“We went on a shooting spree with the dual cameras on the Moto G5s Plus during Diwali, and here are the results”
The beautiful decorations, rangolis, and the omnipresent play of colours and the constant contrast between darkness and light during the festival of Diwali ensured that the photographer in me was not left wanting for more. To be able to capture the essence of the festival of lights through your smartphone gives you a treasure trove of memories. All you need is a good camera phone and a basic understanding of various features to capture the scene in all its glory. With the Moto G5s Plus, you get dual cameras set up in RGB and Monochrome fashion along with a comprehensive professional mode integrated into the camera interface. Not only does this give you a granular control over the finer aspects of imaging but also allow you to capture photos that would otherwise be only possible through a DSLR.
But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, we’ll take you through some of the images clicked by us, along with a cheatsheet of how you can get similar results. So without any further ado, let’s begin.
Table of Contents
The classic Bokeh shot
We all have come across the pictures where the lights are artistically blurred in the background and make for an alluring backdrop for the subject. To achieve a good Bokeh image, you need is to have a fast lens with an aperture size in the range of f/2, f/1.8 or f/1.4. With the dual 13MP camera with aperture size f/2.0 on the Moto G5s Plus, it’s now possible to capture images like the one embedded above. You can click such an image yourself, and all you need is to tweak the manual mode as following:
- F-stop: f/2.0
- Exposure time: 1/20 seconds
- ISO Speed: 800
- Focal Length: 4mm
- Flash: no
In these images, we played with the options further to get even more artistic bokeh effects. With the settings mentioned below, you can move your hands a bit to get light trail effects. This lets you create a light painting by moving the source of the light.
- F-stop: f/2.0
- Exposure time: 1/40 seconds
- ISO Speed: 200
- Focal Length: 4mm
- Flash: no
The quintessential diya shot
Diwali or Deepawali as it is originally called means rows of deep (diyas / earthen lamps). And no Diwali album is complete without a mandatory picture of diays as nothing symbolises the festival more. While in this case the RGB + Monochrome setup in the dual camera of the Moto G5S Plus, manages to offer a well-balanced shot, you can capture something similar yourself with the following settings:
- F-stop: f/2.0
- Exposure time: 1/17 seconds
- ISO Speed: 100
- Focal Length: 4mm
- Flash: no
Diya and their flames create a perfect frame for a photographer, and one can never get enough of that. We took above shots by ensuring that the background also has something to offer, and thus making the image even more pleasant to look at. Following were the settings used:
- F-stop: f/2.0
- Exposure time: 1/30 seconds
- ISO Speed: 650
- Focal Length: 4mm
- Flash: no
The landscape lighting shot
Well, not all shots require you to turn on the professional or manual mode. As we’ve mentioned in our previous guide to click images in low light, focus and controlling the exposure will help you get the right shot. And that’s what we did in this case, and the G5s Plus ensures that the lights don’t have any weird aura around them. It has also ensured an even distribution of light and contrast. Here’s another example:
The artistic diya and bokeh shot
Combining the Bokeh and diyas shots result in stunning shots as seen in the picture above. This involves getting the right ambient setting and the background that will pop the subject in the frame. Also, to be able to capture the Bokeh perfectly, steady hands or preferably a tripod should go a long way.
- F-stop: f/2.0
- Exposure time: 1/25 seconds
- ISO Speed: 180
- Focal Length: 4mm
- Flash: no
The macro shot
Another variation of the bokeh shot, in this case, you need to get up close with the object with a stunning background. Such images can highlight the object really well along with lending an artistic touch to the whole frame. To capture an image like this, set the professional mode as per below:
- F-stop: f/2.0
- Exposure time: 1/50 seconds
- ISO Speed: 140
- Focal Length: 4mm
- Flash: no
The depth-enabled mode
In this image, while the lamp in the front is in sharp focus, the one in the background blends nicely. This shot has been achieved using the Depth enabled mode of the Moto G5s Plus, which is possible due to its dual 13MP rear cameras. While using this mode, we just need to focus on the subject we wanted to highlight, and then adjust the blur slider to ensure that it doesn’t look artificial.
The cityscape
As you can see in the image above, the buildings behind stand out from the frame owing to the decorative lighting and really pop in the frame. The Moto G5s Plus does a brilliant job in the auto mode itself by capturing the details in the background as well as the interesting play of light and darkness.
As this post comes to end, we are now certain that you know that the manual mode on smartphones can take your photographs to the next level. While we captured Diwali festivities, the settings being used in the images above will give you an idea to capture a similar shot in other scenarios too. Though it depends upon the ambience and hence we’d suggest you to apply these tweaks, and then adjust the settings gently to get the best output.
The Motographs series is brought to you by in partnership with Motorola and aims to help you capture the best memories from your smartphone camera this Diwali.
