a new video stabilization mode, the ability to film Cinematic mode videos in 4K, higher resolution ProRaw photos, and pictures and videos with better image quality when captured in medium- and low-light situations.

Read more: iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max Review: Welcome to Apple’s Dynamic Island

I used the iPhone 14 Pro as my main shooter for a week to document two of my favorite places in San Francisco: the Mission District and the Embarcadero. I encountered fog, beer, a collegiate marching band and various tacos, and I used the iPhone 14 Pro to chronicle them all. I ended up with hundreds of photos and dozens of video clips on the 1TB iPhone 14 Pro review sample that Apple had lent me.

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The iPhone 14 Pro and its 48-megapixel camera

The iPhone 14 Pro has three rear cameras: a main wide-angle camera, an ultrawide, and a telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. The lens on the main camera has a wider focal length, going from a 26mm equivalent on previous iPhone models to a 24mm one. It isn’t drastically different, but it helps get more of the scene into the frame.

The main camera also gets a new, larger, 48-megapixel sensor. Though more megapixels doesn’t necessarily mean better photos, Apple divides the pixels into groups of four and combines the four in each group into one larger pixel. This technique is called pixel binning, and it’s been used on Android phones for years. The results are brighter photos that have less image noise (and as a bonus, less noise-reduction blur). Apple’s new imagining pipeline, called the Photonic Engine, takes things further and helps improve color accuracy and protect details. Take a look below at a photo I shot of a streetcar just after sunset. Pay special attention to the texture of the pavement and the details in the leaves and building behind the streetcar. This isn’t the best photo I took with the iPhone 14 Pro, but it shows how the camera handles an everyday situation when things aren’t bright and sunny. The photo’s contrast is a bit much, and I’d likely reduce it when I edited the picture, or set up a Photographic Style with less contrast.

The main camera takes excellent photos. The image quality and details look great for a phone photo. I noticed that the most improvement came in medium- and low-light situations. Colors and textures look good. Check out the photo below, which I took on a foggy morning. Notice the textures in the buildings’ bricks and the way the 14 Pro captured the fog gradually engulfing the top of Salesforce Tower.

For the past year, I’ve mainly used an iPhone 13 Pro as my daily driver. During the week I had the 14 Pro, I saw an improvement in the photos I took. Image detail was better, due in part to the new Photonic Engine processing pipeline. Check out the photo below of a cookie and cappuccino from Four Barrel Coffee, a hip java spot in the Mission.

The photo below was shot under a palm tree’s dark canopy. The 14 Pro boosted the brightness and did a solid job of capturing the different textures in the stem and fronds.

If you’re so inclined, you can capture 48-megapixel photos using the phone’s ProRaw setting. I should warn you that these files are big. The file for the photo below of the Bay Bridge at sunset is 48 megabytes. After editing, the photo is saved as a much smaller JPEG. Look closely at the sky’s color gradient, and the details of the cars and the bridge’s support cables.

Night mode on the iPhone 14 Pro

When the iPhone 11 series launched in 2019, it included Night mode, which takes a series of images over a few seconds and combines them to create a photo that’s brighter and has better colors and less image noise. Three years later, on the 14 Pro, Night mode has blossomed even more. Capture-times are much faster. Most of the time, Night mode needed just a couple of seconds to get a good photo in a bar or other dark locale.

Take a look at the photo below that I took indoors at Zeitgeist in the Mission. Essentially, all the lights are pointed at the walls, leaving the middle of the bar a dark void that’s a perfect place for punk Gen Xers and millennials to sip their IPAs in quiet angst. Night mode took two seconds to capture this photo. It did a great job balancing the bright lights on the red sign-filled wall with the dark middle of the bar. Though most of the people are in shadow, the 14 Pro did a solid job of capturing skin tones.

The photo below is of Taqueria El Buen Sabor, a terrific place for some post-drinks burritos. It was very dark and I used Night mode to take the photo. This isn’t my best Night mode snap with the new phone, but it shows what’s capable under a less than ideal situation. Had I put the phone on a tripod for a longer Night mode exposure time, or if the lights weren’t as bright (compared with the dark cloudy sky), I think it would’ve been a better photo. But it’s still decent. There’s some image noise in the cloudy sky, and the details in the building are a little soft.

