Background Defocus.

Background Defocus, for me, is a new feature on the Xperia Z2. I think this may be available on previous Xperia phones such as the Xperia Z1, but being an old Xperia SP owner I had to settle for using my skill and hard work to get a decent picture out of my phone. The general idea of Background Defocus is pretty self explanatory, it focuses on one object and blurs the background. The idea from Sony is to simplify photography for everyone and make it less challenging to get a decent and professional picture out of a smartphone camera.

As you can see from these two pictures below, the touch capture was my best friend before the days of Background Defocus. Some decent results were always possible on the Xperia SP if you were willing to wait for the camera to understand what you were trying to do by moving the camera lens closer and further numerous times to get the image to focus right. Though even when it did work the image was often slightly, well, unfocused. 

 The closest penguin always annoyed me in this picture, everything else is perfect!

Poor George looking good, but a little unfocused. 

That was the Xperia SP, several generations old now, and is only a mid ranged phone. This new high end edition of the Xperia range, the Xperia Z2, has a new weapon in our way against poor pictures, so lets see what it can do.

The Xperia Z2, like with everything else in its cocktail of new features, makes things just so easy now. Simply point your camera in Background Defocus mode, touch capture the image you want to focus on, then keep the camera as still as possible. The camera will take two shots, one of the focused image you selected and one of an out of focused background. The phone will then process the image and decide where to blur and where to focus, often with decent results. 

It will then show you the finished result and give you a choice of being able to blur more or less of the background and even chose from a selection of types of blur. 

Pretty simple stuff, right? Almost takes the fun and sport out of photography, right? Wrong! 

Though not necessarily in a good way.
You need to be very careful with this application as it is incredible temperamental. Anything moving, like an animal, person, moving object or even a tree or plant which gets slightly blown in the wind will end up making Background Defocus fail and you will have to try again. Background Defocus seems to take a lot of processing power (Even for Bionz) so it will then take another 5-6 seconds for it to load up and try again. This may not sound like a lot of time but when you are trying to capture a moment, it really is!

It is not impossible mind, this cat was moving a little bit while this picture was taken and the picture turned out ok. Though I personally felt like I had gotten lucky.

My 3 year old, famous for never keeping still, yet it still worked after much trying. So do not lose faith, but I do expect you to lose patients! 

A light touch of BD.

 BD working well with HDR through Snapseed.

 A lovely shot of BD on a statue. If you have an inanimate object then this is a dream feature to use.

Perfect shot.

Ely cathedral. 

Don't get me wrong though, Background Defocus is a great feature to use with photography, though it can be slightly infuriating at times being so temperamental. I think it still have a long way to go before it can be considered a complete replacement in photography as the artificial intelligence does not always put the blurring on the correct places, and the blurring will sometimes creep on to the image you want focused like a hazy mist. 

Sadly this is the best example I have since I often end up deleting the images which do not turn out right. You can see how the AI struggles to tell where the front and background image is, so it adds  defocus over lapping the central image you want focused. 

Conclusion:

I think Background Defocus is a prime example of how useful technology is getting now days. With apps like Snapseed, a cocktail of award winning hardware in the Xperia Z2 and decent features from Sony like Augmented Reality, HDR and Background Defocus crammed in to their latest phones, a decent picture can be taken by absolutely anyone. Give Background Defocus a year or two and this will really be a hot feature! 

Heck, it already is really, as I use Background Defocus more than most of the other photography features on the Z2's camera. 

Give it a try, you cant argue with results! 

The Classic Car Shoot.`

When you think photo shoot, you don't normally think smart phone.
Granted, you will never be able to match a DSLR cameras, but who says you cant do a decent photo shoot without spending hundreds of pounds extra on a camera? 

