As XZ3 users will know, its 13MP Front camera takes amazing selfies: they’re clear, they’re bright and they even look fantastic in low-light conditions thanks to display flash.

To put the XZ3 to the test, we enlisted lifestyle influencer and YouTuber Jade Billington to try the camera’s features for herself.

Jade took the XZ3 on her travels, using the camera’s portrait mode to capture Instagram-worthy images. To access portrait mode yourself, tap the camera icon to open the camera, and then press mode in the bottom left of the screen. Now, tap the Portrait Selfie icon.

Now you’ll see five icons, as shown here:

The first icon controls ‘Bokeh’ mode – this blurs the background and focuses the subject for a stunning selfie shot. The second is ‘Soft skin’ – making the skin appear softer. The ‘sun’ represents ‘Skin brightness’. The eye is ‘Eye enlargement’ and makes the eyes appear bigger. The last icon (far right) is ‘Slender face’, making the face more slimmed down.

These beauty effects can be combined to create stunning shots, such as those Jade took herself.

Get the Look: Portrait Selfie, Bokeh 50%, Skin brightness 20%, Soft skin 30%

Jade found that playing around with the Skin brightness and Soft skin effects made it easy to look fresh faced.

“I found the camera super easy to use and navigate when I first started playing around with the device,” she said.

“The phone’s camera quality was impressive and I was expecting it to be more complicated to get my head around.”

Get the Look: Portrait Selfie, Bokeh 75%, Skin brightness 100%, Soft skin 25%

“The Portrait Selfie mode was my go-to feature when testing the phone out. The quality is incredible, so much so that it put my DSLR camera to shame!”

The YouTube sensation also said that Predictive Capture made taking selfies much easier. “You don’t have to struggle to reach any buttons,” she said. “Simply by placing the palm of your hand in front of the camera, just a couple of seconds later it snaps your shot!”

Get the Look: Predictive Captured using the palm of Jade’s hand, no increase in brightness or warmth

We also chatted to Jade about what issues she usually comes across when taking her selfies.

“On most smartphone front cameras, you are very zoomed in and it’s difficult to capture any background in your photos at all. More often than not, the picture quality can become very grainy and it can be a struggle once you’ve got the ‘perfect’ angle to click the right button. Whereas with the XZ3 you don’t have any of these issues.”

Jade saw amazing results in low-light conditions, and she felt the display flash was something every selfie-taker should keep in their back pocket.

“It reflects light to make the image clearer and brighter, not to mention giving your face a lovely glow,” she said. “An absolute winner for taking photos on a night out!”

Get the Look: Display Flash, increased warmth and brightness, captured using the palm of Jade’s hand

After exploring the XZ3’s beauty effects and trying them out for herself, Jade would recommend it as a great device for others who want to take selfies.

“It’s absolutely incredible! Usually when I’m taking selfies, I can easily rack up over 100 photos before I find one I’m happy with, whereas with the XZ3, nine out of ten times I was happy with the first shot!”

For the photo below, Jade used the Bokeh effect to make herself the focus of the image, with the light from the sunset shining through.

Get the Look: Portrait Selfie, Bokeh 100%, Skin brightness 30%, Soft skin 50%, Eye enlargement 3%

“The XZ3’s quality is incredible and the field of view allows the user to capture everything surrounding them – as well as offering the zoom option which does not compromise on quality. It’s honestly my favourite new camera.”

Get the Look: Portrait Selfie, Bokeh 100%, Skin brightness 30%, Soft skin 50%

Why not use your XZ3 to recreate some of Jade’s shots and let us know which beauty effect is your favourite?

The post YouTuber Jade Billington shows you how to take incredible selfies using the XZ3 appeared first on Sony Mobile Blog.

Source: Sony Mobile Blog
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