📸 Holiday Phone Photos: How to Take Better Pictures with Your Smartphone (with Don Feria)

Frank Bravo 0:06
Welcome to Your Tech Makeover the podcast that gives you tips and tricks to help you simplify and get more out of the technology in your life. I'm your host, Frank Bravo. Today's topic is making the most of your phone camera. You know, this is just in time for the holiday season when we're all pulling out our phones to capture family moments, meals, decor and more. Smartphones have become a studio in your pocket, but most of us have only scratched the surface of what they can do. I know that I struggle a lot of times taking really good photos. I'm thrilled today to have with me my good friend and longtime collaborator Don Faria. I first met Don back when we were working at the Palo Alto Weekly, where he was a photographer, and over the years, I've watched him go from an award winning photojournalist and Major League Baseball shooter to an instructor at Stanford University's Continuing Studies, where he teaches classes and has taught on cell photography. His work spans big league assignments and everyday storytelling. And now he's helping all of us take a better pictures with our cameras that we carry already. In this episode, Don and I will dive into the practical and easy apply techniques of composing tips, some lighting tricks, and some real world holiday photography advice for food, group photos, and capturing kids and pets. If you've ever wanted to take better photos with your smartphone this season or just in general, you're in the right place. So, Don. Hey, thanks for joining. I really appreciate you being here today, Frank.

Don Feria 1:35
It's always it's always such a fun time to be with you. And for the relationship that we've had for so long, it's, it's really an honor to be on all your projects, and, This is going to be fun.

Frank Bravo 1:46
Awesome. Well, thank you. So, you know, you've worked with some amazing gear as a as a pro photographer, but why do you think that mobile photography has become such a big deal for everybody?

Don Feria 1:59
You know, Frank, I. This is this is a question that I've been considering, ever since I started. I mean, when was that? Back in 2007, when I was at Macworld, when they called it Macworld. And Steve Jobs introduced the browser, the phone and the revolutionary internet device. On that, on that stage at Moscone. And, you know, and there and they put the photographers on the side with and we had we were really far back from the stage and we had our for hundreds and, you know, big day and the whole thing. And to see that phone number one do what it did, but then also have a camera with it as well. And to see the iterations after that get better and better and better. You know, I think what the phone in your pocket has done is, number one, kind of taking the mystique out of what being a photographer is like and, and, and democratize the process. For everyday folks, my myself included, that want to take a picture but don't want to have the bulk of a DSLR, a mirrorless camera, a film camera, and with the iterations after that, as a camera has gotten better with the internet, social media, you can document, you can distribute, and you can communicate with that one little device. Whereas before you would have to rely on folks like me, folks like us to publish the content in a very limited form. Right? When we were back at the paper, we only had 40, 50 pages, right? For, you know, just a few number of stories. And the only communication that we would have with our readers were, was emails or letters to the editor. And it was a process. It was days, it was months, it was weeks. And now it's instantaneous. It's seconds. And for, for for all of us to be able to express our point of view and to be able to interact with our audience or whoever gets to see it. Right. I'm seeing stuff on my Instagram feed that I never thought I'd ever see, but loving it and really enjoying it, you know? And and to think that the power of communication and influence and information dissemination is in your pocket. I think that's just been such an amazing thing for the way that we interact and understand and communicate with one another. And it's only and I'll tell you, it's only getting better and the camera is along for that, along for that ride for sure.

Frank Bravo 4:53
Yeah. I mean, you're right, it's pretty amazing the amount of stuff that we see on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or all those things are only possible because we're carrying these cameras in our pocket. You wouldn't want to roll out your DSR or something like that. And and then try to get that into a photo sharing app, like an Instagram. You know, you've shot with some pretty serious cameras. I mean, I know some of your lenses are 23400 $0, but where do you see the phone camera shining as compared to those, you know, you know, beyond just the being able to shoot something at a moment's notice. And where do you see them falling short? Because, I mean, obviously, I mean, my new iPhone 17 Pro, the camera is amazing, but I don't think it's as good as that $3,000 lens. I mean, maybe it is.

Don Feria 5:46
You know, I. In some sense is it it is in some senses it it isn't the reason why myself as a working professional will opt for, you know, like you said, a $3,000 lens, a $800 lens. Autofocus is faster, right? Glass is sharper. And when you're serving clients who have an expectation, especially when there's subjects that are moving people, animals, pets, sports, you want to have those fast motors that can capture the capture the focus a lot quicker. You have a lot more range, right? I'm using a 180mm or 200 or 300 to 400, and then you can get as wide as 1600 or a fisheye. That's that's eight millimeters wide. And the versatility of an interchangeable, interchangeable lens system. You still can't beat it. That said, you know, like we talked about earlier, do I want to be carrying 20 pounds worth of gear on my shoulder? Right. You know, when I go to when I go to the grocery store, right? Yeah. I'm thinking about a time I remember I was at target on the Peninsula, and there was a great kind of geometrical. Scene as I was walking into target, and it would have been great if I had my medium format, you know, large sensor camera, but all I had was my phone. And back then it was, I think it was an iPhone X, or are, you know, the ten or whatever, which as I was a. Great. Setup already. Absolutely. And you know what? That's what I had. I understood what the light was doing and things like that took a snap of it got and was able to get a nice 11 by 14 print out of it. And so in that situation if you would have asked me what I have, would I have wanted to have my pro setup. Sure. Of course. Right. Because you don't want that information, you want that gear. But I would have said, you know what. Probably no, I probably would have just wanted the phone because I was going in to get cleaning supplies and toilet, you know, all that stuff and stuff that would be in my hands and I wouldn't be able to, to, to have the full setup. So. So there are a lot of times. You know, and I'll say, with the exception of work, there are a lot of times in my everyday life where I would prefer this little gadget as opposed to the $10,000 setup that I use for work. Yeah. And so, you know, and. And, and, and. The way that they're developing the glass, I mean they have like my, my has mine has what, two, two lenses. Right. This is an iPhone I think this is an iPhone 13 okay. And so it's several generations old, but it's such an improvement over the 12, the 11, the ten, the eight, the night. And I and I know that the next one that I'm going to get and I'm due for, due for an upgrade, it's just going to be ten times better. Yeah. Yeah.

