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Author Topic: Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display  (Read 4043 times)

Scott Martin

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« on: July 21, 2010, 03:55:27 am »

I've just done some research in an attempt to determine the optimal settings when exporting images from Lightroom for the iPhone 4's new display. To make a long story short I suggest exporting images resized to fit 1920×1280 pixels with high screen sharpening. Once the images are on the phone, be sure to zoom-in while the phone is in the vertical orientation. Rotate for horizontal viewing after zooming, if appropriate. Viewing well prepared images on a 326dpi display is fantastic!

See this article for more in-depth discussion, complete with screen grabs and examples on this topic.
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francois

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2010, 06:37:01 am »

Quote from: Onsight
I've just done some research in an attempt to determine the optimal settings when exporting images from Lightroom for the iPhone 4's new display. To make a long story short I suggest exporting images resized to fit 1920×1280 pixels with high screen sharpening. Once the images are on the phone, be sure to zoom-in while the phone is in the vertical orientation. Rotate for horizontal viewing after zooming, if appropriate. Viewing well prepared images on a 326dpi display is fantastic!

See this article for more in-depth discussion, complete with screen grabs and examples on this topic.
Scott,
Thanks for sharing. The new iPhone 4 will only be released at the end of this month here is Switzerland so your article is welcome and I won't have to do the tests myself.
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Francois

BobFisher

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2010, 09:51:23 pm »

Just a question:  It's roughly a 3"x1.4" screen.  How can anything be 'optimised' for a screen that small regardless of the pixel pitch?  I mean in all honesty, what serious purpose is there for a screen that small?
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Scott Martin

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2010, 11:11:03 pm »

Quote from: BobFisher
How can anything be 'optimised' for a screen that small regardless of the pixel pitch?
It matters. If you save in image at 800 pixel wide it looks pretty bad. Save it at 1920x1280 and its amazing - it really grabs your attention if you have the eyesight to make out detail that fine. We've never seen images on 300+ppi screens before. It's a sign of things to come. Perhaps we'll have 30" 300ppi desktop displays as well some day. Heck, I remember the first time I saw a real photograph on a computer screen in the 80s. I thought it was tooo cool. "How did it get in there?" I thought. That question shaped the next 25 years of my life and career.

Quote from: BobFisher
I mean in all honesty, what serious purpose is there for a screen that small?
The phone can be like having your portfolio with you everywhere you go. It's one thing to meet people are art openings, conventions, etc and tell them your an artist or a photographer, but it's quite another thing to *show* them your work. At after hours parties during Fotofest I wound up pulling out the iPhone quite often to show people the 2+ hour light paining work I had been working on. It led to several studio and portfolio reviews afterwards. It's the same thing when you strike up a conversation with someone one an airplane. And it's really effective when the cops come up asking what you're doing shining a flashlight around in the middle of the night. :-]

Serious? I don't know. But it seriously useful for sure. If you haven't seen your own images on the retina display you're in for a surprise. Gotta see it to believe it.
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jjj

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2010, 06:16:15 am »

Quote from: Onsight
I've just done some research in an attempt to determine the optimal settings when exporting images from Lightroom for the iPhone 4's new display. To make a long story short I suggest exporting images resized to fit 1920×1280 pixels with high screen sharpening. Once the images are on the phone, be sure to zoom-in while the phone is in the vertical orientation. Rotate for horizontal viewing after zooming, if appropriate. Viewing well prepared images on a 326dpi display is fantastic!
Interesting as I was wondering about resizing for the iPhone and prepping images for web in general for a CMS [Content Management System]. The main problem is that prepping images for the iPhone 4 [which still has a tiny market share in reality] may not result in images suitable for other devices or computer screens. Though I was considering 1920x1200 as my big size to upload to my CMS.
The rotate to horizontal after zooming seems a bit odd as most people will swap to horizontal to see entire image and then zoom, should they want to, but if Apple fix issue after seeing your article all well and good.
 I realise your article is for displaying your own images on your own iPhone loaded via iTunes, but would same image prep workflow be good for web images? The problem being the images are very large for mobile web bandwidth and being able to zoom in is probably less important.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2010, 06:20:53 am by jjj »
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jjj

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2010, 06:19:30 am »

Mispost. Oops!
« Last Edit: July 24, 2010, 06:20:18 am by jjj »
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BobFisher

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2010, 01:22:51 pm »

I know where you're going with it and I realise what you're looking to do with it.  I just can't fathom walking into a client's office, handing them an iPhone (I wouldn't since I refuse to own anything Apple) and saying here, look at this tiny screen to see what I can do.  Something like the iPad is about as small as I'd go for that type of thing.

Casually showing something at a party is one thing.  But I come back to the question of whether it's meaningful in a serious way.  I'm not trying to demean the value of your work in any way at all.  I think it comes down to wanting to present my efforts in the best possible way and a cell phone probably isn't it.
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Scott Martin

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #7 on: July 24, 2010, 04:46:46 pm »

Quote from: jjj
I realise your article is for displaying your own images on your own iPhone loaded via iTunes, but would same image prep workflow be good for web images?
Right, I'm talking about prepping your files for viewing on the phone through the Photos app. Prepping images for the web is another thing altogether.

Bob, hopefully we'd walk into a client's office with a gorgeous printed portfolio. But it might just be a quick casual glance at your images on the phone somewhere that got you that serious portfolio review in the first place.
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free1000

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2010, 07:02:47 am »

Slightly off topic, but I've developed an app for the iPad that will allow a branded portfolio to be shown to people. I don't see it replacing a printed portfolio but rather its something you a) might have with you when you've left the big folio at home and  it allows galleries which can be hidden/exposed so its possible to hand it over to a potential buyer with eg: your personal work hidden away, and then switch it back on again if you want.

Hopefully will be reviewed successfully by Apple in the next day or two. Its had about 10 photographers beta testing it, so hopefully there shouldnt be any nasty surprises.

If anyone is interested there is a fairly basic website and a blog  http://www.foliobook.mobi  (best viewed on an iPad or iPhone 4).  developments can be followed at @foliobook on twitter as well.

Not sure if this is too promotional a posting here, but I thought it might be genuinely of interest to some people, and is a non-profit making venture (at least until or big IF,  it starts making a profit !)
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BobFisher

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Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2010, 08:29:44 am »

Quote from: Onsight
Right, I'm talking about prepping your files for viewing on the phone through the Photos app. Prepping images for the web is another thing altogether.

Bob, hopefully we'd walk into a client's office with a gorgeous printed portfolio. But it might just be a quick casual glance at your images on the phone somewhere that got you that serious portfolio review in the first place.

Yeah, I don't hang with the right peeps for that.  
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jjj

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Re: Optimizing images from LR for the iPhone 4 display
« Reply #10 on: August 25, 2010, 06:40:56 pm »

Yeah, I don't hang with the right peeps for that.  
You never know who or when you may bump into that may need a photographer. So always having something with some images on is great. I have a media player that is quite  a few years old now and I have a couple of slideshows on it and it has has proved very useful simply to give people a quick look at your images. Prior to that I used to have some A5 folios which take up far more room and need good lighting to view. A screen based device is great in that it has it's own light source and many images look better on screen than printed.
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