I visited another Mission taco spot, Tacolicious, with some friends. (I warned you there were lots of tacos in this review.) The snap below was taken with Night mode. It wasn’t as dark as when I took the other two Night mode photos, but it definitely wasn’t overly bright either. Pay close attention to the texture of the tortillas and the detail of the cilantro. I was hand-holding the 14 Pro, and I’m proud of the results.

The iPhone 14 Pro’s ultrawide camera gets a new lens

The ultrawide camera gets a new sensor, with more focus pixels and a stepped-down f/2.2 aperture lens. All this adds up to much sharper ultrawide photos. The sensor, combined with the Photonic Engine, helps improve image quality in less than ideal situations. Ultrawide photos and videos are still a step down compared with those from the main camera, but these improvements are welcome.

Below is a great example of the limits of the 14 Pro’s ultrawide camera. In particular, notice how the highlights in the sky are blown completely out to white.

Macro photos also get a boost from the ultrawide camera upgrades. When you try to take a photo with the main camera and are standing very close to a subject, the iPhone 14 Pro switches to the ultrawide camera and crops the framing to mimic the main camera. This allows for a closer focus, which is great for close-up shots of small things. 

Last year’s 13 Pro had a similar feature, but with the new ultrawide, macro photos have better image quality, especially in medium and low light.

The 14 Pro’s telephoto camera has a 3x optical zoom

The telephoto camera is basically identical to the one on last year’s 13 Pro, but it gets a lift from the 14 Pro’s Photonic Engine. Under good lighting, like in the picture below, the telephoto camera takes good photos. Notice in particular the colors and how the camera handles skin tones.

As with the ultrawide, image quality is a step behind the main camera — especially in dimmer environments.

Below is a Portrait mode picture of Maisie the cat taken indoors with the telephoto camera. The 14 Pro and its Photonic Engine did a good job of finding the white balance and capturing the detail’s in Maisie’s fur.

Summer in San Francisco can be foggy, as you can see in the telephoto shot below. I’m impressed by how the 14 Pro was able to pull out the clouds from the otherwise concrete-colored foggy sky. Equally impressive is how well the 14 Pro was able to freeze the action of the guy in the bottom right playing stick toss.

Your selfies look better with the iPhone 14 Pro

The TrueDepth camera got an upgraded lens with a brighter f/1.9 aperture. The selfie camera has autofocus for the first time ever on an iPhone. The autofocus works great for group selfies. Take a look at the selfie below of me and my CNET colleague Jessica Fierro.

Maybe it’s because of the new Photonic Engine, but selfies look better. Previous iPhones rendered selfie photos that look muted and almost dull. The 14 Pro’s front-facing camera has better definition and a lighter touch with the way it handles skin tones.

The iPhone 14 Pro shoots excellent videos

All the improvements to the cameras and processing also make videos look even better. Apple made it so that Cinematic mode can now record in 4K and at 24 frames per second. There’s a new video image-stabilization tool, called Action mode. When you shoot a video, you can toggle it on and the phone crops in a bit to keep the image centered and the horizon level. If you’re shooting in 4K, Action mode drops the resolution to 2.8K, but the results are still impressive. Though other phones, like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, have similar stabilization functions, it’s wonderful to see the tool come to the iPhone. And it works across all three rear cameras.

During my Action mode tests, I was reminded of just how good the image stabilization is in regular video mode. Check out the video below to see the clips I shot with the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. The clips included videos shot in Action mode, slow motion, regular video mode and Cinematic mode.

Final thoughts

The iPhone 14 Pro represents one of the largest improvements to the iPhone’s cameras in years. In places with less-than-ideal lighting, I found improvements when I took photos and recorded videos. The iPhone 14 Pro also continues Apple’s reign when it comes to recording the best videos of any phone in terms of image quality. I look forward to taking more snaps and shooting more video clips.

iPhone 14 Pro, Pro Max Get the Biggest Changes to Apple’s Phone Lineup

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The post Here’s What the iPhone 14 Pro’s Cameras Can Do first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

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Spring is here, bringing you more warm and sunny days to take advantage of. That means it’s time to put your TV show binge watching on hold and enjoy the outdoors. And whether you’re looking for a park to camp out at or a new trail to hike on or want to stargaze from your own yard, we’ve found several apps that can help you get started. 