Frank Bravo 9:02
I mean, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, I have said for years and years and years that my phone was the best camera I've ever owned. And every year, every time I upgrade, that is absolutely the case. I mean, this thing can zoom. I mean, digitally 40 times, and the photo at 40 times is amazing. You know, I took some photos. I took a photo of my dog at two times, which is a real zoom at that point. And it is phenomenal. But, you know, knowing the limits of the phone, I think probably helps people understand how to take better pictures. Or at least I have found that. Have you found that in your, you know, talking about phones with people? Because I think that the, the majority of the kind of people that are the majority of the people that are listening to this podcast and watching it on YouTube, they are more like me and less like you. Right, right.

Don Feria 9:55
No, I, I agree with you 100%. There's there's, there are limitations when you're using such a small sensor. I mean, these sensors are probably the size of of your pinky pinky nail, you know, and because they're so small, because the physical limitations of having a cramped in that small of the space means that you inherently have more depth of field, right? You're not going to get that separation between foreground and background like you would with a 35 millimeter sensor or even larger medium format sensor. And so you, you sacrifice that, the smaller sensor is a little bit less sensitive to low light, so you'll get a little bit more degradation, in your, in your digital file, although that is getting better.

Frank Bravo 10:45
I have to tell you, you know, the, the ability for it to understand, like on the iPhone in portrait mode, you know, it is pretty phenomenal what you could do literally point and shoot and I and later on I'm going to ask you about flashes and that kind of stuff. I don't I try to never use my flash, because the low light photography that you could do on this iPhone seems to be, and I know my son has my youngest son has a Android device that is just actually he would say it's better, but it is just as good as doing low light. So it is pretty phenomenal. Yeah.

Don Feria 11:21
No, I mean, you know, it's it's you're absolutely right with the portrait mode. And, you know, I tell my students, I will give you this information now take it with a grain of salt, because 12 months from now it's going to be phenomenally better. It's going to change. And you know, when this whole AI thing, you know, who knows where they're going to take it. And I'll tell you, I mean, portrait mode, I love portrait mode. My goodness, what a lifesaver to just be able to blow that background out and, you know, have it again, have it in your pocket. It's it's it's such a game changer. And I love it. I really, really love.

Frank Bravo 11:55
Shout out to listeners like you help make your technique over possible. Your support helps keep this podcast going and I truly appreciate it. Want to contribute? Just click the link in the show notes or visit your Tech makeover.com. Plus as a thank you supporters who give $25 or more, we'll get $25 off a one time consultation with me to help you simplify your tech. Thanks for being part of the Your Tech Makeover community. Now back to what we were saying. I want to ask you about composition and some storytelling. But before we go there, one last question on like the the basic settings of your phone. So I know that Apple introduced the ability to take high efficiency or high F photos, as opposed to just your old standard JPEGs that we've been saving JPEGs for 30 years now. What's your feeling on that? You know, does it really matter for photographers? I mean, I, I tend to because I'm old, I tend to go back to the JPEG and leave it at JPEG, but everything I'm reading is like, oh, you should really use the high efficiency settings.

Don Feria 12:57
You know, I tell you, for old guys like us who who grew up on JPEG. I mean, I still go to JPEG. I still go to, to, to the, to the raw file that I get that I can get, which is I think now you can get a tiff. Yeah. For the simple reason that I like having that information, just in case I want to crop it or process it in a certain way. And I remember when, when I first came out, it wasn't as compatible as, as jpeg was. And so there were difficulty for, you know, uploading files to whatever site that you needed to, to have some verification for or anything like that. But the fact that it's a smaller file, it's, it's, it's, it's more compatible these days. And you know, I tell there's. Just some times where I don't need that big of a file. I don't need that much information. Right. If there's a if I'm at the library and there's a recipe that I want to record, you know, from, from a book, I don't need a jpeg, I need that h h. I see. And it's been it's been so great to be able to have more space on my phone and not have to worry about, you know, if I take this picture, is it going to clog up a bunch of information on my phone? If I'm if I'm feeling artifacts, then I'll go to Tiff, then I'll go to JPEG. But to have that option of HD, I see. Oh man. It's it's it's been so great.

