Shot with iPhone

[LesPalenik]

LuLa will be starting a forum topic on iPhone and Mobile Photography.

It's a wise decision, and hopefully, we'll see there some sharp images.
And while you are at it, you may as well add a UAV / Aerial Photography forum category. That field is also exploding, and the new class of copters coupled with advances in ultralight cameras will create fascinating imagery.

[MarkL]

Just about everywhere online is covered with hipstermatic instagramed iphone images, I'm not sure we really need it here too.

[Kevin Raber]

Mark, more the reason we do need it here.  The forum is open for those that are interested.  Based on the latest camera manufacture numbers we would be ignoring a huge part of the market that is showing giant growth.  While I will always shoot with my other cameras I am amazed at how often I am using the iPhone.  And, if I am going to use it I want to make the best of it.

Kevin Raber

[dwood]

Julian Calverley published a book from his iPhone images: http://www.juliancalverley.com/books/iphoneonly/

[amolitor]

Arguably smaller formats are the correct direction for traditional landscape photograph (assuming you can get the level of detail you want).

Great DoF is easier, building a superb lens that covers a tiny sensor is trivial, and so on.

The only reason for large format is the level of detail, really.

[MarkL]

Mark, more the reason we do need it here.  The forum is open for those that are interested.  Based on the latest camera manufacture numbers we would be ignoring a huge part of the market that is showing giant growth.  While I will always shoot with my other cameras I am amazed at how often I am using the iPhone.  And, if I am going to use it I want to make the best of it.

Kevin Raber

I never really seen LL as being about covering every area of photography or appealing to the largest markets especially the hipstermatic iphone area which I would see as a better fit for deviantart. Clearly you do feel it somehow fits with the LL brand or the market size is too big to ignore for business reasons.

[Schewe]

I never really seen LL as being about covering every area of photography or appealing to the largest markets especially the hipstermatic iphone area which I would see as a better fit for deviantart. Clearly you do feel it somehow fits with the LL brand or the market size is too big to ignore for business reasons.

It's a major trend with young people. Read this article from the Daily Mail about a guy documenting the train hoppers in the southwest. I've met several fine art photographers doing amazing things with iPhone art including Dan Burkholder who often uses an iPhone to capture what he finally prints in platinum over gold leaf.

If you think it's all about hipstermatic iphone area you need to get out more :~)

[Schewe]

Actually, I forgot Dan has a hole section on iPhone art. He also offers iPhone art workshops. Of course, he also uses other cameras too :~)

[MoreOrLess]

Julian Calverley published a book from his iPhone images: http://www.juliancalverley.com/books/iphoneonly/

That the book is sold on being "shot with an iphone" to me rather seems to suggest why we get a lot of press about pros using them. That is that its not that the phone camera itself is actually the best tool for the job but rather than theres a certain appeal to work shot with the "tools of the people".

[michael]

I'm not as big a fan of smartphone photography as Kevin. I find the almost infinite DOF quite limiting, and also the phone-as-camera an unsatisfactory tool.

But to ignore phone photography is to ignore a major future trend. If we want to stay relevant to the variety of styles photography and tools that people are currently pursuing would be to do a disservice to readers.

I have now gone back to shooting film for the first time in about a dozen years, and processing my own B&W film. I'll be writing about it on these pages soon.

Will anyone care? Probably, some. A Few. But that's not the point. This site has never been about pandering to the masses. It's about what I found interesting in photography (and now Kevin as well).

There no commercial advantage for us to be covering either phones or B&W film or many other non-mainstream aspects of photography. For the profile of the readership that we have, these are peripheral interests. But we do it because we can and because we find all aspects of photography of interest, and think that many of our readers do as well, even if they are not practitioners themselves.

My video tutorial on how to process CMS 20 II in Adotech II developer will be along soon. Hope it doesn't deter you from visiting us here.

Michael

[Manoli]

I find the almost infinite DOF quite limiting, and also the phone-as-camera an unsatisfactory tool.

But what this new trend has already done is put the fun, with a big 'F' back into photography. It's not an either/or choice unless you want it to be. For serious photographers it can be a welcome limitation - 'gear heads' need not apply!

