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Better photos from your iPhone (part 1)

2010-06-27T14:36:48Z

In the constant effort to improve my photography skills I decided to make a more conscious attempt to always have a camera with me when I'm out and about. My problem with this is that the camera I prefer for high quality images, a Nikon D200, is something of a brute to carry around all the time. I even bought an excellent small Domke bag expressly for carrying the D200, a second lens and a tiny flash, but this is still a big and heavy enough bag to think twice about when heading out the door. I do still grab the packed Domke on occasion, but I need to be in a 'serious shooter' frame of mind to take it with me.

I also have an excellent little Ricoh GX200, which can shoot RAW and offers terrific image quality for it's compact size, with the usual small-sensor caveat of requiring good available light to shoot in.

But I really want a camera I'll always have with me and so eventually I decided the only camera guaranteed to fit the bill for 'always' is the camera in my iPhone. I'm currently using an iPhone 3GS and the 'touch to focus' feature really does offer a significant improvement in getting better image quality from the otherwise basic camera. Additionally there are now a great many photography apps on the iTunes store that offer surprising editing and manipulation capabilities for iPhone captured images.

Since making the decision to use the iPhone camera I wanted to know a bit more about the properties and tech specs of the camera module itself. From information on various sites I found this on the iPhone 3GS camera:

Resolution = 3MP
Lens = 3.85mm focal length (equiv to about 37mm on regular camera)
Sensor = 1/4" CMOS Autofocus = 2cm to infinity Auto exposure & ISO = from 70 to 1600
Aperture = fixed at 2.8
Shutter speed = variable. (EXIF data on my iPhone images shows a range from 1/10Sec to almost 1/3,000! So automatically controlled shutter speeds and ISO determine the exposure, unfortunately neither are accessible to the user).

And here's a camera update from a review on Macworld of the new iPhone 4:

"As on many smartphones (including previous iPhones), the iPhone 4’s 3.85mm camera lens has a fixed aperture of f/2.8, and automatically adjusts the shutter speed and ISO to get the best exposure. In our tests, we managed to make the ISO go as low as 80, and as high as 1000. The longest exposure time was 1/15 of a second, and the shortest was 1/10000 of a second."

By today's standards that's a pretty low-end camera and I've often heard the complaint 'but that's not a real camera!'. Well I'm as big a sucker for camera gadgetry as any other photo-geek but years of lusting after better and better cameras has led me to understand that a better camera does not necessarily equal a better photo. It is not the camera that determines whether the photo is good, or not, it's the photographer - I know this is a cliché but, by and large, it's true. Bear in mind too that the photography marketplace is awash with a rising tide of sales BS, apparently with the express purpose of selling you a 'high-end' camera with more features than you have brain cells (and sometimes they even succeed!).

My philosophy is that any camera is as real or serious as you make it, and anything that captures an image is a camera, from a cardboard box pinhole camera to a Hasselblad.

A few short years ago 3mp sensors were top of the line for emerging Digital SLRs and some fantastic images have come from those cameras. I can go back through my Lightroom catalogue and find many images of superb quality taken with my first 'serious' DSLR, the Nikon D70 - and it only sported a 6mp sensor.

I find that the quality of iPhone camera is more than enough for casual shooting, reference shots and experimental imaging.

The constraints of the iPhone camera are far outweighed by its convenience, because, of course, 'The best camera you have is the one that's with You'. This makes the iPhone almost perfect for unplanned, or unexpected photo-ops, here's a few examples of photos that only exist at all because they were shot on an iPhone:

These photos may not be high-res captures, but they capture something else, something far more fundamental to photography for me; It's all about being there, catching a random moment of perfect light, seeing a familiar location in a new way, or a unique event unfolding before your eyes - and, most importantly, it's all about the image, not the image quality.

A great shot is still a great shot, even if it's only 800px wide on your browser screen.

Often the quality of the iPhone image needs some help to really shine, so I have no problem post-processing my iphone images extensively using some of the wonderful photo-editing apps now available. I know some purists frown upon such extensive processing of images, but, in my opinion, 'image processing' starts when you raise your camera to take a photo in the first place. Aiming your lens, choosing angles, framing, exposure control, shutter speed selection etc., etc., are all decisions you make in capturing an image.