Frank Bravo 14:25
So great. So you find yourself switching back and forth between the different, types for sure. For sure. Yeah, yeah. So so the lazy person to me is just like it's JPEG until it's not. And then it's I see until it's not. And then it's like I, you know, because I don't think about that. I mean, I think most people don't think about it. It's like I'm going to set it. It's going to most likely be whatever is standard. Because now, I mean, I know with the new phones the H I see is the standard. And that's fine unless like you said, you're sharing it or you're trying to upload something to a website. It just makes it a little more difficult.

Don Feria 15:00
And for what we're doing with the way that we use photography these days, you know, you don't need that big of a file, right? Hi. I see is is more than enough to, you know, text you an image of of, you know, a birthday party that I, that I attended or, you know, some sort of whatever whatever that I want to share on social media. So.

Frank Bravo 15:20
Right. You don't need to be sharing a raw file on Instagram. To your seven inch phone. It's just not going to do any good. That's right. So so as far as taking pictures, you know, what are some simple tricks that people can use to that will instantly make their, photography better on their phone? And what kind of common mistakes do you usually see when people are doing those photos? Because I know, I, I know what a good photo looks like, but I don't know that I really know logically why a good photo looks good.

Don Feria 15:54
Yeah. You know, and. This this goes along with what we were talking about with the smaller sensors and depth of field. Is that whatever your subject is in front of really impacts. The. How how good your photo turns out. You know, if, if I'm making.

Frank Bravo 16:16
A background is important.

Don Feria 16:17
Background is absolutely huge. If I, if I'm making a portrait of you and I stand you up, in front of a of a light pole, right. And there's a big pole coming out of your head. It could be the greatest photo of you, but you gotta you gotta pull coming out of the back of your head. Right? Or. Or if if I'm shooting into the sun. Right. And I'm shooting at the wrong angle, there's just going to be a big lens flare that isn't flattering to the the final image. And so as much as the subject is important, what you put it in front of makes or breaks the impact, the visual impact of your message and the esthetics of of the photo. So that's that's the one thing that I really want to impart, to, you know, that I impart to my students is that, you know, be conscious of what's behind your subject. Because your subject can be really great and because you're taking a photo of that object or place or thing, you really want to immortalize it by having, you know, a clean background. Which portrait mode helps you? Right? Because it'll it'll blur it out. Right. But you really want to be conscious of what's behind, behind your subject.

Frank Bravo 17:37
And that's super important. I mean, we don't always have if, you know, we're out shooting a soccer game of our kids or we're at a dinner, we don't always have total control over that background. But even moving a foot to your left or a foot to your right might get you that kind of background. That is better than not. I mean, I know a lot of the photos that you've taken for for news or in sports, you are stuck with the background that it is because you can't change that perspective. But I think that with us, you know, shooting, just snapping photos, you do have a little bit of control now, you probably aren't going to go to somebody's house and tell them to take the pictures off the wall because they're distracting. But you could also, you know, move people around a little bit, especially. Absolutely. Stationary photos. What about the and and I remember us talking about this at the paper long time ago. You know, the me and my prop photo. So I'm winning an award, you know, and I want to be I want a picture of me with my my certificate, you know, how would you tell people or what would you suggest to people to make those kind of photos better?

Don Feria 18:47
You know, if if you're having an object that you want to, that you want to have in the photo, a lot of people will naturally bring it down to their waist level. And so you have a gap between the chin and the top of the plaque, or the award or the statue that they're, that they're holding. And so that negative space really kind of takes away from the viewer's, the viewer's gaze, and it splits it between that shiny object which is down lower in the photo, and then the face of the person which, which you actually want to see. So I think if you bring the top of that plaque or, object or award right around middle of chest so that their hands aren't straight and their elbows are kind of a little flared to the side. That makes a little bit more of an impactful photo. And then also turning their shoulders at an angle so that you're not straight on to the camera, where this plane of my face and my in the front of my body is parallel to the plane of the of the field of the camera. So just by turning at 35, 45 degrees, you create a little bit of a visual kind of dissonance that introduces the third, I guess in mathematical terms of the third axis, and gives you just, just a hair bit of dimension, whether you're photographing one person or two people at an angle or a group where you turn the focus on the left to one angle and you turn the folks to the right at another angle. So you kind of converge in the middle. So you have a little bit more depth in that, in that image there.

Frank Bravo 20:39
And it's a little more interesting than just this line of people or me holding, you know, whatever it might be that I'm holding up. Right, right. Yeah. Right. So so you have you have these groups of people and I know that lighting. We've talked a little bit about lighting. And sometimes you can control the lighting. Sometimes you can't control the lighting. You know what's your best advice for indoor lights? Outdoor lights, especially during the holidays. I mean, I know that in my household, you know, we have the Christmas tree. It might have white lights, it might have colored lights. It probably will have white lights. So you have this weird light source and you have the normal light source in the room, and maybe you have some backlighting because you have a window behind you or window behind the person that's taking the picture. You know, so how how do you handle those kind of tricky situations, like that.