Check out these apps to help you find something fun to do outdoors that everyone will enjoy. For more, here’s what you need to know about running your first 5K marathon.

Oh, Ranger! ParkFinder

Try a new park with your friends and family using Oh, Ranger! ParkFinder (download for iOS). This app has a huge database of almost every national, state and local park in the United States.

Choose the park you’re interested and see all of the activities it has to offer. The database also has descriptions of all the activities provided. Many locations offer sports, water activities, disc golf, playgrounds, camping and other possibilities.

Charity Miles

Have fun outdoors and raise money for a good cause with Charity Miles (download for iOS or Android). Earn money for the charity of your choice by walking, running or cycling. Have a friend or relative join you to double the money you raise.

Charity Miles will log your information using the in-app pedometer, run tracker, walking timer, cycling meter and running stopwatch. Before you begin your workout, use the stopwatch provided in-app to start your timer.

There are 28 charities to choose from, so pick one and get moving!

Geocaching

Go on a treasure hunt with the Geocaching app (download for iOS or Android). All around the world, these modern-day treasure chests are just waiting to be found. Geocaches are basically hidden containers that people fill with trinkets.

You’ll receive hints, descriptions, recent activity and attributes for each geocache. You’ll find the geocaches by using the map, compass and driving instructions. Some geocaches will take longer to find, depending on how hard it is to find. Live Search will update the geocaches near you as you move around.

This app is free, but you can unlock more features (like premium caches) with the premium upgrade.

Night Sky

Gaze at the stars with your loved ones with Night Sky (download for iOS). Try to find and identify planets, star constellations and satellites by pointing your phone camera toward the sky. The free app uses augmented reality to outline the objects in the sky.

If there’s something specific you’re looking for, like Jupiter or the International Space Station, use the Night Sky Siri Shortcuts on iPhone. You’ll need iOS 13 or later to use this feature.

The app is free, but you can upgrade to the premium version for $5 monthly or $30 yearly. Premium unlocks Planetary Portals, where you can step onto the surface of other planets in AR. You’ll also gain access to Night Sky Tours for any location worldwide.

Yonder

Let Yonder (download for iOS) help you plan your next outdoor adventure. Find activities near you that you love, like kayaking or hiking, and gather your friends for a fun experience. Use Yonder to help you find beautiful trails and share your experience with the community.

Decide what you want to do and search in the app for places that offer that activity. Gain inspiration for your next hike by viewing other visitors’ photos and experiences in the area and finding out what makes that destination special. You can even share your memories with others through photos and videos.

Komoot

For the active family, use Komoot (download for iOS or Android) to organize your next cycling or hiking trip. The in-app planner details every trail with information about the terrain, difficulty, distance and elevation.

Turn-by-turn voice navigation keeps your eyes on the trail and off your phones for a safe journey. Track your rides and hikes with GPS and add photos to remember your experience.

Komoot gives you your first region (route) for free, and additional regions cost $4 each.

Cairn

For any outdoor adventure you go on, use Cairn (download for iOS or Android) to keep you safe. Cairn lets you share your location with your friends and family, find spots with cell coverage and download maps to use offline.

Share your location with your friends in case you get separated while hiking. They’ll be able to use your GPS location to find you. You can also set up a “due back time” if your group decides to split up. If someone hasn’t returned by that time, you can search for them on the map. Before you go, however, check out the area to make sure cell coverage is available.

Maps, trails and cell coverage are free, but you can also subscribe for more features for $5 per month or $27 yearly. You’ll get a 30-day free trial so you can try out all of the features.

Bivy

Bivy (download for iOS or Android) is similar to some of the apps mentioned above, with 17 different adventure types, like hiking, kayaking, skiing, rock climbing and cycling. There are tens of thousands of fully mapped adventures and trails. Filter your excursion by type, difficulty and quality.

