The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 10/31/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 10/30/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 10/29/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 10/28/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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Ealy Morning Vignettes

Mobile Photography: Images in reverse vignettes, an editing effect that makes the edges of a picture lighter instead of darker, from shots taken on the HMD Nokia 3.1, on a five-foot way of a local business premises.

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My weekly routine trip to the local farmer's market is sometimes enlightened when the early morning sun decides to break the horizon and splash the world with its bright and golden streaming rays.

This is one of those occasions, and as I walked along the five-foot way of a building adjacent to the Farmer's Market location, among the myriad of lights and shades the sun was playing with...

I had the aging HMD Nokia 3.1, an entry-level Android smartphone released by HMD Global in May 2018, with me then, and these were the recollections on the morning.

The Android One budget phone, launched in 2018, features a 5.2-inch HD with an 18:9 aspect ratio and 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass, a MediaTek MT6750 octa-core processor, 2GB or 3GB RAM, 16GB or 32GB storage, an aluminum frame with a 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass screen, a 13MP rear and an 8MP front camera, and runs on a 2,990 mAh non-removable Li-ion battery.

The camera on the HMD Nokia 3.1, incidentally, is the only one in my collection that captures images that can be easily converted to Reverse Vignettes with a single step adjustment to the Shadows Compensation feature on the desktop editor.

Reverse Vignettes is an image editing technique to draw attention to the center of the image by brightening up the edges and corners of a photo, the opposite of darkening them as seen on traditional vignettes. Steps to edit RAW images for the same effect can also be found on full-featured, purchased image editing tools, and could be rather tedious or cumbersome.

Android One, the OS installed on the HMD Nokia 3.1, is a Google initiative to offer smartphones with a clean, user-friendly experience with a near-stock version of Android, with promises of regular OS and security updates, installed with a small suite of supporting apps. Introduced initially to focus on budget devices in emerging markets, the OS was later expanded to include mid-range and high-end devices, including Nokia.

HMD Nokia 3.1

The caveat, while the system is still active, it is currently in a state of limbo, with an uncertain future, as seen with the slow pace of updates, the limited number of devices launched with the system, and the big G not actively promoting it.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 5/9/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 5/8/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 5/7/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 5/6/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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Reverse Vignette in Black-n-White

Mobile Photography: Images in reverse vignettes, an editing effect that makes the edges of a picture lighter instead of darker, from shots taken on the HMD Nokia 3.1, edited in black-and-white.

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This is a follow-up creative piece on reverse vignetting, a technique I used in a couple of previous posts. In this session, the images are presented in black and white. The purpose of reverse vignetting is to brighten the corners of an image instead of darkening them, as is typical with traditional vignetting.

This technique is particularly useful for images where the area of interest is centered against a plain background or when background clutter is distracting and is more of a nuisance.

This can be achieved by adjusting the settings in ('Radio Filter' in 'Effects' if you are using Adobe Lightroom or otherwise, similar tools in other photo editing software.

In addition, black and white images create a dramatic and artistic effect, encouraging viewers to focus on the faces, gestures, compositions, and expressions of melancholy, romance, or even hope.

While the technique is done primarily on the image editor in post-production, I did mine with a slightly different approach. The shots were taken with a low-end HMD Nokia smartphone (best in bright sunlight or otherwise, contre-jour, at the widest aperture available), and the images were edited simply by adjusting shadow compensation.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 3/21/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 3/20/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 3/19/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 3/18/25

HMD Nokia 3.1

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A Reverse Vignette Creative

Mobile Photography: Images in reverse vignettes, an editing effect that makes the edges of a picture lighter instead of darker, from shots taken on the HMD Nokia 3.1, a creative art session.

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A set of reverse vignette creatives from a quick early morning shoot, shot in contre-jour, on the HMD Nokia 3.1, with the images edited to include shading compensation in post-processing.

The term contre-jour originates from French and is a photographic and artistic technique in which the primary light source is positioned directly behind the subject.

The effect creates silhouettes with strong contrasts between light and dark areas, commonly used in landscapes, portraits, and silhouette photography to create striking compositions.

Shading compensation, also known as lens shading correction or vignetting correction, is a feature used in both in-camera settings and photo editing software to correct for the falloff in light intensity towards the edges of an image.

The phenomenon, known as vignetting, is common in many lenses and can be more pronounced in specific types of lenses or under certain shooting conditions.

A simple fare for an Android experience and timely software updates, the Nokia 3.1, part of Google's Android One program, is an entry-level Android smartphone released by HMD Global in May 2018. The phone features a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 720 x 1440 pixels, and comes fitted with an HDR-capable 13 MP rear camera with LED flash and an 8 MP front camera.

HMD Nokia 3.1

The phone has a glass front with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, a plastic back, and an aluminum frame. It weighs about 138 grams with its non-removable 2990 mAh Li-ion battery. The camera is very efficient and robust enough for the daily routines it was used for, and it looks to last at least another year or so. I have no complaints in that department here.

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 5/24/24

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 5/23/24

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 5/22/24

HMD Nokia 3.1

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The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 5/21/24

HMD Nokia 3.1

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Reverse Vignettes

Mobile Photography: Images in reverse vignettes, an editing effect that makes the edges of a picture lighter instead of darker, from shots taken on the HMD Nokia 3.1, using the shadow compensation technique.

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My first attempt at creating reverse vignette creatives with images edited using a desktop image editor.

'A reverse vignette is a technique used in photography and image editing where the corners and edges of an image are brightened instead of darkened, as against traditional vignetting, which typically darkens the edges. The effect focuses the viewer's eye towards the center of the image as the highlight of the composition.'