Don Feria 21:29
Yeah. I mean, and and you know, tricky is certainly the right, the right term to use for that, because you have different color temperatures, different different sizes of lights. I think for me, if I was to walk into a room, I would gravitate towards the largest source of light meaning, meaning relative to my subject. So if I'm looking at a family party, you know, which we had a lot when I was a kid for Christmas, I would I would kind of plant myself close to, the Christmas tree because you have a lot of smaller lights. But then when they're all stuck together, they create a large light source. And so when you have a large light source like that, like a large lamp with a lampshade on top of it, or even better yet, you know, a window if you're if you're celebrating during the daytime, any large light source will cast a soft light on any subject that's smaller than it. Human head, you know, food, things like that. And so anytime we're photographing our loved ones, any sort of soft light that we can get, is our ideal kind of source of light. No, no. Overhead can. Lights? No. You know, bare light bulbs? Not even not even flash or flashlights from from the phone. The larger you can make that source of light emanating from in a certain direction, and having it come from an angle either left or right, your, your photography improves that much more. Okay. And so.

Frank Bravo 23:17
So so so either behind the, the photographer or left or right of the photographer, so that the light's coming at an angle to the, to the subject's, what about, you know, what about the flash? I mean, I, I said earlier that I hardly ever use the flash. Yeah. I feel like it washes out more than not. Not to mention you have to wait for it to actually flash, and inevitably, you end up missing that moment. Right. You know, so. So when would be a good time to use a flash? And you know what? Not that you'd want to set up lights around your your holiday tables, but, you know, could you add some extra lights in the room so that you do take better pictures? Or if you're taking portrait type pictures, you know, what are some tricks that you've used? What are some some different devices that you've used in order to make that lighting kind of better?

Don Feria 24:09
You know, I tell you, I the the table lamp is a great light source. You know, it's small, it's portable. You can use a lampshade, if you can grab one and pull the lampshade off and put it next to a large neutral colored wall so that the light bounces off the wall and gives you that that, softer light.

Frank Bravo 24:34
So don't put the don't put the light in between you and the subject to light the subject up, but let it bounce off of another item so that you can then get that, that reflective light, if you will.

Don Feria 24:46
Correct. Yeah, correct. But, you know, in a pinch, everyone has a phone, and most of these phones these days have flashlights on them. And so if you gather up enough people, if you're, let's say if you're photographing, you know, the Thanksgiving turkey, you want to have that large light source grab 4 or 5 of, you know, your uncles and your aunts and your cousins and your nieces and nephews and have them turn on the flashlight, hold them all next to each other and at an angle for that turkey. And it creates a kind of a softer light that that can serve you in a pinch. But, you know, that.

Frank Bravo 25:29
Also gets other people involved, right? I mean, so you're not just there doing it. It becomes a group activity to take that photo.

Don Feria 25:37
That's right. And I'll tell you, you know, the young folks these days, they love photography and they eat up any sort of technique or tips or tricks that you can use. And so they are more than willing participants to, to help out. And and yeah, it becomes one of those things where everybody gets involved and it ends up being, you know, a good time for everybody because everybody wants to see what you shot and how good it looks, you know? And so, so that's that's been fun. I, I know with my niece and my nephew that's always been a kind of a fun thing to do, you know, but that's it. On the flip side, too, if you look at any food magazine lately. Hard flash is a thing.

Frank Bravo 26:23
And explain, explain hard flash.

Don Feria 26:25
So hard flash is the type of light that comes from a smaller light source relative to relative to your subject. So if I was to photograph you using my phone and just the flash, because this flashes this small, you know, and your average normal size head is way bigger than, than this output, when it hits your subject, you're going to get some harsh shadows. Okay. And for people. Yeah not so great. But if you're photographing, you know a specialty cocktail that you know, your cousin made for, for the holidays, that's kind of a trend these days where you get a lot of that contrast. And when that hard light hits the colors of the glass, maybe it's like a red or a green or whatever the fluid may be, or the drink may be, it adds a little bit of a kind of an edginess, a contemporary kind of look to, to those images, to those images, that you find a lot lately and, you know, things like food and wine and, you know, all those, all those sort of magazines that are on the cutting edge of, of food photography. So you so you can get away with hard flash if you're looking for that look. But if, you know, if it's your grandma's 100 year old turkey recipe, you probably don't want hard flash for that. Soft light would be probably more appropriate for better.

Frank Bravo 27:53
And that's where you could use your camera is your your other phone lights that are around and kind of give that that shine and that, that then bring makes a bigger light source than just an individual light. Because, I mean, I know that I've seen you in, in professional shots, show shoots that you have, you know, stand lights in these large lights that throw lots of light, but there are very diffused. Whereas if you take just a little flashlight, you're not going to get that. What about the ones that are running around the kids, the pets, you know, people that never sit still?

Don Feria 28:28
Yeah.

Frank Bravo 28:29
You know, so the dog is is in my life right now. The thing that I take pictures of that more than anything because she's around all the time, but, you know, kids, they're always running around. And how do you get good pictures from them? And kind of a candid shot type solution. Yeah.

Don Feria 28:49
You know, it goes back to the old the, the beginnings of manual photography where there was no autofocus and things like that. So what I the thing that I learned. When I was shooting sports, especially with soccer, is instead of trying to follow them around and, and knowing that the autofocus isn't going to keep up with them, you know, if you're sitting on the couch, you're sitting at the table and you see the kids running around, eventually they're going to come towards you. And with the auto the autofocus lock feature you can compose that frame, lock it on. You know they have the grid on there. Lock it on one of the thirds where the, where the two lines intersect. And just wait until the kids come into that plane of focus. And the only thing you're doing at that point is hitting the shutter button. So. So if you take away the idea of having to follow them, having to try to focus on them, having to do all these in composition and all that stuff, having all those things preset, where all you're thinking about is them coming into that plane and hitting that, that shutter button. It takes away a lot of the stress about getting sharp photos and making sure you got the right moment, you know, all that stuff. And then also keeps you engaged in being able to enjoy that actual holiday as opposed to being a photographer on assignment. You're right. You know what I mean? And so.

