Shooting funny images out of BenQ P1410’s picture effects

In July 2011, BenQ launched the P1410.  It is equipped with a 7x optical zoom lens, 3-inch LCD, optical image stabilization (O.I.S.) and several picture effects, such as toy, fisheye, lomo, etc. I really love those picture effects that help me turn ordinary images into funny and extraordinary pictures.



Landscape

Are you tired of shooting ordinary pictures at the wrong time? If you are, use P1410’s picture effects which can help you shoot outstanding pictures, especially when you visit a scene in the middle of the day.

For instance, I called on a fishing port at around 15:00. The sun was hanging 45 degrees above the horizon, the skies were not blue enough and the sunlight was too harsh. It was not the right time for photography. Thus, I used toy and lomo effects to create extraordinary images of boats and a bridge.

Firstly, I used the toy effect which simulates a shallow depth of field by gradually blurring both sides of a picture. In doing so, the subjects in the center of the image become sharper and look like toy boats and bridges.









To maximize the toy effect, you’d better be standing upon high ground, either upon a bridge or the top of a mountain in order to have a bird’s eye view. The following 2 pictures were shot on the top of a mountain in Yangmingshan National Park.

Secondly, I applied lomo effect to shoot the same subjects: boats and bridges. The lomo effect helps me darken the corners of the frame and adds over-saturated colors to the images, which creates lomo-camera like effect and lets the subjects stand out of a picture.

Architecture

When shooting a building, don’t forget to use P1410’s fisheye effect that has the function of distorting images usually shot by a fisheye lens. I applied this effect to turn ordinary pictures of buildings into fresher or funny images. The following pictures are good examples.

Moreover, I also applied color modes to shoot buildings. Under P/AV/TV exposure modes, users can use different color modes to shoot the same image. For example, when I shot the subsequent picture, the skies were overcast with gray and black clouds. Even without sunshine, the scene consisted of beautiful lines and shapes that caught my eye. Thus, I used B&W mode to enhance the lines and shapes as well as the gradation of black and white.

Subsequently, I changed the color mode to sepia, red, green and blue in order to make colorful pictures out of the same image. Generally speaking, when the environment is not ideal for shooting decent pictures, you’ve got another choice, which is to use different colors to create diverse moods within a picture.

Sunset

Almost everyone enjoys watching sunsets. Is it difficult to shoot beautiful pictures at twilight? No, it’s easy. The only thing you have to do is set P1410 to sunset mode, and the camera will take beautiful pictures for you.

I took the following pictures at twilight on different days. I waited until the sun got close to the horizon, set P1410 to sunset mode, and the camera did the rest for me. It’s so easy, isn’t it?