Photo Features on Windows Phone 8.1 Cyan

So the latest software update to the Windows Phone OS, Cyan is now widely available and I have it on my Lumias, I have tried some features before using the Preview for developers app, but the official software is now rolling out to almost all Windows Phone 8 handsets.

Now apart from the notification centre, live folders, word flow etc, because of one of my hobbies being photography, I am REALLY enjoying the Lumia Storyteller app on WP8.1.1 which is even more enhanced with the introduction of Living Images a feature that lets the latest camera software on Windows Phone 8 take a very short video for a second or so before you capture an image on your Lumia.

Now I have been using Storyteller since it was first available, I saw it launched at Nokia World last year and I'm as impressed with it now as I was then. Basically all the photos you take on your camera, are grouped by date, and as long as geo tagging is enabled, location and the Storyteller app automatically groups them so they can be viewed in a short video if you wish (which I do very often :-D ) and also if you select a photo to view and then pinch it, it will shrink to a small circle and appear on a map to show you exactly where it was taken.

The part I really like is the video though, now it will combine 25-30 shots in a slide show effect along with a musical background and the produced videos give you an entirely new aspect to your photos, I find reducing the number of stills to below 20 in the editing options produces a better effect, as all the videos are squeezed into a sequence about 30 seconds long and the effects of zooming and movement on the photos work better if allowed a little more time to breath.

I have added a couple of examples to this piece as I think the living images show to good effect, the water in the Fewston video looks good I think and the seagull appearing over the big wheel at Scarborough is a nice effect :) I have even used the Storyteller app to do an unboxing !! The more you play with the app the more you get out of it and it is great for sharing stuff with friends and family on social media or even by mail.

As a photo enthusiast and a Windows Phone user I really love the storyteller app and find it both enjoyable and also probably more useful than it was intended to be and I would recommend people try it, play with it and try to get as much as they can out of it.

thanks for reading and viewing.

Stephen Quin

09/09/2014