Bivy will keep track of your pace, mileage, calories burned, top speed, resting time and ETA. Bivy will also alert you if you veer off the path. Share your location with your friends and family so they can see which path you’re on in case you get lost.

The cost is $3 for one month or $30 for a year.

The post Planning to Spend More Time Outside This Spring? These Apps Are a Great Start first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Software maker Skylum released on Thursday a new version of its Luminar Neo photo editing tool that uses artificial intelligence to handle what used to be mundane but time-consuming tasks.

Luminar Neo can automatically remove power lines in backgrounds or erase dark blotches caused by dust on your camera’s image sensor. It can also create a depth map that lets you apply changes to scene elements depending on whether they’re in the foreground, middle distance or background.

The software’s new AI tools, which were trained with real-world data, are an example of tasks that are out of the reach of traditional data processing algorithms. AI technology, which uses techniques based on human brains, is widely used to spruce up smartphone shots. Luminar Neo, however, shows the spread of these approaches to heavy-duty PC tools, too.

Skylum has put AI front and center with its Luminar software, which is designed to let photographers quickly jazz up their shots without lots of fiddling. That doesn’t guarantee it’ll stay ahead of Adobe, the 800-pound gorilla of photo editing, though.

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Luminar added a feature called AI Sky Enhancer in 2019 that lets photographers quickly select the sky, a part of the scene people often want to edit for color and brightness. Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop got their own AI-powered sky selection feature in 2021. The Adobe apps also can use AI to select subjects and increase photo resolution.

Expect more AI as it matures within the computing industry. Apple’s M1 processors bring dedicated AI acceleration circuitry to Macs, which Luminar and Adobe software both employ. On Windows, Luminar taps into Intel’s OpenVino software to bring AI software to its processors, Skylum said.

Luminar Neo, a sequel to the earlier Luminar software, costs $79 and runs on both Windows and Mac machines. 

The post AI Arrives for Serious Photo Editing, Not Just Smartphone Snapshots first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

As the country still handles the coronavirus, some people might still be uncomfortable gathering for group activities. But simply looking at the stars with a close friend or partner can be a relaxing way to spend an evening. 

My husband and I are far enough out in the country to see stars, but we haven’t completely escaped the city’s light pollution. Every so often before we turn in for the night, we’ll step out onto the back porch if the sky is clear, and look up. We’ve seen a shockingly bright Venus, the ISS streak by and a few shooting stars — thanks in part to the help of some apps. 

Read more: Best weather apps of 2022

Here are the best apps to help you spot planets, stars and constellations.

Google Sky/Screenshot by Shelby Brown/CNET

Google Sky

Google Sky lets you explore the reaches of space through the “eyes” of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Digitized Sky Survey. You can explore the wealth of information available free on mobile or desktop. 

Click through the tray at the bottom of the screen to learn more about the solar system, constellations, galaxies and nebulae, views of the universe in x-ray, ultraviolet and infrared. You can also use sliding bars to see drawings of the sky by Giovanni Maria Cassini.

Plus, find where the planets are in the sky at a given time by typing the name of a planet in the search box. 

See at Google Sky

SkySafari/Screenshot by Shelby Brown/CNET

SkySafari

The SkySafari astronomy app, which starts at $5 on iOS and free on Android, lets you hold your phone to the sky to identify planets, constellations, stars and satellites. You can also use the app to see what the sky might’ve looked like thousands of years ago, or what it will look like in the future.

Simulate past meteor showers, approaching comets and celestial events, like eclipses. SkySafari also has a constellation illustration overlay feature in case you can’t quite visualize the lion or bear that everyone else claims to see. The app also offers history, mythology and science information to accompany the images.

If you’re not sure where to get started, you can tap Tonight’s Best in the app to check out which object in the sky you could get the best look at.

See at SkySafari

StarTracker/Screenshot by Shelby Brown/CNET

Star Tracker

The Star Tracker app works on iOS (lite) and Android to show you 88 constellations, over 8,000 and deep-sky objects, and the sun, moon and planets, all in real time. The app uses a 3D compass in AR mode that indicates the position of objects you’ve searched for. Think of it as a mobile planetarium.

To enhance constellations, Star Tracker has a graphics feature for the 12 zodiac signs and six famous deep-sky objects. 

