Simply, Better iPhone Photography
Hold onto your seats, ladies and gentleman. It's about to get scholarly up in here. Or not.
Many of you likely know that I shoot about 90% of my photos on my iPhone. The camera built into the iPhone is my favorite camera I’ve ever owned. That includes two Hasselblad medium format cameras and at least half a dozen SLR cameras. The iPhone (or Android if that’s your speed) allows shooting, culling, editing, and posting right in one device. When you are hiking up a mountain, the weight of your pack makes a big difference in your comfort level. When you are attending a public event like a football game, an iPhone doesn’t even cause security to bat an eye. Carry in a huge Nikon with a big lens on it…well, you get a bit more harassment. Moreso even than the advantage of size, using the camera in your phone allows you to also both edit your photos and share them in one device. We often take it for granted how revolutionary this is, but the next time you need to break out your SLR, shoot, transfer images to your computer, edit, and share (or send back to your phone to share), spend just a moment thinking about it. It’s annoying! I can create an entire social media post from snapping the shutter to actually posting in about 90 seconds on my phone.
There are times (those other 10%) where I simply can’t get what I need out of the phone though. Those times typically fall into one of two categories: (1) I need more light control or (2) I need more telephoto. The first is the biggest. If you want to shoot a performance in Waco Hall or any concert venue, the contrast between the stage lights and the black room is going to be a challenge that will require you to make manual adjustments. That’s possible on the iPhone, but far from convenient or ideal. The second is, say, shooting a basketball game in the Ferrell Center. It’s both dark AND they highly discourage you from getting out on the court during a game to get the cool up-close shots you can get with a telephoto lens. So the iPhone isn’t perfect, but unless otherwise noted in my Instagram posts, the photos you are seeing in my feed were shot on an iPhone. I notate in the text if it was shot on my Nikon or on a GoPro. Otherwise, it’s the iPhone.
So what follows here will be a multi-chapter exercise sharing some of the things I’ve learned over the years. About half of it is simply a “philosophy of a photographer” lecture and the other half will be tips and tricks to get the most out of using your phone for what it was really meant to be used for: an all-in-one pipeline from camera lens to Instagram. Who actually talks on their phone these days?
Many of you likely know that I shoot about 90% of my photos on my iPhone. The camera built into the iPhone is my favorite camera I’ve ever owned. That includes two Hasselblad medium format cameras and at least half a dozen SLR cameras. The iPhone (or Android if that’s your speed) allows shooting, culling, editing, and posting right in one device. When you are hiking up a mountain, the weight of your pack makes a big difference in your comfort level. When you are attending a public event like a football game, an iPhone doesn’t even cause security to bat an eye. Carry in a huge Nikon with a big lens on it…well, you get a bit more harassment. Moreso even than the advantage of size, using the camera in your phone allows you to also both edit your photos and share them in one device. We often take it for granted how revolutionary this is, but the next time you need to break out your SLR, shoot, transfer images to your computer, edit, and share (or send back to your phone to share), spend just a moment thinking about it. It’s annoying! I can create an entire social media post from snapping the shutter to actually posting in about 90 seconds on my phone.
There are times (those other 10%) where I simply can’t get what I need out of the phone though. Those times typically fall into one of two categories: (1) I need more light control or (2) I need more telephoto. The first is the biggest. If you want to shoot a performance in Waco Hall or any concert venue, the contrast between the stage lights and the black room is going to be a challenge that will require you to make manual adjustments. That’s possible on the iPhone, but far from convenient or ideal. The second is, say, shooting a basketball game in the Ferrell Center. It’s both dark AND they highly discourage you from getting out on the court during a game to get the cool up-close shots you can get with a telephoto lens. So the iPhone isn’t perfect, but unless otherwise noted in my Instagram posts, the photos you are seeing in my feed were shot on an iPhone. I notate in the text if it was shot on my Nikon or on a GoPro. Otherwise, it’s the iPhone.
So what follows here will be a multi-chapter exercise sharing some of the things I’ve learned over the years. About half of it is simply a “philosophy of a photographer” lecture and the other half will be tips and tricks to get the most out of using your phone for what it was really meant to be used for: an all-in-one pipeline from camera lens to Instagram. Who actually talks on their phone these days?
Do I need the best iPhone?
In a word, no. (In fact, my favorite photo I've ever taken was shot on an iPhone 5.) The first 100 or so posts on my Instagram account were shot on an iPhone 6. I upgraded to an 8 about late 2017. And there are several hundred photos shot on the 8 in my feed. And I’ve been shooting on the 11 Pro Max since last Fall. I tend to only upgrade my phone when Apple makes fundamental changes to the camera system. Is the 11 Pro Max worth the price? In my opinion, yes. Will it give you better photos than an iPhone 8? Depending on the circumstances, maybe. It does give you two things that are new. The first is a true wide-angle lens…and I use that thing A TON. The other is a radical way of letting you handhold long (like 10 second) exposures to get nice photos of the night sky. I’m not kidding. Handheld for 10 seconds. That flat out isn’t possible on any other camera on earth. It’s sort of voodoo magic how the 11 Pro Max handles night photography. You need to have a scene with no action in it, but man, does it work well…better in fact than I get off my big Nikon. Read that again. The iPhone 11 Pro Max gives me better results at star photography than my Nikon (at least without a lot of work, and star photography with an SLR handheld? That's not a thing.) There is some wicked cool tech that is layering multiple images grabbing the sharpest bits out of each image to composite into one really sharp night image. That magic is not available on ANY SLR camera that I know about, but it’s on the iPhone. That said, most people aren’t weird like me. Whether you consider shooting pictures of stars to be worth the $1000+ price tag of the highest end iPhone…maybe not. In that case, the fundamental platform of a 12-megapixel sensor and ability to take great photos is found in anything at an iPhone 8 or newer. I'd shoot on an 8. If I had to go back further than that, my phone would get much less use. The 6 and 7 didn't handle low light particularly well. They are much slower processors so time between images is greater, etc. So if you are on a 6 or a 7, you might think about now being a time you can justify an upgrade...just for your photography.
But I digress…let’s jump into actual photography.
The following chapters are broken into subjects:
1. Know Your Equipment.
2. Get into Photographer Mode.
3. Composition Techniques.
4. Quantity and Quality.
5. Photo Editing.
But I digress…let’s jump into actual photography.
The following chapters are broken into subjects:
1. Know Your Equipment.
2. Get into Photographer Mode.
3. Composition Techniques.
4. Quantity and Quality.
5. Photo Editing.
