Pro mode and RAW

Learning goal

You will be able to open the pro or expert mode in your phone's camera app and recognize the controls on the screen: ISO, shutter speed, white balance, manual focus, the exposure meter and the raw recording option. Knowing that on most phones the aperture is fixed, you will manage light with ISO and shutter speed; by fixing the white balance you will keep colors and skin tones consistent across a series, and you will complete the module project using pro mode in at least one frame.

The question

In your phone's camera app, inside a menu called "More" or something similar, you may have seen an option that says "Pro". When you open it, the screen changes all at once: small letters, numbers and sliders appear. ISO 100, 1/60, 5000K, MF, EV. Many people open this screen once, look at the numbers they don't understand and go straight back to auto mode.

Is pro mode scary? Not really. This screen makes visible the decisions the phone makes for you in every frame, and lets you take them into your own hands if you want. Remember the top step of the mode dial on a camera: in manual mode, the decisions are yours. Pro mode is the door that opens onto that step on a phone. In this lesson we will open the door, see what each control does, and start using them not all at once but one at a time.

Context

Throughout this module you have seen how much the phone does on its own: it focuses, measures brightness, combines frames, edits colors and faces. Most of the time these decisions work. But in some scenes the phone's guess drifts away from yours: at night you want to see the flowing car lights as streaks, but the phone freezes them; you want to keep the warm light of the kitchen, but the phone cools it. In situations like these, pro mode gives the decision back to you.

Learning pro mode is also preparation for a camera's manual mode. The names and logic of the controls on the screen are the same as on a camera. Everything you learn here will be directly useful in the later module where you will study exposure in detail. And here is what takes the fear away: if you make a wrong setting in pro mode, at worst one frame comes out dark or blurry. Nothing breaks, and you can go back to auto with a single tap.

Simple explanation

What controls are in pro mode?

The pro mode screen usually has a few controls shown with abbreviations. ISO sets how sensitively the sensor responds to light; as the number grows the photo brightens, but grain grows too. S or the shutter icon shows how long light will be gathered; a short time such as 1/1000 freezes movement, a long time such as 1 second lets movement flow. WB or white balance decides how yellow a yellow bulb or how blue a blue shade will stay in the photo; it is often shown as a number in kelvins. MF or focus lets you set the sharpness by hand. EV is the equivalent of exposure compensation on a camera.

A small scale or number often appears in a corner of the screen. This is the exposure meter: with the settings you have chosen, it shows whether the photo will come out too bright or too dark by the phone's calculation. The meter sitting in the middle means a balanced exposure, but this is a guess, not a rule; if you want a dark or bright frame on purpose, you can push the meter to one side. On most phones the lens opening, that is the aperture, is fixed and can't be changed in pro mode. That is why the two main branches of light decisions on a phone are ISO and shutter speed.

How does pro mode stop being scary?

The easiest way to learn pro mode is to try each control on its own. When you open pro mode, many phones start every setting in the "auto" position. Instead of trying to change them all at once, touch only one and leave the rest on auto. For example, choose only the shutter speed by hand; the phone sets the ISO itself and tries to keep the photo's brightness. That way you see the result of one decision separately from the others.

A few concrete uses make pro mode meaningful. When you want to photograph flowing car lights from a balcony at night, you lengthen the shutter speed, for example to 2 seconds; you need to rest the phone on the railing or somewhere steady, but in the end the headlights turn into red and white streaks. When you want to freeze a running child, you shorten the shutter speed; if the light isn't enough, you raise the ISO a little. If the phone's focus keeps slipping to the background on a very close object, you fix the sharpness exactly where you want it with manual focus. Each of these gives you the decision at a moment when the phone's automatic guess stumbles.

Why do white balance and RAW matter?

One of the least used but most valuable controls in pro mode is white balance. Auto white balance guesses the color of the light again in every frame. In a series shot in different light throughout the day, this can make the color of each photo come out different from the one before: the morning frame bluish, the noon frame neutral, the evening frame warm but sometimes cooled too much. When you fix the white balance at a value by hand, the colors carry the true character of the light and the series looks consistent.

This consistency matters even more when you photograph people. Under mixed lamps, auto white balance can slide a face toward orange in one frame and toward gray in the next; especially on dark skin, this shift changes the warmth and depth of the skin. Setting the white balance once for the light of the scene and fixing it keeps the same person's skin in its own color throughout the series. Pro mode also has a raw recording option; on many phones it is saved in DNG format. As you saw in Lesson 3.8, a raw file lets you correct the white balance and the shadows afterward without loss. In difficult light and in frames you will edit carefully, turning this option on is a good safeguard.