Editing the final image with software to enhance, or change it, is part of the same image-making process - it's ALL selective. To me there is no such thing as photographing something 'as it was', only 'as you see it'.

After a few weeks I expected that the quality my iPhone images would improve, but I did not expect that using the iPhone camera would make me a better photographer in a fundamental sense, but that is what I believe has happened. I'm shooting a lot more images, I concentrate more on what I'm looking at when shooting (the whole screen of the iPhone is my viewfinder), there are no distracting controls, just a shutter button. Lessons learned from shooting with my iPhone have improving my 'eye' for when (or if) I bring out a 'real camera' later.

I find it's refreshing to pay less attention to the mechanics of how I'm getting the shot, It's faster, more direct and I feel closer to the images I'm shooting. In fact, thinking back on it, this is why I was bitten by the photography bug in the first place.  An added bonus is that there's no auto-review on iPhone after releasing the shutter - so there is no time wasted 'chimping' images already shot.

I'm not sure this kind of rapid self-development (pardon the pun) is even possible with any other camera, once you bring controls, buttons, menus etc. into the situation your relationship to capturing the image totally changes.

This is part one of my 'Better Photos from your iPhone' series. This post is much longer than I intended, but I've learned a lot from using my iPhone camera and I'd like to share this with anyone else who'd like to 'up the ante' on the success of their iPhone photos.

In part two of this series I'll cover the physical aspects of how to get better shots with your iPhone.

Eyeing up the MiFi

2010-06-24T20:28:55Z

The kind folks at 3Mobile sent me one of their popular MiFi devices to try out with my iPad and, although this is not my full review, I wanted to put up a quick post about it.

The device is pretty small and will easily slip into a pocket or bag, the MiFi also appears to hold a charge for a good while. I've heard quite a few people expressing interest in this as they have bought, or are thinking of buying a WiFi only iPad and indeed this is a very good solution if you're thinking of buying the non-3G version of the iPad.

There's an added bonus in that the MiFi will provide Internet connection for any other WiFi devices that you own too, e.g. I can easily connect my iPhone, or Macbook Pro using the WiFi.

I'll have more details to post later, after I have a chance to test it out more fully, but I can say already that I've seen some surprising speeds from it around my home town of Lisburn.

So far, so fast then, more later.

Art & Copy at the Art & College

2010-04-30T20:37:13Z

I've been looking forward to this movie for a while and finally got to see it last night at the NUU Art College in Belfast. The theatre in the College is a nice modern facility, but unfortunately they were attempting to show the movie DVD from a laptop. As a result we had a few crash-induced intervals throughout the screening, although to be fair there these problems did appear to be with the supplied disc itself.

Technical issues apart though I really enjoyed the movie and, although there were many truly larger than life Ad legends interviewed, the movie's measured delivery made a good job of setting the context of those personalities against the environments that created and inspired them. In fact it reminded me of the Helvetica movie - which was excellent.

The creative luminaries interviewed in the movie are a who's who of Advertising legends: George Lois, Mary Wells, Hal Riney, Lee Clow, Dan Wieden and David Kennedy - to name but few.

George Lois was definitely one of the most entertaining, not so much 'in your face' as through your face and out the back of your head!

It was terrific to see that the passion and drive of these creative tribe 'elders' remains undiminished, despite their long years of service in the most high stakes and high-pressure of Advertising Agencies. The creatives interviewed in this movie are the real deal 'Mad Men' and 'Mad Women' responsible for some of the best and most memorable campaigns ever seen. It is entirely believable that they're said to have influenced 20th Century thinking and popular culture more than any president, government or movement has.

Amongst the many highlights of this movie were the shocking origin of the famous Nike 'Just Do It' strapline, the almost dumped classic 'Got Milk' slogan (a familiar theme in Advertising war stories, 'Vorsprung durch Technik' was almost dropped by Audi too) and the creation of the amazing Apple '1984' Superbowl ad.

I particularly loved one of the quotes from Mary Wells when credited with 'inventing' an astonishing new look for one of her high-profile clients (I think it was the Braniff Airlines campaign) her reply was that she did not invent it, rather she discovered it and showed it to the client. Mary's summary of what makes a great Advertising talent is that they're 'born with a gift for sensing what will turn you on.' Art & Copy certainly bears that out.