Smart phone technology now days, especially in the new Xperia line, such as the Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z1 Compact, have greatly improved. Both phones have had the pleasure of three bits of award winning Sony technology crammed in to each layer of their camera. The Bionz image processor, the Exmor RS senor (1/2.3") and a whopping 20.7 megapixels to play with. Not to mention a range of features which are only recently available to the smart phone cameras such as High Dynamic Range (HDR), Augmented Reality and 4K video recording. 

I had the pleasure of being introduced to my good friend Ella's classic car and pet project, the Ford Prefect 107e (1960). Once owned by her aunt in 1989, it spent 4 years on the road until it had gear box trouble so it went in to storage. In 2010 Ella found it and immediately wanted it. With the combined effort of herself and her granddad, they both managed to restore it to its former glory...it passed its MOT in June the 15th, 2012. 

 A background defocus shot taken of the bonnet with a HDR (nature) feature added through Snapseed.

I couldn't help but keep taking photos of her beautiful car every time I saw it, so we both decided to do a bit of a photo shoot so I could get my fix. We drove down to the beautiful village of Over in Cambridgeshire near the river where we could get some space and a nice surrounding to shoot. The weather was absolutely perfect, so we would have been foolish not to have taken advantage of this rare opportunity.

 The car is incredibly photogenic, as is Ella. The car looks great with a HDR filter. 

We added a nice vintage filter to this picture to give it that true 1960's feel. 

After a few pictures of the car in its surroundings I decided to open it up and have a look at the interior. The car has been excellently maintained and even has a few new modern touches which doesn't ruin the look or feel of the retro vehicle. 

 Ella's tribute to Ace Cafe, London. 

The original Ford Prefect key.

Steering wheel.

 Sprawled in comfort and style on red leather seats.

The leather interior in the Ford Prefect really made me realise how cheap and classless the interior of my Seat Leon is. 

(Non HDR)

The original photo from above, but before the HDR filter was added through Snapseed. Please let me know which one you prefer and why.

We decided to look around the outside of the car in more detail and see what give it its character. The car has so many decent characteristics and I am sure you will agree.

 A few minor imperfections still left to fix up.

Wing mirror selfie.

 A smile never seen anywhere other than in her Ford Prefect!

Ella has recently come back from Ace Cafe in London and absolutely fell in love with the place. She wanted to show her respect by wearing the jacket with her car.

Ella poses in her Ace Cafe jacket. 

Background defocus used with HDR. 

The new Background Defocus technology still has a few kinks to work out, often struggling with being able to tell which part of the photo it needs to focus on, and which part to defocus on. Its quite temperamental too, this photo taking many many attempts to even get this right.

We used another filter. This time we used the "sunrise" filter rather than "vintage" one, which worked equally well. It made the picture look almost like it was taken "back in the day".

We had some good fun today, posing with classic cars, taking pictures in the sun and relaxing near the river. I really enjoyed seeing what the Xperia Z2 was capable of. Camera phones clearly do have some way to go to catch up with professional cameras but at the same time they have come a very long way from even last year.

 I really enjoyed using the High Dynamic Range through Snapseed, which worked very well in most instances (Click here to see what it can do with landscapes). The "Background Defocus" mode was temperamental and took many attempts to get right, so you have to me patient, it usually ended up coming good and being worth it. There were a few issues with the background defocus struggling to understand when the background and foreground start and finish, but usually worked out ok. I look forward to seeing this technology being updated in the future. 

The "sunset" and "vintage" filters used today were from the Cymera app. Again, one of the advantages mobile phone apps have over transitional cameras as they have access to thousands of apps which have cool little features and tricks.

Thanks for reading.

Using Snapseed at Felixstowe beach! (HDR)

I have recently discovered Snapseed on Android. Its basically a photo editing application which seems to be able to make almost any photo look incredible (or at least very different).

I went on a trip to Felixstowe beach in the UK on a hot summers day and try out some of its capabilities. A lot of these photos were quite simply a point and click action with Superior Auto on my Xperia Z2. Then running "HDR Scape" on Snapseed, I updated the photos afterwards, which is a great way of doing it, as you don't have to worry about setting the camera up before taking the photograph then having to take a second photo after for a regular shot.