Frank Bravo 30:26
Talk a little bit about that auto focus, because I know that I have struggled a little bit with that where I think something's in focus. And then I take a picture of it and I'm like, oh, wait a minute. That wrong thing is in focus. So, you know, what tricks can you can you provide that will allow you to lock that auto focus in place?

Don Feria 30:46
Yeah. So so, you know, I mean, if I'm thinking about a time where we were at holiday, I think I was I was back home overseas and we had the adults at the table and the kids running around, and I was trying to talk to my aunts, my uncles and my grandma and grandpa, the whole thing. But also knowing that, you know, this was a moment where you're not going to get again because the kids are going to grow up and all that stuff. And so I was pivoting back and forth, and I remember seeing them and, you know, knowing the kids and, and and this is a thing when, you know, when you're with your family is that you know, your family's tendencies, right? Right. You know, where the kids are going to run around, you know, what they like doing. And so having that information and using that to your advantage and knowing that, okay, they're running around in circles right now. So at a certain point they're going to be about five feet away. And it's going to fill up my frame. It's going to be prominent in the picture. It's going to make it's going to make a great picture. And so what I'm going to do is I'll take my phone, I'll tap, tap and hold until the little box lights up. And this is for iPhone, but I'm sure it works for Android two. It'll give you that confirmation that you're locked on that one thing. And for me, it was this, my grandma's house had, like, a little sunken courtyard in the middle of it, and she had this plant at the corner of the, of the door. So I focused on that plant, and then knowing that the camera sensor is so small that you have an inherent deep depth of field, that anything between me and the plant will be sharp or relatively sharp. And I would just sit there, I would, you know, you would listen to the kids as they were screaming and laughing and yelling. And as the sound got closer, you would I would turn, you know, my attention and just kind of frame up and wait for them to move. And, you know, I mean, let's face it, I didn't get it. I didn't get into the first shot. I didn't get into the second shot. But by the fifth time, the sixth time before they were pooped out and, you know, sprawled out on the floor.

Frank Bravo 33:00
And then it became a lot easier to take pictures of. Right?

Don Feria 33:04
Absolutely.

Frank Bravo 33:05
Yeah. But not nearly as fun. Right?

Don Feria 33:08
Right. But you still get the same sort of emotion as they're starting to tail down a little bit. So you get that. And then as fatigues, you know, sets in and they start slowing down, that's when you can get up and photograph the aftermath. Sure. So you have the action. You have the reaction, and then you have the, the moment where things kind of settle down. So you have yourself a little mini story that you can build, in the larger story of telling the, the, the narrative of Thanksgiving 2000. You know, 2025, Christmas 2025 kind of thing.

Frank Bravo 33:53
Right. And that's the thing that people are going to take those photos and put 3 or 4 of them together and put them out on Instagram. What about burst mode? I mean, I think all the camera apps have some sort of burst mode. I mean, I know your professional cameras. Absolutely. You could take hundreds of photos a minute with, you know, how how how would using something like that I mean, obviously then it gives you an editing process because now you're looking at a million different photos instead of just one. You know, what tips could you can you give to our listeners and watchers that are around the burst mode, or do you even bother with it because you're just like, I want to capture this one instance.

Don Feria 34:32
Yeah. No, you know, it's it's a burst mode is a tool. And burst mode. I, I really like it just because it gives you, you know, I, I tell my students, the more that you can press that button, the closer you are to getting the shot that you want to get. And, you know, kind of take that with a grain of salt when it comes to burst mode. However, you know, when you can photograph a moving object as it's going through the frame of your camera, as opposed to relying on that one single shot and having the perfect timing. You know, that that strength in numbers, the odds when you talk about, you know, multiple, multiple images, we'll get you a little bit closer to the image that you want to get. The caveat to that is that if your timing is off, then you're not going to get the image that you want, right? If the kids zoom past you already and then you hit the shutter, you're not going to get it. But that said, if you're, you know, you work on your timing and you what we call mash that shutter, you know, you'll get a nice little sequence of, of one of the, one of the, you know, youngins running around and from, from that ten that 15 you can you can pick that that right moment. And you know, with that practice, your timing will get better and better and better so that you have to rely on burst mode less. But burst mode, I tell you, it's it's a great insurance policy for for times like that where you're getting together with your family, you know, once a year on a special occasion, like, like like that, in that, in that circumstance.

Frank Bravo 36:11
What about live photos? I mean, I know that like on an iPhone, again, we're talking iPhone here because you and I are both Mac people or Apple people. You know, what about the the live photos? They drive me crazy when people send them to me. But I know that you can adjust the key frame, the frame that you actually see. And kind of the next step of that. What about taking video and extracting stills from those videos?

