Photo Capture

Sometimes you want one frame, not a sequence. Photo capture takes a single full-resolution photo through the same processing pipeline as everything else, so the colour grade and effects you have set up are applied as you shoot.

It is the fastest thing in the app: frame, tap, done.

1. 1Open the camera and pick a profile that suits the light. Any profile works — photo capture uses its camera settings and colour grade.
2. 2Frame the shot. Tap once anywhere on the preview to set the focal point. Pinch to zoom, or double-tap to jump to 2x.
3. 3Tap the photo button. If a countdown is running, the same button cancels it.
4. 4Review and export. The photo lands in the app's media library, ready to save to your photo library or share.

Hold still through the tap. At the long shutter speeds a light-painting profile uses, a single frame is still a long exposure and will record your hand shake.

Whatever the active profile sets. The processing is the same pipeline the live preview uses, so the result matches what you saw:

• Colour grade — brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, tint, highlights, shadows, black point.
• Sharpness and definition.
• Bloom and glow on bright sources, if the profile enables them.

Nothing is decided for you and nothing is sent anywhere. These are local image adjustments driven by the profile you chose.

If you want a clean, unmodified frame, use the Auto profile and reset the colour controls.

• Single tap — set the focal point.
• Long press — show or hide the focal point marker.
• Drag — move the focal point.
• Double tap — toggle between 1x and 2x.
• Pinch — smooth zoom.

There are also preset zoom buttons for jumping straight to a magnification.

Zoom past the lens's optical range and you are cropping into the sensor, which costs detail. If you can move closer instead, move closer.

• Portraits where the light is doing something — a window, a doorway, a single lamp.
• Architecture with hard shadows.
• Street scenes with neon or shop lighting.
• Anything backlit, where you want the silhouette rather than the detail.
• Still life under one deliberate light.

• Look for light coming from the side. Front-on light flattens everything.
• Backlight for silhouettes. Expose for the background and let the subject go dark.
• Avoid overhead light on faces. It is the least flattering direction there is.
• Shoot near sunrise or sunset if you want warmth without touching a setting.
• Change your height. Crouching or standing on something reframes a scene more than any control in the app.

• Put the subject off-centre rather than dead middle.
• Use lines in the scene — a road, a railing, a shadow — to lead into the subject.
• Look for repetition and symmetry; both survive being shrunk to a phone screen.
• Leave empty space. A busy frame reads as noise at small sizes.