Visual evidence

Imagine photographing a friend preparing a meal in the kitchen one evening. Above the counter there is a yellow pendant lamp, and the blue light of dusk is coming in through the window. In the frame taken in auto mode, the phone has tried to average the two lights: the warmth of the yellow lamp has cooled, and the blue of the window has turned gray. Your friend's dark-skinned face has slid to a purplish gray even though it is under the yellow light. The steam from the pot they are stirring and the movement of the spoon have spread into a blurry fog, because the phone lengthened the time to gather light.

You set up the same frame again in pro mode. You fix the white balance at a warm value that suits the yellow lamp: your friend's skin returns to its own warm brown, while the window turns into a deep, rich blue, and a contrast appears in the scene between the warm lamp and the cool window. You shorten the shutter speed a little and raise the ISO somewhat; the movement of the spoon is now a slight flicker, and the steam a thin veil. Raw recording is on too; if needed, you will be able to fine-tune the color when you edit in the evening. The same kitchen, the same phone; the difference is that you make a few of the phone's decisions.

Common mistakes

Summary

Pro mode is a door that makes visible the decisions the phone makes for you in every frame and opens onto a camera's manual mode: you choose the light with ISO and shutter speed, the color with white balance and the sharpness with manual focus, and if you like, you widen your editing margin with raw recording. Trying the controls one at a time dissolves the fear; fixing the white balance keeps colors and skin tones consistent across a series.

Mini assignment

This assignment is the module's "A Day in My Life" project itself.

1. Over one day, from morning to evening, take six photos with your phone only; let each tell a different moment of the day.
2. Use pro mode in at least one of the frames and deliberately change only one control, for example the shutter speed or the white balance.
3. In frames with people, fix the white balance for the light of the scene so that faces stay in their own color.
4. Put the six frames in order, and under each one write in a single sentence which mode you shot it in and which moment of the day it tells.

Check yourself

• Do the six frames form a story from different moments of the day?
• Were you able to explain the effect on the photo of the control you changed in pro mode?
• In the frames where you fixed the white balance, did the color of the faces stay consistent?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. On most phones, which setting can't be changed in pro mode?

• A) ISO
• B) Shutter speed
• C) Aperture
• D) White balance

2. What do you do to show flowing car lights at night as streaks?

• A) Shorten the shutter speed and hold the phone in your hand
• B) Lengthen the shutter speed and fix the phone in place
• C) Set the ISO to its lowest and turn on the flash
• D) Pull the white balance to its coolest value

3. What is the easiest way to learn pro mode?

• A) Changing only one control at a time and leaving the others on auto
• B) Pulling all the controls to their highest value at once
• C) Only turning on the raw recording option
• D) Never using the exposure meter

4. What is the benefit of fixing the white balance in a series shot in mixed light?

• A) It makes the file size smaller
• B) It removes grain completely
• C) It improves the focus automatically
• D) Faces and colors stay in their own tone and consistent across the series

Answers

1. C — On most phones the lens opening is fixed; that is why the two main branches of light decisions are ISO and shutter speed.
2. B — Headlights moving while light is gathered over a long time turn into streaks; if the phone moves during that time the whole frame blurs, so it has to be fixed in place.
3. A — Changing a single control lets you see the result of that decision separately from the others and makes pro mode understandable.
4. D — Auto white balance guesses again in every frame and can slide faces toward orange or gray; a fixed value keeps the skin in its own color.

Summary card

• Pro mode = the door to manual mode on a phone.
• ISO and shutter speed manage the light; the aperture is fixed on most phones.
• WB gives the color, MF the sharpness, EV the compensation, the meter the exposure guess.
• Change one control at a time; go back to auto when you're done.
• Fix the white balance: keep skin tones consistent across the series.

Bridge to the next lesson

The phone module ends here: you have got to know your phone's strengths and weaknesses, its glass, its touches, its grid, its hidden craftsmanship, its cameras and its pro mode. You may have noticed that you were managing the same thing in every setting: light. The next module turns straight to it and asks why photographers talk about light all the time. There, this time by training your eye, you will see how light changes while the subject stays put, and what a photographer is really photographing.