In apps, don't overlook a new release, for stills,  named 'Enlight'. The latest release of Snapseed also adds to the post_p options.  Filmic Pro likewise for motion. Imminent release of tools such as Beastgrip Pro ..



just adds to the options available and if Bentley used it for one of their ads, it wasn't 'cos the Arri's and Reds are history. (*)
Novelty factor ? - sure, but not without some merit. At least it's stimulating the creative side and that has to be a positive.

Edit:
(*) BTS is at 3:25 on ...

[ndevlin]

This is the best iPhone photography of the landscape genre being done in America.  Interestingly, the photographer's own lifestyle is a macrocosm of the freedom from stuff that the phone represents vis-a-vis camera gear.

[bernie west]

But what this new trend has already done is put the fun, with a big 'F' back into photography.

Haha, I was just about to say that I've just started doing instagram (and regular phone photography) and I'm finding it a lot of fun.  It's so easy to pull your phone out and snap a pic.  In general, I find the stuff I shoot with my phone is different to the stuff I shoot with my Fuji x100 or nikon dslr.  I see different things with my phone.

[bernie west]

This is the best iPhone photography of the landscape genre being done in America.  Interestingly, the photographer's own lifestyle is a macrocosm of the freedom from stuff that the phone represents vis-a-vis camera gear.

Great stuff!  Must admit, he seemed to be getting pretty good resolution in some of those images.  Are they all iPhone shots? 

[MarkL]

While it is interesting how different tools work out in the field all too often it seems synonymous with laziness or an excuse for mediocre or sloppy work. Somehow a picture is meant to be raised to a higher standard because it was ‘only’ shot on an iphone (or even these days, shot on film) which is why people seem compelled to mention what was used.

Trendy or not, I’d rather see results by people that work hard to produce high quality work not use a crippled tool for an easy life or worse, as a get out of jail card for substandard results.

Anyway, for the 'iphone art' crowd here is a great shot of the O2 in fog from an iphone: http://www.kantryla.net/blog

If you think it's all about hipstermatic iphone area you need to get out more :~)

My reference to that was more directed at the article posted here and if that was a harbinger of things to come

[BJL]

The college where I work has a new student photography club, and the first event was along the lines of "how to do more wih Instagram". My first curmudgeonly thought was that this is frivolous, but then I decided that "camera phones plus software" is a major way that kids are getting enthusiastic about doing more with photography, and will lead some of them to explore more options -- maybe even "cameras that can use special lenses for doing stuff that even Instagram cannot".  So I expect that playing with these popular technologies will revitalize the hobby.

[bernie west]

While it is interesting how different tools work out in the field all too often it seems synonymous with laziness or an excuse for mediocre or sloppy work. Somehow a picture is meant to be raised to a higher standard because it was ‘only’ shot on an iphone (or even these days, shot on film) which is why people seem compelled to mention what was used.

Trendy or not, I’d rather see results by people that work hard to produce high quality work not use a crippled tool for an easy life or worse, as a get out of jail card for substandard results.

To me, photography is about conveying something in an image to the viewers of that image.  Phone photography clearly does convey something to some people.  That makes it legit, in my book.  The tools used to capture something are immaterial.

[amolitor]

If you're not doing wet plate then you are gratuitously sacrificing resolution out of pure laziness!

Color, you say? Color separations, I reply.

[bernie west]

 

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

I think what Mark was trying to say is, does Lula wish to continue to stand out as something special and cherished by its users, or is it happy to be swallowed up by the current trends sweeping across the internet?

Yes Jeff, I too have looked at Dan Burkholder’s work and it is truly outstanding, as I am sure some people will also think about Trey Ratcliff’s HDR work, but if Lula wants to continue to stand out as something different and above the instagram crowd, then doing exactly the same thing as the rest of the crowd, is probably not the way to achieve it.

Personally I am not against iPhone and iPad photography, or any other form of image capture, but I do also understand what Mark is trying to say and the old curmudgeon in me wants to agree with him.

I have thought for some time now, that the type of the imagery shown on the home page of this site, is also an advert to the type of photography one can expect to find within the site, which in turn will attract people who shoot that type of work to migrate towards this site and those that do not, to migrate towards other sites that do cater for what they like to shoot – fairly obvious really.

Lula is never going to be able to satisfy everybody all of the time, and so it’s up to you guys to choose who are the majority of people, that you do want to satisfy most of the time.  
 
Dave