Allied Blog

Phone Vs DSLR: Product Photography

2019-09-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

Do you sell items online? Many eCommerce sites like eBay, Depop and Gumtree have an unthinkable number of new listings every day, not by just businesses but also people selling unwanted items.

One way to get your listing to stand out is a good photo, this will get someone to click your listing first and potentially better structured and clearer photos may lead to a bid.

I decided to compare whether a Smart Phone would do a good enough job compared with a cheap DSLR with kit lens. I used a Nikon D3300 with 18-55 Kit lens, which can be picked up used for Under £175, versus a Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus.

(All photos are unedited straight from the camera.)

Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus

Nikon D3300 With 18-55mm Kit Lens

The Nikon images are sharper with more separation from the background, even with the Jimmy Choo bottle on the Samsung pictures using its Live Focus mode.

I feel the phone camera does the job fine, but if you are looking to become a seller on an online platform, a DSLR even with a kit lens would be a worthwhile investment to make your images more eye-catching.

How to add custom presets to Adobe Lightroom Mobile

2019-09-20T07:19:00.005-07:00

There are two ways you can add presets to Adobe Lightroom Mobile to speed up your edits.

1. Add from Adobe Lightroom CC desktop

Simply add/ create presets on a subscribed Adobe Lightroom CC account for desktop then it will sync to your mobile device!

2. Copy Settings from .DNG files

Copy the .DNG file to your phone

Add into Lightroom Mobile

Select the three dots in the top right corner

Select Create Preset

Select all bar geometry & tools

Choose a name for your preset and select a folder for it

Your preset will then be able to be selected from the presets tab on the bottom bar!

Before:

After:

You can get access to Adobe Lightroom features at half the cost of Adobe CC

2019-09-20T07:19:00.002-07:00

If you don't want the full monthly cost of paying for the Adobe Photography Plan (£9.98/$9.99 per month) but still want access to a high end photo editing software, Adobe offers a premium version of the Lightroom Mobile app on Android and iOS.

Within the app you can get a free 30 day trial of the premium version of Lightroom Mobile, costing monthly £4.49 iOS/ £4.39 Android thereafter. If you are an enthusiast photographer wanting a high end editing solution, a solely mobile user like myself or looking to shave a bit of money off the bills, this could be a great alternative.

With a premium subscription you get access to:

Edit RAW photos
100GB of cloud storage
Selective adjustments
Healing Brush
Fix and adjust perspective
Create web galleries to share your photos
Batch editing

Review: TicWatch C2

2019-09-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

From a recent switch over to Android from iOS, I encountered an issue. I had to switch all my accessories, including my Apple Watch as these didn't function without an iPhone. With WearOS there was a lot of options to choose from, however most did not suit my design taste, upon sifting though the options I set my eyes on the TicWatch C2 or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch Active. I decided on the TicWatch C2 due to the Google Fit functionality, (although owning a Galaxy S9+ I preferred Google Fit to the Samsung Health alternative) as the Samsung pushes its own software with its smart watch. The design is great, suits from sport to smart and all in between. You can fit pretty much any 20mm watch band to the C2 which is an added bonus.

$199.99 / £179.99 / makes this smartwatch more affordable than other options, sitting in between Mobvoi's own TicWatch E and TicWatch Pro. I was pleasantly surprised. It functions (mostly) as intended and after some tweaking (google fit can be configured to be default on WearOS 2.2) did exactly what I needed from a smartwatch, which is essentially Google Fit and media controls, aside from the standard needs of a watch. Battery life was good in my personal use, it would last me 2 days before needing a charge, but often I would charge it overnight regardless. Software however can be tricky, I have had to reset the watch after an update - on more than one occasion - led to ghost clicking on the bottom area of the screen, which would continuously open the calendar app. A reset solved the issue, but could be prevented by the Mobvoi team. I'm not writing this to put anyone off, but to highlight the total package isn't perfect.

Pros:

Design

Price

Battery Life (2 days during my usage)

Google Fit Functionality

Cons:

Software can be buggy/ slow (after updates and after powering on (only for a few seconds))

Not enough first party Watch Faces (that I would personally use)

Clunky proprietary charger (Probably being nit-picky here)