The app is free, but there’s a full version with more features for $3 and a no ads version for $1. In addition, Star Tracker Pro offers a Time Machine feature and night mode. 

See at Star Tracker

Screenshot/CNET

International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) app, available free on iOS and Android, doesn’t technically show you stars, but you can check out planets and the ISS itself. The app tracks where the in-space laboratory is currently located above the world at any given time.  

Once you plug in your location — the only permission the app asks for — it can tell you how often you can expect to see the ISS in the sky. For example, residents of Louisville, Kentucky will typically be able to see the ISS between about 7:57 p.m. and 9:37 p.m. each night for about 30 seconds to a minute and a half. It’s a fleeting window — the ISS is traveling at about 17,100 miles per hour.

The app also keeps track of how long until the ISS will pass over your location again, and how long it’ll be visible. On average, it looks like the ISS is visible in a given area one to two times per day over the course of a week. 

See at ISS Detector

Skyview/Screenshot by Shelby Brown/CNET

Skyview

The Skyview app is $3 on iOS and $2 on Android, but both platforms have a free lite version. To use Skyview, just point your device at the sky and you can get started identifying galaxies, stars, constellations, planets — even the International Space Station. The app has night mode and an AR feature, so you can use it comfortably any time. 

The app’s Sky Path’s feature lets you track objects in space to see exact locations at any date and time. In addition, Skyview has a time travel option to observe what the sky looked like in the past and might look like in the future. 

See at Skyview

NASA/Screenshot by Shelby Brown/CNET

NASA

No at-home space adventure is complete without the free official NASA app, which you can download for iOS or Android. Although technically you can’t use the app for stargazing in the same vein as some of the others on this list, you can still get up close and personal with space.

Check out a photo library with thousands of images constantly being updated and watch live NASA TV. In addition, the app has on-demand videos from around the agency and live streaming from the High-Definition Earth Viewing experiment on the ISS.

The app also keeps you in the know about NASA missions, launch information, upcoming sightings, news and tweets from the agency. 

See at NASA

Star Walk 2/Screenshot by Shelby Brown/CNET

Star Walk 2, $3 for iOS and free for Android with in-app purchases, uses your phone’s sensors and GPS to show you a map of the night sky in real time, pinpointing the location of stars, planets, constellations, comets, the ISS and satellites.

Like SkySafari, you can tap Visible Tonight if you’re not sure where to start. The feature will tell you all upcoming astronomical events and celestial objects visible for your location. The What’s New section will also keep you posted on upcoming events. You can also view the astronomy calendar or tap the clock-face icon to select any date and time and watch the sky of different periods.

See at Star Walk 2

Spectacular ISS shots of cities at night (pictures)

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More for skywatchers

• NASA’s incredible new moon map will serve as blueprint for human missions
• Astronomers discover oldest disk galaxy ever hiding deep in the cosmos
• Scientists spot ‘one in a million’ super-Earth
• Weird ‘cotton candy’ planets might be rocking rings, scientists suggest
• Strange, giant exoplanet could be the best place to look for livable exomoons
• Astronomers watch star dance with a black hole, proving Einstein right (again)
• 41 weird objects seen on Mars, explained
• A giant comet spotted in 2017 is still headed toward Earth
• Cosmic dead ringers: 27 super strange-looking space objects
• Astronomers get first look at a baby planet being born

The post 7 stargazing apps for spotting constellations and more first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Sony took the wraps off its first drone — the Airpeak S1 — back in January and it’s finally going on sale. The company says you can preorder the drone directly from its website, although at time of writing it’s only possible to put in your email address for more information. The drone will start at $9,000 and comes with two batteries for a total flight time of up to 12 minutes with a mirrorless camera attached (like Sony’s A7S III and lens). 

It comes with one controller, which you’ll need to connect to an iPad for viewing footage or adjusting settings using Sony’s Airpeak Flight app. A second controller can be paired to allow one person to fly the drone and a second to operate the gimbal and camera.

