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Author Topic: Shot with iPhone  (Read 27473 times)

amolitor

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Re: Shot with iPhone
« Reply #80 on: April 16, 2015, 05:54:52 pm »

The common logical problem that occurs is conflating these two statements:

"It is possible to take excellent photographs with a cell phone"

and

"Every excellent photograph can be made with a cell phone"

People tend to unconsciously assume a universal quantifier is present when in fact only an existential one it. Or people simply can't be bothered to distinguish between the two, overwhelmed by the urge to do battle.
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Shot with iPhone
« Reply #81 on: April 16, 2015, 08:24:34 pm »

If equipment had ever been an issue on this forum, then for those of us who post images here, we would feel compelled to list in detail what equipment was used for every image we post, which we don’t do and never have done, even though it is the norm on most other photography forums, but not this one, so equipment or equipment snobbery is simply not the issue here.

So it must be something else and I think it must boil down to a question of how serious the photographer is about what they create and the effort and skill they are willing to put into creating it and I just don’t see it with iPhone photography, when done with the ubiquitous one click instagram(esque) type processing so prevalent today. I am not saying it can’t be a good done like this, but what I am saying is that it can never be individually and creatively good, done like this.

As Jeff pointed out by referencing some of Dan Burkholder’s work produced through an iPhone, it is amazing, but it has also been achieved through a huge amount of effort for each and every piece he creates. Thumbing an app to make every shot into some sort of instantaneous production line ‘art’, just isn’t.

It’s like trying to compare gourmet restaurant food to a TV dinner IMO.

So yes great work really can be done with iPhone, but the keyword here I think is ‘work’ which cannot be achieved to any meaningful level using shortcuts and by effortlessly pushing a Jpg through a one click app, that 100 million other people are also doing with their Jpg’s at the same time and using the exact same app, there just isn’t enough personal creativity in it for me.

Dave
« Last Edit: April 16, 2015, 08:37:23 pm by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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Schewe

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Re: Shot with iPhone
« Reply #82 on: April 16, 2015, 11:48:58 pm »

So yes great work really can be done with iPhone, but the keyword here I think is ‘work’ which cannot be achieved to any meaningful level using shortcuts and by effortlessly pushing a Jpg through a one click app, that 100 million other people are also doing with their Jpg’s at the same time and using the exact same app, there just isn’t enough personal creativity in it for me.

I agree...but the other aspect is the context in which you want to use the image. If you need a 5x6 image reproduced in a book, which would be the best choice to use, an iPhone 5 or a P1 IQ180...could you tell the differences between those cameras at that size? Well, if it were well shot and lit, I suspect not. To prove that for my Digital Neg book I did just that.

The top image was shot with an iPhone 5 in studio lighting. The next image with an IQ 180. You can't tell the difference until you look at the detail shots zoomed in. The 3rd image is clearly inferior to the 4th image.

I could make a print from both small and they would both look good...but if I wanted a 17x22 print, the IQ180 would be vastly better without the jpeg artifacts and clear resolution.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2015, 11:52:49 pm by Schewe »
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bernie west

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Re: Shot with iPhone
« Reply #83 on: April 16, 2015, 11:49:50 pm »

I used to use my iPhone camera until I got an RX100.

Seriously, is it so much work to carry around an RX100 in your pocket?

Everywhere you go?  With a phone as well?  Yes.
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bernie west

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Re: Shot with iPhone
« Reply #84 on: April 16, 2015, 11:56:51 pm »

If equipment had ever been an issue on this forum, then for those of us who post images here, we would feel compelled to list in detail what equipment was used for every image we post, which we don’t do and never have done, even though it is the norm on most other photography forums, but not this one, so equipment or equipment snobbery is simply not the issue here.

So it must be something else and I think it must boil down to a question of how serious the photographer is about what they create and the effort and skill they are willing to put into creating it and I just don’t see it with iPhone photography, when done with the ubiquitous one click instagram(esque) type processing so prevalent today. I am not saying it can’t be a good done like this, but what I am saying is that it can never be individually and creatively good, done like this.

As Jeff pointed out by referencing some of Dan Burkholder’s work produced through an iPhone, it is amazing, but it has also been achieved through a huge amount of effort for each and every piece he creates. Thumbing an app to make every shot into some sort of instantaneous production line ‘art’, just isn’t.

It’s like trying to compare gourmet restaurant food to a TV dinner IMO.

So yes great work really can be done with iPhone, but the keyword here I think is ‘work’ which cannot be achieved to any meaningful level using shortcuts and by effortlessly pushing a Jpg through a one click app, that 100 million other people are also doing with their Jpg’s at the same time and using the exact same app, there just isn’t enough personal creativity in it for me.

Dave

The assumption implicit here is that a lot of the 'superficially nicer' phone shots must have been done with a one click app.  How do you know this is true?  As I mentioned earlier, I'm just starting to get into phone photography and most of my newer images would appear just the same as your assumption - that is, they could look like they were done with one click filter.  But most of my newer ones I have used a filter and then gone into the individual settings: shadows, exposure, contrast, saturation, brightness, color balance etc to give the image the look I want.  Sure, it's still easier than making masks in photoshop or drawing curves, but so is Lightroom.  So is Nik.  So are a lot of other serious software products we use to produce our DSLR images now.  
« Last Edit: April 16, 2015, 11:58:52 pm by bernie west »
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: Shot with iPhone
« Reply #85 on: April 17, 2015, 04:21:42 am »

Should we give this thread a pause or rest?

There are now the grand total of 2 posts on the "iphone and mobile photography" forum. Perhaps this discussion can continue there, in order to boost that new forum?

MatthewCromer

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Re: Shot with iPhone
« Reply #86 on: April 17, 2015, 12:02:03 pm »

Quote
Everywhere you go? 

Everywhere out of my house, yes.

I'm a photographer, I capture unique moments in time with photographic equipment for the purpose of creating art.

If I don't have the capture device on me, I miss many, many opportunities.

An RX100 meets my requirements for image capture much better than my iPhone 5/6+.

Of course, a dSLR, CSC etc can do even better, particularly for UWA or long lens needs, but it's far too big to carry everywhere. The RX100 is small enough to fit in a pocket of anything I wear. I don't think carrying an RX100 with me everywhere is too much of a burden.
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Shot with iPhone
« Reply #87 on: April 18, 2015, 06:31:18 am »

Should we give this thread a pause or rest?

There are now the grand total of 2 posts on the "iphone and mobile photography" forum. Perhaps this discussion can continue there, in order to boost that new forum?

Yes why not, but before we all go our merry ways, I thought I would leave the thread with a couple of interesting links for you to peruse.

Here is a link to Dan Burkholder discussing his work over the many years, right back to his early crayon drawings as a child, to the modern day and how he thinks that everything he does links together, through to showcasing some of his better known work and discussing the skill and effort he puts into each piece of work he makes, no matter what medium he chooses to use, including iPhones - a highly recommended and entertaining hour for you to watch.

The second link found here, is to a recent newspaper report of work, that has been produced by the top eight most influential Instagrammers on the internet. The images were shot in Scotland and also some on Skye, although the report has half the locations and distances between them wrong, but hey, that's newspaper reporters for you  ;D

Dave
« Last Edit: April 18, 2015, 07:07:01 am by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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