If you're involved in the creative business in any way I'd recommend seeing Art & Copy, in fact there's so much great work and inspiration in it that it's worth picking it up on DVD copy for occasional future reference.

Also: they had me at 'Art'.

I ‘shopped the Sheriff!

2010-04-12T23:54:10Z

Back in the day it was called airbrushing and indeed I once wielded this magical, mythical illustration tool myself, long before Digital roamed the earth.

Today Photoshop is the ‘daily driver’ for most of us with more than a passing interest in image editing and illustration, and rightly so, as Photoshop sports an amazing roster of tools which truly make ‘Ye Olde Airbrush’ appear barbaric by comparison. Strangely it is interesting to note that although Photoshop’s digital toolbox is very sophisticated the techniques of masking, painting and shading etc. are still remarkably similar to the days of airbrush and ink.

When I first saw what Photoshop could do I immediately realised that my beautifully made Iwata airbrush was now an antique. The flexibility and speed of working in Photoshop was a total culture-shock from the glacial pace (and the ensuing high costs) of airbrush work, with the icing on the cake arriving in the form of Wacom digital tablets and pens.

So here we are years later and the efficiency of Photoshop has driven retouching work from mainly a salvage operation well and truly into the realms of illustration.

Software advances have significantly accelerated the use of retouching, of course (Photoshop CS5 has just been released as I write this), but much of this type of work is still crafted manually and can be time-consuming as it often requires a high level of actual drafting skills. For professional retouching a Wacom tablet is also pretty much an essential requirement, as is developing some degree of skill in using it. The big deal here is that Photoshop now does so much of the grunt-work that I can spend much more time exploring the more creative possibilities when editing my images.

The photographs shown on this post were part of a website design for Mainstream Renewable Power, and are intended to convey that they are a ‘people company’, so at concept stage I suggested we create images of their own personnel, but with a creative approach that allowed us to feature them prominently as part of their website design and to reinforce the newly developed corporate ID.

Well in advance of the shoot I sourced some real-world props that I could retouch to transform them into elements of the brand, these props were specifically chosen with regard as to how I could illustrate them in post-production to suit our brief. So in this case the photos were shot specifically to be retouched.

I was pleased we were able to accomplish this featuring the real heroes of the company, Mainstream’s own personnel, as opposed to models, and Mainstream themselves were very happy with the results.

Roll-over the retouched images to see the original images we started with...

The photos were all taken by the very talented Phil Smyth The full set of images may be seen in the masthead area on Mainstream’s current website here.

So, where were we then?

2010-03-18T23:40:45Z

Welcome back.

The Hiatus is over now that I've finally made the time to overhaul my design blog - and this is the result. I hope to resume reasonably frequent blogging and thought 'A Career in Creative' summarises it fairly well. I'd like to cover the creative process, concepts, design, techniques and the business aspects of working as an independent/freelance. You'll also find the odd smattering of arts, culture and photography - all passions of mine.
In an attempt to keep the peace I'll even do my best to avoid rabid Apple fandom, but they do make this so difficult!

In fact I've taken stock of all my web projects (including some dormant domains) with the result that some long simmering plans are finally taking shape, so there will be a few more developments in the (hopefully) near future.

I've also taken the opportunity to move this blog from Wordpress to Squarespace, I still love Wordpress, but for this blog I wanted to try the Squarespace platform, it does appear to have some unique features and I'm completely blown away by their iPhone app. I must also say also that Squarespace made a good (and easy) job of importing all the content from my Wordpress blog. I'm not being paid by Squarespace (quite the reverse!) but I am very impressed by their service so far.

Still getting used to the new gaff here, but it's a good sign that I'm able to concern myself less with the technicalities of managing the blog and get on with creating better content, of course time will tell.

So funny I could weep...

2009-07-04T14:46:13Z

Barcamp Belfast video

2009-06-12T14:00:16Z

Shooting photos for Ireland at Work

2009-06-05T01:28:33Z

Ireland at Work project

2009-06-03T11:06:10Z

Oh Yes to Oh No

2009-02-17T20:53:23Z