Games

PHONE PHOTOS

Got a shiny new smartphone but struggling to shoot pictures that make people’s eyes pop with cartoon-style awe? Stuff reveals how to get the best from your little snapper…

THE BASICS

■ Master your hardware

Every camera is unique, and the same is true of what’s inside your phone. So take time to master its hardware and software – and how the two interact. Note minimum focusing distances so you know when to back up, and memorise shortcuts for your camera app so you never miss a one-off moment.

■ Avoid digital zoom

You might be overly pleased to have a phone that offers 100x zoom… but that grin will vanish when you see the results. Digital zoom crops and resizes images, adding grain and reducing detail. Where possible,sticktothelimitations of your phone’s telephoto lens. Want more? Invest in high-quality add-on lenses. ■ Line it up

If you too often find that your snaps lack compositional coherence, activate your camera’s on-screen grid (ideally a 3x3 one) and use the rule of thirds. Align subjects with grid lines and intersections; set the horizon directly atop one of the grid’s horizontal lines; and aim for two thirds negative space, to focus your pic on the subject. ■ Go off grid

Once you know and can successfully apply the rules of photography, break them. And since you’re shooting with a pocket-dwelling device, take advantage of being able to go anywhere with it. Get your phone right on the floor to shoot animals close up, or get high up in rooms or on top of buildings looking down. Capture reflections on water and windows, and look for patterns and symmetry.

■ Back it up

If you consider your photos precious, be aware of digital’s ephemeral nature. Never store snaps solely on a device you can lose. Sync them to the cloud and back up favourites to a second cloud service or a Mac/PC. And remember to print favourites – retail services are very affordable these days.

Do it clean

Seeing as your phone is in and out of bags and pockets, give that lens a clean before snapping shots – and with a microfibre cloth, not a mucky sleeve. GET SET

■ Define your defaults

Camera apps vary, so ensure yours – whether stock or third-party – has everything the way you want it the second it’s opened. You don’t want to be fiddling about with settings while a snapshot of Insta gold slips away.

■ Figure out formats

Your camera app will default to certain formats, resolutions and video frame-rates. Hardware, storage limitations and response times may force you to dial down maximums, but aim for the best and only lower those quality settings when you have to.

GET FOCUSED

■ Blur the background

If your phone’s camera has a portrait mode, use it to focus in on a subject. This mode is obviously intended for shots of people, but try using it for a shallow depth of field that gets sharp on any chosen object and blurs everything else.

■ Hold it steady

Smartphones are sensitive to movement – even a slight shake can result in blur. So rest your arm or your phone on a solid surface when shooting, or work with a tripod and remote – which also unlocks creative potential for long-exposure shots.

NOW ADD THESE

JOBY GORILLAPOD

Traditional tripods are great on a smooth, flat surface. The GorillaPod is designed for more challenging conditions, with flexible legs that’ll cope with the most uneven terrain or even wrap around branches. Get a GripTight model for more versatility. from R300 / joby.com

GET OFF OF MY CLOUDS

■ Expose yourself

Smartphone cameras adjust automatically to the light… but they don’t always get it right. Override auto exposure settings by tapping on a bright area to darken things down, or on a dimmer area to bring out details lost in shadows.

■ Crack the sky

Clear blue skies can make for great shots, but sunshine can wreck photos due to lens flare. So don’t shoot directly into the sun, and block it (a hand will do) if the fiery ball is threatening to ruin your photo from the sidelines.

■ Embrace the night

Your flash might fire in dark conditions, but it won’t always reach its target. Newer phones have a night mode, but just be mindful that this requires a steady hand while the shot is taken over several seconds. GET APPY

■ Go pro

Your device’s stock camera is fine, but pro camera apps can offer better manual controls, useful features and superior RAW file capabilities. Avoid social apps that compress shots and don’t save originals. You can add filters later.

■ Edit on the move

Digital darkrooms for powerful PCs are geeky fun, but modern mobile apps provide plenty of photo-editing clout. Freebie Snapseed is solid and we like the machine-learning smarts of Pixelmator Photo. Ensure your editor is non-destructive so original files remain intact.

MOMENT TELE 58MM LENS

From a 2013 Kickstarter, Moment has rapidly expanded and now offers a dizzying array of kit. The Tele 58mm Lens is its most popular, for close-up shots without compromise, but see also the $150 Anamorphic Lens for stylish video. R2 200 / amazon.com

ZHIYUN SMOOTH XS

There are better gimbals for video – notably the DJI OM 4 and Zhiyun’s own Smooth 4 – and the Smooth XS only has two-axis movement. But it shines for stills due to its small size, tripod mount and built-in selfie-stick. R1 500 / takealot.com

PS5 / playstation.com/za

Returnal

Many previews of Returnal hailed it as being the first ‘true’ PS5 title. Why’s that? It’s an ultra-addictive sci-fi/horror, 3D bullet-hell third-person shooter-roguelike

Returnal combines all the technical considerations expected from a polished, challenging strategic game and integrates with a delightfully heart-wrenching story.

Anyone with a slight interest in sci-fi, Ridley Scott’s Aliens, celestial or eldritch horror themes or rogue-likes and bullet-hell gameplay should keep reading.