Don Feria 36:38
You know, both of those things are such a wonderful creative avenue to explore. Not something that I would inherently turn to from the get go, because I'm a stills guy. Sure. But that said, you know, like you said, when you can when you can move that key frame around and take several live photos, stack them together and create like a little animation, which I've seen people who are a lot more creative than me do that really, really well. I mean, it's a whole it's a whole different way of communicating and storytelling and presenting a narrative that is fun. You know, engages your audience in a different way. And then there's times where the video part of it really makes more impact and has a better, makes better sense than just just, just as stills guy, which, you know, kind of pains me as a, as a as a sales guy. Right, right. But there, you know, when you're singing Happy Birthday and you want to see the range of emotion of the birthday celebrant as they're going through that whole process of being sung to and being honored and things like that video, you know, there's there's something that video does that really immortalize the, the moment and the time that you are together?

Frank Bravo 38:16
And there are tools that will allow you to take those frames out of those so that you get the picture of, you know, your uncle blowing out the candles at that exact moment, and you don't have to wait. Okay. Well, it's now, you know, is he taking a breath or what? How is he kind of getting ready to blow out the candles where you have the video, you can then say, okay, well, this is the frame where the candles are at an angle. And and there's tools that allow you to do that built in natively to our, our studios in our pocket.

Don Feria 38:46
I'll let you know. I've seen people shoot a video and again, talk an iPhone, shoot a video, go into the iMovie app, scroll through the timeline and take a screenshot of the moment that they wanted to capture and texted it to everybody. And that was more than enough for what people wanted to have.

Frank Bravo 39:08
That's a great tip. I mean, yeah, you have the photos, but you also have the ability to take photos of those photos by doing the screen shots of the devices and able to capture it in that paused moment, where you don't have to know how to edit that video out. You don't edit that image out of the video. Just take a screenshot. Send that along. Again, we're not we're not printing billboards with these images. We're sharing them with our friends. We're sharing them with our family. We're posting them online with relatively low resolutions. So we've taken all these photos. Now we have them all saved in our on our phone, I presume maybe if you are using iCloud or Google Photos or in your Google Photos. You know what's one simple edit that you recommend everybody due to a photo? If you want to make it just a little bit better.

Don Feria 40:02
Contrast helps a lot. And you know, without doing the fancy presets or filters or anything like that. Inherently digital cameras will give you a flat file, because it opens up the possibility to, post-process. It's the way that that that your static allows. And just two points. Three points, five points of contrast, in the native phone app really kind of brings that image to life. It's, you know, it's it'll separate your highlights and your shadows just enough to you to kind of give you just a little bit of pop. And then from there you can, you know, tone the color temperature, throw a filter on if you want. But just outside, just a little bit of contrast is and especially the way that these cameras render these days, sometimes all you need in the correct lighting situation is just three points of contrast, and you're off to the races and it's great.

Frank Bravo 41:07
How much is too much? I mean, I mean, obviously in in journalism we wouldn't go edit out a garbage can that happens to be sitting there next to a photo of a event. But, you know, in normal everyday life, how much editing is too much editing?

Don Feria 41:23
You know, I think when your highlights get blown out. Especially with skin tone. And you'll, you'll see that moment when it starts to break up. You can kind of go too far on that. And then by the same token to the the more HDR that you go, you know, take this with a grain of salt because I like using the shadows and highlights slider to, to to give me a little bit more detail, but when you have too much detail in your highlights and your shadows, you don't get that esthetic visual dissonance in post-processing, where everything is too perfect, right? You, you, you want to give your viewer a little bit of a challenge when they're viewing your image, to have them dive in a little bit deeper and use their own imagination to bring back some of the shadows, to bring back some of those highlights, to have it relate to them as they're as you're looking at images, as they're looking at your images, so that you're not presenting a dish that's too pretty to eat, as they say, you know, you want them to be able to dive into your picture and really look at the nuances that you the little Easter eggs that you plant in, you know, in your images, whether that's through, contrast or color temperature, the way you crop things. Because, you know, we'll all have our different interpretations of stuff. And if, if, if, if you're starting to strive to get that perfect image, the more and more you stray away from it being the right image, because the way that you look at images are just different from the way that I do. This is different from the way that my sister does and so on and so forth. So you want to have a little bit of, a little bit of that dissonance in terms of the artistic sense where you let your viewer do some of the work for themselves.

Frank Bravo 43:32
Cool. Yeah, that makes total sense. So we now have, you know, a million photos in our pocket. I mean, I know that my library is with me as I go, and, organization is a huge thing because to try to find something, unless, you know, the day it is, and we've talked a little bit about AI and how that's making life a little bit easier, because I know I can go to my photo library and say, show me a picture of a dog, and it'll show me all the pictures of the dog. But you know what? Organizational tips. Do you have kind of on a high level? And I'd love to have you back again in the future to talk about organizing in in particular, because you and I, we've talked a lot about organizing our photos. I think we you obviously have way more than I do. But when I was at the paper, we were used dealing with hundreds of photos a day. Coming in and trying to keep that organized is kind of a nightmare. But as a personal photographer, I know that I have hundreds of photos that are just in my library by date. So what tips can you give kind of on a high level that will help people get organized?