Speaking of the gimbal, that’s not included for your $9,000. Instead, you’ll need to buy this optional accessory separately — assuming you want to be able to sling your camera underneath instead of just fly the drone part around like an extravagantly expensive toy plane. The official price for the compatible Gremsy T3 for Airpeak gimbal hasn’t been announced, but other variants of the T3 gimbal retail for $1,749, so budget at least that much. Then you’ll need to add one of Sony’s Alpha mirrorless cameras and lenses, so make sure there’s cash left in your bank for that. 

So it’s not a cheap option, particularly when you consider DJI’s pro-level Inspire 2 drone starts at $5,299, has a longer flight time and includes both camera and gimbal. But your options are limited if you’re particularly keen on putting your Sony Alpha cameras in the air, and Sony’s solution may be worth the money for creative pros looking to up their aerial quality. 

The post Sony’s $9,000 Airpeak S1 drone opens for orders today first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Recent phones like the iPhone 13 Pro, Google Pixel 6 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra have incredible cameras that can snag the sort of stunning photographs you’d normally expect to see coming from pro-level DSLRs with sky-high prices attached. Even older or more affordable phones like the iPhone 11, OnePlus 9 or Pixel 5 can take stunning shots that’ll impress your Instagram following no end.

In this guide, I’m going to show you how to take landscape photos with your phone, whether you’re heading into the countryside or deep into the heart of the mountains. While some of the tips apply to recent handsets with multiple lens options, many are relevant whether your phone is three months or three years old, Apple or Android. 

Let’s dive in and don’t forget to check our guide to the best phones you can get in 2021, and head over to our phone photography 101 page for lots more photography tips. 

Sort your phone camera settings

Your phone is probably capable of taking a cracking landscape photo in its default auto mode, but let’s take things a bit further. 

If your phone has a “pro” mode that gives you manual control of settings, switch into that. If it doesn’t, an app like Moment, Lightroom or MuseCam lets you take control of settings like ISO, shutter speed and white balance. 

Crucially, these apps also let you shoot in raw format. Raw images don’t save many of the automatic camera settings that your phone would normally apply to a JPEG image, such as white balance or sharpening. The result is an image that lets you change the white balance, alter colour tones and rescue detail from the highlights and shadows much more easily — and with less image degradation — than you can with a simple JPEG. I’ll come back to this more in the editing section below.

Apple’s recent phones, such as the 13 Pro and 12 Pro Max, can use the company’s new ProRaw format, which uses some computational photography techniques like HDR blending but still generates an easily editable DNG file. Tapping the Raw button on the camera screen will turn on raw shooting.

In landscapes, altering white balance is often crucial. Being able to tone down some of the highlights from a bright sky or bring up the shadows in the foreground is important, and being able to alter your white balance after you’ve taken the shot gives you much more flexibility in your editing (particularly those occasions when you want to warm up the tones in a beautiful sunset, for example). 

The downside to shooting in raw is that your images will need some work in an editing app like Lightroom or Snapseed before you can share them. Photographing landscapes is often a slower, more methodical process, and spending time in editing is all part of the experience of crafting a beautiful image. 

Shoot early, stay out late

Time of day is everything in landscape photography, because the lighting changes completely as the sun passes overhead. The best time of day to catch dramatic light is either at sunrise or at sunset. The sun is low in the sky both times of day, resulting in directional light and long shadows cast over the scene. 

Midday is typically the worst time to shoot, as the overhead light doesn’t create much in the way of shadow detail, resulting in scenes that can look flat and lifeless. 

If you have a particular location in mind, it’s worth setting your alarm and getting out early to see what you can capture during the sunrise. If time allows, try and return to shoot the same scene at different times of day to see when it looks best. 

Watch the weather

Weather plays a huge part in any outdoor photography, but none more so than with landscapes. Different weather conditions will transform your scene, completely altering its mood, lighting and colors. But don’t assume that bad weather means bad photos.

Personally, I love the foreboding, moody atmosphere of a landscape with dark storm clouds billowing above. Often the light that comes after a storm can look particularly dramatic. So while the hike to your chosen location might be a miserable slog in pouring rain, keep your spirits up by imagining the beautiful photo you might get at the end. 

The worst weather for landscapes is that plain, miserable gray sky where there’s no texture to the clouds, no interesting light on the land and no contrast to the scene in front of you. 