Returnal stars an astronaut named Selene who fights her way across a hostile, alien planet called Atropos. The landscape is a perfectly chill place at first, until you encounter ‘hostile fauna’ that is clearly trying to put an end to the organic biped intruder.

Once you die, you respawn with nothing. Certain items are permanent, but you’ll lose all your consumables and weapons.

This horrendous deathloop (sorry) is encouraged to progress the narrative in Returnal. Some deaths trigger small segments of memories from Selene’s past (or future), adding small pieces to a seemingly convoluted puzzle. It’ll all make sense once you complete this head-bashingly challenging game a total of two times. Promise.

Imagine a game of Settlers of Catan. A set number of resource hexagons are placed, but in every game, they’re placed differently. That’s how biomes function in Returnal — here the landscape changes with every death cycle, bringing heightened challenges and obstacles.

Each is filled with increasingly powerful enemies, each with its own crazy attack methods and projectiles (let’s not forget this is also a bullet-hell title). You’ll quickly learn the patterns and time your attacks accordingly.

Instead of telling a story from start to finish, Returnal works to feed you bits of narrative while keeping you engaged in its various technical aspects. As you explore each biome, you’ll find better weapons, health upgrades, weapon mods and “parasites”. These are little critters that can attach to you that give you both buffs and debuffs.

You’ll find Xenotype bits for your character, giving her more alienlike abilities. Your new home is littered with deadly inhabitants. Learn to dodge them.

Sensing a Return to trepidation

Housemarque integrates most of the DualSense’s next-gen features into Returnal in a natural way.

Firing a weapon requires you to pull the trigger halfway for primary fire. If you pull it through the tension mid-way, you’ll find alt-fire, which makes gameplay dynamic, with no need to switch to an alternate trigger or button to switch between primary/alt-fire.

The PS5 DualSense’s subtle but effective way of communicating the ‘feeling’ of the environment is sublime. The small haptic sensations felt when you emerge into the rain include ‘feeling’ the tiny water droplets through your fingertips.

The PS5’s impressive 3D audio engine also provides an immersive soundscape that captures both the cramped rainy ruins of the first biome and the windy, sandy desert of the second and beyond. The eerie soundtrack elevates this already engaging game into a more immersive horror environment.

No detail goes unremarked here. Enter the in-game menu in the first biome and you’re met with a slight pitter-patter of raindrops on Selene’s helmet. The attention to detail is frankly rather scary, which is rather the point.

Switch / monsterhunter.com

Monster Hunter Rise

The striking Japanese art draped over Rise heralds the franchise’s return to the handheld format where it first made its name… so is this Switch title destined to be a monster hit?

If an exclusive entry on the little Switch feels like a step back for a game series that has embraced big-boy consoles in the past, think again. Even though Rise’s graphics run below the handheld’s standard resolutions, Capcom’s RE Engine makes it one of the best-looking games on themachine.

Where Rise really shines is in its distinctive artistic flavour, with evergreen cherry blossoms and monsters inspired by yokai from Japanese mythology. This adds to the wildly varied roster, compared to how the previous Monster Hunter World played it safe with dragons and dinosaurs. Old staples like Rathalos and Diablos are still roaming, but you’ve also got the bear-like Arzuros, the fire-spewing Rakna-Kadaki… and Khezu, who’s just disgusting on all counts.

There’s a hugearray of weapon and armour designs necessary to improve your stats, and the alluring loop of hunting powerful monsters in order to craft better gear so you can take on even tougher ones remains as strong as ever. You can even use Wirebugs to ride weakened monsters, a ludicrous but inspired amalgamation of mounting and turf wars from previous instalments.

At first, it appears Rise has adopted an archaic approach of splitting its single-player and multiplayer modes with village quests and hub quests respectively. But the village section is really more for onboarding newcomers, while seasoned hunters can dive straight into hub quests, the only way to progress to the ‘high rank’ quests.Far from scaling down, this game builds on the accessible streamlining from Monster Hunter World for a wilder hunting fest with even cooler abilities.

Noobs will feel at ease, while veterans will find ways to play with the new mechanics and tackle the toughest monsters. Whichever you might be, sharpen your weapon of choice, as you won’t want to miss out on one of the best games of 2021 so far.Rise, monster hunter.

This is Arzuros, a bear-like beast with big claws who secretly loves Supertramp.

And this is a cat offering you kebabs, which is surely even more terrifying.

Rise of the zoom raider

Following on from the major gameplay changes introduced in Monster Hunter World, this title doubles down for an even faster-paced experience. The biomes might feel smaller in comparison, but that’s only because traversing them is a lot more zippy.

That’s partly down to the Wirebugs, insects producing thick silk that you can use to grapple across environments, which allowsfor aerial attacks previously limited to just a couple of weapon types. They can also unleash special attacks for each of the 14 weapon types, while short cooldowns mean you can use them regularly in hunts. Perhaps the best thing is that, when a monster knocks you down, you can grapple your way out of danger – for a quick recovery or to get straight back into the fight.

The need for speed extends to riding creatures too, of course; and while the series has always been about talking cat warriors, here you get dog companions called Palamutes. Call on one to ride and they make pursuing monsters even snappier. That you can also ride them while sharpening your weapon, or gathering other resources, is asign of how much more streamlined the action has become.