Don Feria 44:44
You know, this, this, this, Frank, this topic goes to I'm just going to I'm going to echo a lot of the things that you have told me over the years and my workflow in terms of storage and, and digital organization. For everybody listening here, the only reason why I have a digital, workflow and digital organization file is because of Frank Bravo.

Frank Bravo 45:08
So very nice. I think you probably would have gotten there eventually, but I know that, you know, and the only reason that I've developed one is, like I was saying at the paper we had we had we went from shooting live photos on, you know, paper. I remember years in the dark room doing half tones for the paper. And then it was like, oh, we could take those half tones and we can scan them. Oh, great. Now we have all these physical photos, but we also have all these digital photos. And what do you do with them? Because you don't want to lose them. And now I am super paranoid about my digital photos, because it is likely the only copy of that image that is anywhere is locked in my photo library.

Don Feria 45:52
For sure. Know for sure. And you know, I think the you know, the one thing that we did that you set up at the paper was having that, library of that hierarchy of when you would shoot images and, you know, it's not a thing for you. I wouldn't suggest to the casual photo enthusiast or even kind of the semi-serious photo enthusiast to, be constantly thinking about offloading your images from your phone, because that gets kind of tedious. But being conscious of a monthly photo dump where you pull those images or make copies of those images that are on your phone and you put them on a hard drive, and being diligent about dating, putting those images in a folder that has the date and a short description of, whatever it was that, that, that party, that location, those recipes, you know, like we were talking about earlier or whatever, so that you can remember that. Okay, that was that picture that I remember was Thanksgiving, you know, whatever year it was. So you can go back into your, into your archives and say, okay, let me do a keyword search for Thanksgiving so that you're not scrolling through a hundred pictures of 20, 25, and trying to look from January all the way through December. And so the, the folder system for me, when, you know, like you said, when I eventually figured it out. Taking the influence of of what you guys set up, what you and your staff set up, at the Palo Alto Weekly made it so much easier for me to pull images that I either needed for, you know, licensing, licensing sake or when my mom said, hey, you know, when we were, you know, at your sister's house celebrating, you know, your brother in law's birthday, you have that one picture and I could say it's there somewhere, but I know exactly where it is. And it took me minutes as opposed to hours or days to sift through that, those images. And so I think having an organizational system where, you know, sometimes your folders will only have two or 3 or 4 photos, and depending on the event, some folders will have 100 photos. But to be able to break them up into smaller subsets where you're not going through a bunch of stuff and then backing them up on a second drive, and even in the cloud. I know you've turned me on to a bunch of great cloud systems to which are off site. And, you know, God forbid something happens. To your drives at home or in the office, you have something off site that is constantly getting backed up and, you know, rated and all that stuff. So there's that redundancy there. And, you know, I what do you need? Like a five terabyte drive for the most of us that will be on the storage. Right. So, you know, just to.

Frank Bravo 49:11
Have gotten so cheap now too.

Don Feria 49:13
Oh for sure. Yeah. For sure. It's been it's been incredible. It's been great. Yeah.

Frank Bravo 49:18
Okay. Well, we'll talk more about about storage and organization because I'd love to have you back to talk about that. So just kind of wrapping up here, you know, I want to talk about your personal use of your phone and how you take pictures with your phone. You know, both as a professional like you talked about, you know, this looks cool. I want to take a picture or I'm out somewhere, and I. I see an event. I need to snap something. What feature or mode do you find most useful when you go to use your phone?

Don Feria 49:48
You know, for certain subjects I have really enjoyed, the portrait mode. You know, we talked about that. We talked about that earlier. Just one of those things where you want to separate the background just a little bit more. But then also, you know, the wide like, for my two lens phone, I have a one X and a 0.5 x, so you have a wide and a and a standard. And sometimes I forget to put it on the wide, but when I do, it opens up a whole different avenue for me to tell the story of, you know, whether whether it's a family party or whether it's just me on my daily walk through the neighborhood. And it gives me a different perspective. From what I'm just seeing with my with my two eyes. Right. Which technically through your eyes is about a 50mm. 42, 50mm. But just having that versatility. And, you know, at some point I'll upgrade to the pro, right, and have the, the close up function and all that stuff. And just to be able to see those three different points of view, a wide and normal and a close up, number one has allowed me to kind of see the world from a nonprofessional point of view, see, see it a lot differently, you know, kind of kind of see the big picture and then kind of being able to narrow down into the into the little details. And then from the professional side of things as a, as a, as a work practice, it's helped me expand the way that I tell the story of a daily walk or time with my niece and nephews or, you know, something, something as mundane as, oh, you know what? Let me take a picture of that. Because. Because the lights. Nice. Because it. Looks cool. Yeah. Because it looks cool. Yeah. You know, and and not knowing what I'm going to do with it later, it might just, like, live on my phone, which is 90% of those images. Right? Yeah. But also knowing that, okay, if there's a lot of contrast in that scene, that phone isn't going to that processor isn't going to treat it the way that my I will see it. Sure. And so knowing that okay, I probably want something with a little bit of a flatter contrast so that I can get the artsy kind of, look and have all the detail that I want or knowing that, okay, that's a contrast he's seen, and I know that the phone is going to render it this way. And I'm going to react to, to, to to that. But it's, it's, you know, it's, it's given me those reps that I wouldn't otherwise get because I'm not taking my one camera and one DSLR lens with me all the time. Right.