Keep an eye on your favorite weather app and make the decision based on what’s predicted. As long as you’ve packed the right clothing, you can brave the worst of the weather, and if it gets too bad then navigate Google Maps to the nearest pub to sit it out with a good drink. 

Experiment with your wide and zoom lenses

If your phone has a wide-angle mode, then now’s the time to give it a try. If you don’t have a wide mode on your phone as standard, you can use additional lenses to get the same effect. 

Superwide landscapes can be particularly dramatic, as they capture so much of a scene in a single image. Mountaintops that would otherwise be out of frame are suddenly captured in all their majesty, while beautiful rivers can now be seen in their entirety, snaking their way into a scene.

But once you’ve had the excitement of seeing the scene in full, try using the telephoto zoom lenses on your phone to focus on some of the details within it. Look for interesting rock formations, patterns in the landscapes or unusual shapes in the scene — all of which can stand out when you zoom in or crop out other distracting elements. 

Concentrate on composition

It’s easy to think that just using as wide an angle as possible is a guarantee of a cool landscape photo, but that’s not the case. In fact, to get the best out of your wide shots you need to think about composition even more. 

Foreground interest 

Look for foreground interest in your scenes. Tree stumps, moss-covered rocks, even some pretty wildflowers can all be used to draw the viewer’s eye into a scene. When you’re at the top of the hill taking your shot, spend a couple of minutes having a look around for something you can place in your shot to help bring the scene together. 

Leading lines 

Leading lines are also great elements of a brilliant landscape composition. Keep your eye out for pathways, nice walls or other long elements that wind their way farther into the scene — it’s exactly that winding perspective that allows your viewer’s eye to follow along a line and into your image. 

Straight horizons 

If your phone shows grid lines or a leveling tool on the screen, use that to make sure your horizon line is straight. Then double-check you’re not accidentally chopping the top off your subject, be it a mountain, a building or some trees. Remember, you can do a lot to improve a mediocre image with editing, but you can’t do anything to rescue bad composition. 

Edit your photos

Your image isn’t finished once you’ve hit that shutter button; a few tweaks in an editing app is all it can take to transform a simple snap into a beautiful piece of art. 

My favorite editing app is Adobe Lightroom Mobile, but I also get great results from Google’s Snapseed, which you can get for free on Android and iOS. You can check out my roundup of the best editing apps, which include various options for those of you who like to get a bit wild with your editing. 

I tend to start by tweaking the white balance so the colours look accurate — or to give a warmth boost to a beautiful sunset. It’s here that shooting in raw becomes particularly beneficial. I’ll tweak the exposure levels, particularly the highlights and shadows, in order to bring a bright sky a bit more under control or to boost shadows in the foreground. A bit of additional contrast can help add some punch to the scene as well. 

My advice is to make a coffee, sit back and play with the sliders in your chosen app to your heart’s content. Try out the different filters and experiment with layering different effects on top of each other by saving and reimporting your image. Remember that there’s no right or wrong way to edit an image, so enjoy the fun of playing around — you can always go back to the original image if you don’t like what you’ve come up with.

The post Take your best ever landscape photos on your phone: Top tips and tricks for better shots first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Your Gmail profile picture probably doesn’t get as much attention as your photo on Facebook. If you’re looking for a change, Google has an idea that may appeal to you — turn yourself into an illustration using its tool, appropriately named Google Illustration. Currently, the feature is only available on Android, but it gives you the opportunity to make your profile pic a lot more colorful if you have an Android device.

In Google Chrome, your profile picture can generally be found in the upper right corner of your screen. You’ll also spot it in Gmail. If you don’t want to use a photo of yourself for privacy reasons, you can choose an image you already have saved, or leave it blank (meaning your avatar will simply be your first initial against a colored background).

And now there’s a new option — you can use the Google Illustration tool to create a custom profile picture in Gmail. It’s important to know that you’ll only be able to use the Google Illustration tool if you don’t have a profile picture already set up. You’ll need to clear any image that you’ve uploaded previously. 

