Lesson 2 · about 7 minExample course · read-only

Tap to focus, slide to brighten

→ Choose what is sharp and how bright the photo is before you press the shutter

Your phone guesses what matters in every scene, and it often guesses wrong: the sky instead of the face, the fence instead of the dog. One tap puts you back in charge.

Tap what matters

Before you press the shutter, tap your subject on the screen. A small box or circle appears where you tapped. The phone now focuses there, so that part is sharp, and it also sets the exposure, meaning how bright or dark the photo is, from that spot. Tap a bright window and the room goes dark; tap a face in the shade and the face brightens. This works the same way on iPhone and Android.^[1]^[2]

Slide to fine-tune

After the tap, you can nudge the brightness. On an iPhone a small sun icon appears beside the box: drag up to brighten, down to darken. On a Pixel, sliders appear on screen for brightness; on other Android phones it is usually a sun icon or a bar, depending on the maker. If a sky or window turns pure white, slide a little darker until you can see detail in it again.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Hold to lock

Children and pets move, and the phone will re-guess as soon as they do. On an iPhone, touch and hold your subject until AE/AF Lock appears: focus and brightness stay put while you wait for the moment. Many Android phones lock the same way with a touch and hold; on some, a lock icon appears instead.^[1]^[2]

New words

Exposure: How bright or dark a photo is.
AE/AF Lock: Holding exposure and focus fixed, by touching and holding the screen, so they stay put while you wait.

Remember

Tap what matters: the phone focuses and sets the brightness there, and the slider fine-tunes it.

Practice: Plant against the window

Put a plant or a cup in front of a bright window and open the camera.
Tap the window, then tap the plant. Watch how the brightness jumps each time.
With the plant tapped, slide the brightness down until the window keeps some detail.
Touch and hold to lock, move the phone slightly, and take the photo.

Check yourself

the answers given when this Lesson was finished

What does tapping your subject on the screen tell the phone?
✓ Correct. The tap sets both focus and exposure from that spot.
The window behind your plant has turned pure white. What helps most?
✓ Correct. Sliding darker brings detail back into the bright window while the plant stays in focus.
Your friend has a bright window behind them. Which way should they turn?review
✓ Correct. Facing the light turns backlight into light on the face — the Key idea from Lesson 1.

Ask your teacher

This is a sample course, so the chat is off. Start your own course to ask your teacher.

Finished on 5 Sept.