Apart from capturing wide-angle shots, this phone lets you experiment with burst photos, stickers, and cool portraits. While Samsung may boast about the Galaxy M20’s camera, we are elaborating on what its camera is capable of and the things it cannot do. Let’s jump right in and check some of the best camera tips of the Galaxy M20 to up your photography game.
1. Take Better Portraits
The Galaxy M20 bundles a portrait mode aptly called Live Focus. With this mode, you can capture quality pictures with a noticeable depth-of-field effect and make your subject pop out. However, this phone doesn’t warn you if the blur isn’t spot on. You’ll learn about the unsuccessful attempt only after you click the shutter button. Since there is no warning icon, the best thing is to click a picture from an ideal distance of around a meter (or less) from the subject. Meanwhile, make sure you click against a bright and vivid background for making the background blur noticeable. Also, portrait mode on the Galaxy M20 calls for bright and sunny environments. It struggles in low-light situations. Also, the subject in question should have a solid border. If it’s a wired basket (or a fence) that you are trying to capture, then you won’t get the desired blur in the photo.
2. Edit the Camera Modes
Samsung revamped the camera interfaces in its Android phones last year. Now, you don’t have a dedicated page with different camera modes. Instead, all the modes are arranged at the top, and you can switch between them by swiping left or right. Though it is a welcome change, it also means that it takes time to go from Mode 1 to Mode 2. Thankfully, you can rearrange those modes so that your favorite ones appear first and next to each other. Tap on Settings > Edit camera modes and drag your favorite modes to group them together. You can also delete a particular mode if you don’t use it regularly.
3. Add a Watermark
The watermark feature has made its way to virtually all the new phones since OnePlus 5 hyped it in 2017. However, until now getting a watermark meant installing a third-party app for most Samsung users. Fortunately, Galaxy M20 users can now stamp a custom watermark on your photos. To enable it, go to Settings > Watermark and toggle the switch on. Enter text which you want to be stamped on your photos. Neat, right?
4. Capture Images While Recording Videos
Making a video from still images is an easy job. Sadly, it isn’t the other way around. Downloading a separate app just to extract a still frame can be a daunting task. That’s something you should keep in mind while filming a video. Simply tap on the camera button while the video is on. As simple as that. Now, both the video and the pictures will be saved to your phone’s gallery.
5. Go for a Hands-Free Selfie
Stretching your finger all the way to the volume button to click a selfie can be very inconvenient, especially in the landscape mode. Not to mention that at times, the images turn out to be hazy, blurred with the subject out of focus. To overcome that, you should opt for the selfie timer or the Show palm option which captures a photo as soon as it detects an open palm. The same can be said about the selfie-timer. Hit the timer icon at the top-right corner, and tap on the shutter button, and smile! By default, the selfie timer is set to 3-seconds. To change it, go to Settings > timer, and pick the appropriate option. Another welcome change in the Galaxy M20 is the subtle animation for the timer. If you notice, the area near the notch will display a stylish progress bar once the timer starts.
6. Continuous Shots
Imagine your cat making a series of funny expressions. Is a single photo enough to justify the whole scene? I bet not! Let the Burst mode aka Continuous Shots come to your rescue. It lets you take a set of consecutive photos without missing a beat. Continuous Shots are saved as a set, and you’d need to save the frames explicitly to your phone’s gallery. To do so, tap to open the photos (denoted by a stack), pick one of the frames from the bottom panel and, tap on Save Image. And it doesn’t end there. You can create amazing GIFs out of these pictures. These GIFs look great especially if the images are of random facial expressions or of your pet trying its best to jump towards the ceiling fan. Once you have discarded the unnecessary pictures, tap on the three-dot menu and hit the Create GIF option. Now all you need to do is share it on Instagram.
7. Create Cool Stories
Now that we are talking about the phone’s Gallery, let us explore another of its hidden features — Stories. Nope, I am not talking about Facebook Stories or Instagram Stories but rather the in-house Stories feature of Samsung phones. Most Samsung phones are known to string together a set of pictures that you’ve captured on a single day. Although the system automatically generates Stories, you can also create your own. To do so, navigate to the Stories tab, hit the three-dot button, and select Create Story. Name the story and pick the images, and that’s pretty much it.
8. Try Wide Angle Shot on Landscape Mode
The Galaxy M20 also bundles an ultra wide-angle shooter, which as you rightly guessed, captures many details in a single frame. If you are thinking of capturing wide-angle shots in portrait mode, skip the thought immediately. Ideally, wide-angle shots should be captured in the landscape mode where the fish-eye effect is less evident. The good news is the phone tries its best to remove the fish-eye effect on its own. Once you click a photo, open the image through Gallery. You should see an option that says Shape Correction. Tap on it, and you’ll be able to see the corrected image, minus the distortion. And hey, don’t forget to save it.
9. Instagram Buff? Try the 1:1 Frame
Do you want to upload pics to Instagram without worrying about resizing and cropping? If yes, say hi to the built-in image resizer. Available under settings, this option lets you capture perfectly square images so that you can upload them directly to social media. On the same line, the 4:3 ratio isn’t bad either. You can apply filters and effects to your images straight from the camera. Just tap on the little wand-shaped icon and pick a filter from the host of available ones. What’s more, you can also adjust the intensity of the filter by tapping on the Adjust icon at the lower-right corner. My favorite filter? Evergreen, it is.
Get the Most of the Camera
It’s true that Samsung has stripped many options and features from the camera interface. You can’t shoot Sound-and-Shoot images or wide-selfies, which were available in the Galaxy J series phones. Also, the handy option to zoom using the shutter button has been removed. Here’s a video tutorial of the Samsung Galaxy M20 camera tricks from our Guiding Tech (English) YouTube Channel: The good news is that makers have focused heavily on some trending features like a watermark, portrait mode, animated stickers, and the likes. Hopefully, the above tips and tricks will help you get the most of this Samsung Galaxy M20 camera. Here are a couple of pictures that we’ve shot using the phone. Next up: Black and white images are classy. Discover how to enhance monochrome images with these photo editing apps for Android. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