Use Google Illustration to make your profile picture

1. Open the Gmail app

2. Tap your profile image in the upper right corner of the screen. 

3. If you have multiple Gmail accounts, simply choose the account you wish to edit. 

4. Tap the little camera icon over your default avatar. 

5. Tap Add Profile Picture

Now, instead of just choosing between your Google Photos or Device Photos for a new avatar, you’ll be able to explore an Illustrations tab with dozens of colorful images. The library includes categories like musical instruments, arts and crafts, gardening, drinks, birds, nature and more. You can also tap Reload to get a refreshed batch of illustrations. If you’ve got something specific in mind, you can type it into the search bar. 

You can choose any of the images available and use them as is, or you can take it a step further with the tool’s customization features. 

Google Illustration customization tools

To customize, select an image from the library. For example, I chose an image of two windmills in a field of tulips. I had premade filters with purple, green and blue color schemes. I could keep the image’s default coloring, choose a filter and save, or tap the paint bucket icon to make more detailed changes to certain sections of the image. 

With the windmill image, I could make finer changes to the sky, grass and tulips. When I tapped Sky, the tool displayed a color wheel so I could get specific about my edits. I could also discard it all and go start over, crop the image, or save it as my profile image. Whenever you want another change, you can just repeat the process and tap Change, or remove the image altogether. 

Once you’ve saved the illustration as your profile image, that picture will represent you in Google docs, Gmail, and anywhere else your profile picture displays. While the feature is exclusive to Android devices for now, Google said it’s working on bringing the feature to iOS devices and the web, and it’s working on expanding the image collection.

For more, check out these 10 Gmail tricks that’ll make your life easier and the 7 Gmail features you might not know about. 

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Apple TV Plus, the tech giant’s subscription video service, is headed to Comcast devices. The companies have struck a deal to bring Apple TV Plus to Comcast devices and the Xfinity Stream and Sky Go apps to Apple TV devices, said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts during the company’s earnings call Thursday.

The Apple TV app (which lets you access Apple TV Plus) will be available to Xfinity and Sky customers in the US and UK on Xfinity X1, Flex, XClass TV and Sky Glass and Sky Q devices, said Roberts. 

A representative for Comcast said the app is expected to launch across its platforms “in the coming months.”

Apple TV Plus costs $5 a month and offers access to original series and movies including Ted Lasso and The Morning Show. In the Apple TV app, people can also rent or purchase movies and shows, as well as subscribe to channels such as Showtime and Paramount Plus. 

See also

• Best streaming device in 2021
• Best live TV streaming service for cord-cutters

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When you think of Sky, you think of a dish (or at the very least a box). Not any more: UK broadcaster has created Sky Glass, a line of 4K TVs with all the hardware and software rolled into the telly itself. Oh, and you can pay for it with a contract like you do with your mobile phone.

The 4K Sky Glass TVs connect directly to your internet to stream Sky TV into British living rooms, directed by a voice-controlled Sky remote control. You don’t even need a Sky Q set-top box.

Sky Glass goes on sale Oct. 18, and you can pre-register now.

Sky Glass come in three sizes: 43-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch. While you’re at it, choose from white, pink, green, blue or good old-fashioned black.

Like a mobile phone, you have the choice of paying a lump sum up front or spreading the cost over your Sky contract for 24 or 48 months. Remember to factor in which Sky packages you want on top, however, such as Sky Ultimate TV (a basic package that also includes Netflix), Sky Sports for football and Sky Cinema for the latest movies.

Here’s how much the Sky Glass models cost:

• The 43-inch model is £649 upfront, £26 a month over two years, or £13 each month over four years.
• The 55-inch model is £849 upfront, £34 a month over two years, or £17 each month over four years.
• The 65-inch model is £1,049 upfront, £42 a month over two years, or £21 each month over four years.

As well as Sky’s own channels and services, the TV includes the BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Disney Plus, Spotify and Peloton apps. It boasts Ultra HD Quantum Dot screen plus Dolby Atmos sound with built-in speakers and sub-woofer.

Sky also revealed a small Sky Stream puck-shaped device for streaming TV to other tellies around your house. It costs £50 followed by £10 a month on top of your bill. 

Best TVs of CES 2021: Brighter OLED, Mini-LED QLED, 8K and HDMI 2.1

+17 more

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