An In-Depth Tutorial: Photography With the HTC One A9, Part 2

Last week we posted Part 1 of our photography tutorial for the HTC One A9, written by Seattle photographer Brad Puet. This is Part 2, and it really gets to the good stuff – using the One A9 camera’s Pro Mode to truly customize your photos. Because of the detail Brad provides, there will be one more post in this series wrapping up Pro Mode, and that’ll be published next week. For now,  let’s get started digging into the details of Pro Mode on the HTC One A9 camera.

Pro Mode

Pro mode is the mode that allows you to manually control the camera for optimal results based on your personal preferences. There are multiple settings within Pro mode that you can change including RAW vs. JPEG, White Balance, Exposure Control, ISO, Shutter Speed and Focus.

You can access these controls by tapping their respective icons. Once you tap an icon you will be shown a slider that you can adjust accordingly. You can also just choose “A” at the top of the screen, which will switch the camera to automatic. Once your settings are set to your liking, tap the icon again and the control slider will disappear.

The shutter button is the button with the camera icon on it, but you can also set your volume buttons to act as as a shutter button. I suggest you use this option to reduce camera shake.

WB 4340k, Exp 0, ISO 100, Shutter 1/60, Focus A

Pro Mode: RAW or JPEG

Pro mode provides you with the ability to capture still images in RAW or JPEG format. RAW format captures the most information of a scene, so when you to edit the photo you are able to edit specific information without losing detail. In my and many other photographers’ opinions, this is the best way to capture photos. Snapseed is a must-have app for mobile photography and especially for Android, because it allows you to edit RAW images directly on your devices. None of the other platforms have this option, it’s only available for Android devices.

A picture taken in JPEG format is basically your final image. There are two ways to create a JPEG: take a RAW image, edit the details and then finalize it into a JPEG, or take a JPEG image directly from the camera. Doing the latter, though, does not give you the flexibility of editing without losing detail, but it does make capturing images faster because you don’t necessarily need to edit.

WB 3000k, Exp -1, ISO 100, Shutter 1, Focus Infinite

Pro Mode: White Balance

White balance helps you control the color temperature of a light source, so you’re basically controlling the warmth and coolness of white light. This is important because you need to be able to capture what your eyes see rather than what the camera sensor sees – what you see is not necessarily what your camera sees, especially when it comes to different types of light.

The highest WB value on the One A9 is 7500k, which is really warm. At 7500k your photos will have a strong yellow tint. The lowest value is 2300k, which is really cool, so at this value your photos will have a strong blue tint. The key to using this manual control is to balance the temperature based on what you see. The One A9 tends to need a lower value in harsher light – bluer to balance. Outside of harsh light, though, the One A9 does really well in automatic mode.

WB 2320k, Exp 0, ISO 100, Shutter 1/60, Focus A

WB 4000k, Exp 0, ISO 800, Shutter 1/1600, Focus A

Pro Mode: Exposure Control

The Exposure Control feature gives you the ability to control the brightness of a scene. If you choose to use ISO and/or shutter control, then I suggest you keep the control on automatic or keep the slider at 0 or below based on how bright the scene is. The brighter the scene, the lower the value or exposure. The darker the scene, the higher the value to balance the exposure.

I always under-expose because when you under-expose you can process your image to a brighter compensation without losing detail. If you over-expose and your scene gets “blown out” you won’t be able to bring those details back in post processing.

WB 2500k, Exp 0, ISO 100, Shutter 1/2337, Focus A

WB 4000k, Exp 0, ISO 100, Shutter 1/500, Focus A

In the final post in this series, Brad will wrap up detailing the Pro Mode settings and offer his suggestions for a few apps you can download to edit and process your photos on your phone. Keep an eye out for it next week!

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