Before HDR

After HDR

The HDR feature gives the sky a really deep blue on this photo and brings out some of the greenery in the front of the picture. You will also notice the sea waves have been brought out more and the flowers are much more vibrant without sacrificing any other colour, which is something I noticed happens with the regular HDR feature on the Xperia camera.  Though I would say that the HDR has made the flowers, especially the green parts, a little over saturated so you wont always get it perfect, it depends on what you want. 

Luckily though, you have the choice between four HDR settings, Nature, People, Fine and Strong. This is particularly handy as HDR in its default mode (Nature) doesn't always work out the way you want. It also gives us the ability to fiddle around with the parts you might not be happy with, like with the over saturation of the green flower stems in the original Nature shot above. The Strong setting has toned down the HDR effects on the flowers and gives it a little more subtle effect so has worked out well in this example. 

Sometimes it is good to have a choice as Nature doesn't always work out best for nature shots and certainly doesn't work well with faces, as you can see above, the Nature setting makes me look like a ghost and brings out a very pale glare in my skin. The People setting has handled it a lot better.

As you can see with the picture of my friends on a bench below, the people mode works out the more subtle option here too. There isn't as much colour saturation as Nature mode, which can be a shame but the setting still manages to bring out the clouds and colours nicely and doesnt ruin the people, who are often the centre point of your picture. 

More examples on default Nature Mode. 

The Beach

Before HDR

After HDR.

I quite like both photos as much as each other, if I had to chose in fact I might actually pick the original photo. Though I think you will agree that the HDR feature adds such a subtle yet vivid effect to the picture. There are still 3 other settings to use if you aren't completely happy. 

The Shacks. 

Before HDR

After HDR.

I love the way that HDR brings out the clouds in this photo. This is something you will notice happens a lot with this app. Even the nicest clouds get given a deep dark and dramatic texture. You will also notice that the wood has more of a vibrant and a rough texture which looks great. The HDR feature works so well in this example and I am very happy with this photo.

The Fountain.

Before and after HDR.

The Superior Auto picture looks a little washed out, the HDR really puts some more shadow and depth back to the photo and brings it back to life. Good save Snapseed!

The Building.

Before HDR

After HDR

As you can see again, the clouds are brought out with the HDR as well as brightening up the front of the picture which removes a lot of the shadows, without much loss of colour depth. Though if you really enjoy deep blacks and sharp images HDR might not always been a good option for you.

The Beach.

The photo is probably the best example of HDR here. Nearly everything looks bolder, warmer and has better texture, especially the sand. The original picture actually looks a little washed out until Snapseed gets its hand on it. This is probably helped by the fact that we cannot see any ones faces in the picture so the Nature setting brings out everything well.

The Pier. 

HDR really makes this photo much bolder and brings out the colour and fun of the seaside. The original picture in fact looks quite gloomy in comparison.

Snapseed welcomes Sweep Panorama too.

Before HDR

After HDR

Critisms:

Snapseed offers so much more than just HDR, though it is easily my favourite feature at the time being. Its one of the most exciting photography apps I have ever tried and probably one of the most used apps of any type too...and is completely free!

Though there are still one issues which I have noticed. It doesn't seem to like editing photos when stuck in 20 megapixel mode on my Xperia Z2. This will not effect most users as the Xperia Z2 is a special case, and to be fair, it doesn't really bother me that much either as you can easily stick it in to 16 megapixels. 

I think if you dislike HDR then you probably wont be won over by Snapseed because their HDR, though better than others I have seen, still suffer from colour and black washing which is a very common criticism from people I have talked too. Though it is certainly an improvement from other HDR features I have seen and I think most people will be able to find a use for this.

I think the HDR feature on Snapseed is far superior than the stock HDR feature on the Sony camera. If  you enjoy HDR or simply want to jazz up your pictures, then give Snapseed a try!

I highly recommend this app.