Tips and tricks to nail a perfect portrait on a sub-$500 Oppo Reno 11 Pro and put those $1500 flagships to shame،
In photography, practice makes perfect, but a little study never killed anyone. If you are interested in (mobile) photography, you will need to find the right balance between imitation and innovation. Except for the prodigy cases that take great photos just like thatthe rest of us need to scan and examine the works of others. It is very important to be inspired and imitate, but be careful not to become a simple imitator: in theory, you could learn to make portraits. Exactly like Helmut Newton, but what's the point!? In the end, you won't be Helmut Newton, you'll just be another imitator in an imitator world.
That's why it's crucial to learn new photography tips and tricks, but know how and when to distort them or ignore them altogether.
Without learning new techniques, you risk rattling your latest iPhone Pro Max or Galaxy S Ultra for years and getting poor or even pathetic results. Yes, practice makes perfect, and eventually you will get better with time… but why not take a shortcut, learn a few things, and improve your game?
The best part is that you don't need a flagship product that will cost you an arm and a leg to get better at photography. No, in fact, let's exclude the $500-$1000 category, as well as devices over $1000.
The Oppo Reno 11 Pro is a sub-$500 handset that won't overshadow a true flagship; it packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, coupled with 12GB of RAM. There is a 6.74-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2772 x 1240 pixels. Released in late November 2023, the phone is powered by a 4,700mAh battery with support for 80W fast charging.
There's a three-camera setup: a main camera that incorporates the Sony IMX890 sensor (that's what the Nothing Phone (2) also contains for its main camera), as well as a dedicated 32-megapixel portrait camera with optical zoom 2x (the sensor used here is the Sony IMX709) and an 8 megapixel ultra-wide shooter.
Before you say “meh” and ignore this setup, check out what the Oppo Reno 11 Pro can do in professional hands:
These are part of Oppo's collaboration with several photographers for a project called “The First Portraits in 2024” – they are all taken after the Lunar New Year in Chinese cities around the world:
Andreas P. Verrios, also known as mrnycsubway gained notoriety by engaging with strangers to create incidental and intimate portraits in a New York setting. Here's what he achieved with the help of a beautiful stranger and the Reno11 Pro:
The promised tips and tricks
Yes, all of the examples above are extremely well designed and professionally done. The light is perfect, the subject is perfect, everything is neat and refined.
You won't achieve such results right away, and that's a good thing: the joy of succeeding after the first failures is much greater than triumphing at the beginning.
However, there are a number of tips and tricks when it comes to portrait photography – it's up to you to find what works for you and what doesn't.
Oppo has a “Take stunning portraits with Reno11 Pro” guide it is quite detailed and does not present you with banal and impractical advice; Instead, the guide, written by three professional photographers, tells you how to achieve warm, intimate ambient light, or why it's crucial to experiment with different angles and intensities to find the perfect harmony that tells your story.