Frank Bravo 52:50
Cool. So, you know, finally, we've talked about a lot of different things that people can do. You know, normal people like me who isn't aren't a photographer. What are the three takeaways that you would say that somebody could use starting today, that would immediately improve the kind of photos that they take? I mean, especially, you know, as we go into the holiday season here, we're all, like I said, at the top, we're all going to be taking photos and we have this studio in our pocket. What are three things that people could go try now so that you're not doing it for the first time? When you're taking the picture of the turkey, or of the kids running around that, will immediately improve the kind of photos that they are taking.

Don Feria 53:32
I think, you know, for, for, for folks, if I were to tell folks that after this podcast is is finished in the next minute, go towards a window and take a picture of half of the window and then half of the wall and see how your camera reacts to shadow and light as they interact with one another, because that's one of the things where in, in our in our holiday parties like we talked about. Right. You're going to have the dining room is going to be lit really well, but then you go to the living room right next door and you're going to have a floor lamp. You're going to have some overhead lights with a lot of different contrast. And so you don't want to be fumbling, with how your camera is going to react in that actual moment. So to see to, to, to to do a little exercise where you have a, inherently contrasty scene with that window and the wall, you'll see which, you know, your, your iPhone 13 or your 17 or your or your Google Pixel, which it'll favor a little bit more. Will it give you more detail in the shadows, will give you more detail in the highlights so that you know you're armed with that process. And then when you go out on your everyday, you know, dealings with life and errands and all things like that, and you photograph something just because it's cool. Again, backgrounds, backgrounds, background, I can't stress that. Can't stress that enough. Right. So that's the second thing. Third thing is, when you're at that holiday party, you know, the office or all the different celebrations that you're going to have, where, you know, you're going to be at an event and you're going to want to document those things, have have a, have a plan. A lot of people go into those celebrations or those events not having an idea of, okay, these are the type of photos I want to take. These are the type of images that I want to walk away with. And knowing that, you know, you're dealing with people that you've that that you work with, that you're familiar with, that you know, the quirks and the nuances of of, you know, what they do and how they do it. Know that you want to capture Uncle Joe's, you know, crazy dancing after he's full of tryptophan and and a couple drinks. Right. So, you know, you're going to get that picture. You know, you're going to get the kids running around. And so almost have a mental shot list of the images that you want to get so that you're not just going in cold turkey. No, no pun intended. Into that space where you're just kind of snapping around at things and reacting to things, but instead being more proactive because you have that familiarity of the situation and the scenarios that you're, that you're going to be stepping into.

Frank Bravo 56:37
That's a great tip. I mean, I know that that professionally, when you go out to shoot something you have already in mind, you know, these are the shots that I think I'm going to need because, you know, the reporter has said this or the editor has said this, but I don't think that that a home photographer thinks about that. I think it's like reactive more than planning those things out. So that's that's an amazing tip. So Don, I really appreciate you having a for taking the time to be here to talk with us about photography and such today. If people want to find you. Where would they go find you online.

Don Feria 57:10
So I am online. My website is Don feria.com. And my biggest presence on social media is, is Instagram. Which is kind of a mess right now. I gotta curated a little bit better, but I am at Don Feria, super, super original handle.

Frank Bravo 57:27
Yeah. Well, no, I mean, it makes it easy to find you and your photos. I mean, that's where I see most of your work these days. Is, is on Instagram and, and and I really enjoy the, the random stuff you're taking picture of the light outside of target, the tennis balls on the tennis court, you know, the rain reflecting off the window. The, I think you had something at SFO recently that you did, you know, I mean, it's those kind of photos that I'm like, man, I know he's just taking them with his phone camera and just point and shoot. And they are a million times better than I could do. So that's that's the real reason I wanted to have you here. It's 100% selfish so that I can take better photos. And hopefully the people listening will learn. And you as as viewers and listeners will be able to take better photos as well.

Don Feria 58:16
Well, thanks. This is this has been so much fun. And I'll tell you, the joy of photography has, has been a thing that, been such an honor to be able to share with everybody and and to be able to collaborate with you during the time that we were at the paper together, and then also to be guided with you afterwards, you know, with all the with all the digital conundrums and quandaries that I've had as a freelancer, to be under your guidance has been absolutely key to sustaining career that I've had. So I so I would like to take this time to publicly thank you for everything you've done for me in my career. So I appreciate that. Can emphasize that enough, Frank. Thank you.

Frank Bravo 58:58
I appreciate it. Well, and I never get tired of hearing that. So I do appreciate it. Thank you so much. All right. Well, Don, I appreciate it. We'll talk soon.

Don Feria 59:07
Absolutely.

Frank Bravo 59:10
So what are your takeaways? To help you make your photography better? Let me know. And as always, if you have ideas for topics you'd like me to cover, please feel free to email me at Frank at your tech makeover. Com. That's it for now. Thanks for listening to your tech makeover. If you haven't already, make sure you don't forget to subscribe to the podcast or if you're watching on YouTube, like this episode and follow the episodes on YouTube so you don't miss an episode. You can also check out your tech makeover. Com where you can see more information about each episode. And if you want to find out more about me, you can visit Bravo. Com. Until next time, I'm Frank Bravo, and this has been your technical.