Another day with an empty downtown. Might be the safest place to
walk in all of Austin, Texas.
On Wednesday I found out about the Adobe "Photo Shop Camera" app for the iPhone and downloaded it. I played around with the goofy filters and posted a few things to Instagram and then I got tired of it. But yesterday, when I decided to go for a walk I thought long and hard about cameras I could bring along.
I had just downloaded the firmware update for the Sigma fp so that might have been a logical choice there hasn't been enough time to play with the new upgrades so I took that one off the list. I'd been mulling over trying out the video in the G9 now that its firmware has also been updated so I took that camera, along with the Panasonic/Leica 12-60mm lens and a variable neutral density filter. My brain designated that camera as a "video" camera so when I got to the bridge there was some inertia that led me to hesitate putting it back into "photo" mode just to get a quick shot of downtown. A shot I've made many times before.
Instead I just grabbed my iPhone. It's an XR. It has one lens. And it's a wide angle one at that. But it's quick and easy to use and the automatic HDR capabilities are really great. The XR makes sunlit landscape shots that have wonderful tones and colors. And they never get too contrasty. But I do want to emphasize that these were all done with the native "Photo" app and to the new Adobe one.
After I took and evaluated my first shot (above) I was hooked. The G9 hung by my side for the rest of the early evening walk and I embraced the XR as my sole photography device for the rest of the time.
It was the right day/time for it; the clouds were being dramatic and expressive and I preferred to break the shooting into two distinct parts. I would select the subjects and compositions and I would let the camera do all the grunt work of getting exposure, color balance and focus right. A nice division of labor.
When I got home I looked at all the photos on the phone and started pulling them, mostly untouched by the heavy hands of post production, into this blog post. Now that I've seen for myself how good the camera in the XR is I'm using it more and more when I need wide/fast shots, and when the end product will be shared on the web. It's easier to get the right tonal balance with contrasty landscapes than it is with a conventional camera like the G9 or S1, mostly because I would have to spend time and energy trying to get everything just right after the shoot. With the iPhone I can just depend on the results of a couple hundred scientists with Phd.'s working their butts off at Apple to make just the right algorithms and machine brainiac-ism to make sure the little machine gets a higher hit ratio than I would.
So, in a sense, I've done my instant conversion to a new system. My phone. But in this case no other cameras were sold off and nothing new was purchased. In fact, the total cost was the half hour I finally spent figuring out the camera software on the phone. But be forewarned, I will be diving into the latest and most advanced iPhone I can find as soon as it is announced and available. These cameras are great.
And the black and white conversions are......perfect.
Masked for the walk in open air. Trader Joe's Grapefruit and Lemon spray hand sanitizer in my pocket.
"Bat" bridge in the background...
Blog Note: Please don't advise me that a Samsung or Google phone has a better camera. I won't believe that Fake News and I've drunk so much of the Apple Kool-Aide that all my dress shirts are stained and my teeth are Apple colored.
25 comments:
Yes!!
Phones can be fun!
And they’re always, where you are... ehhh... mostly ;-)
Keep safe!
Bravo! Bravissimo!, no less. I eagerly await your detailed appraisal of the next phone camera.
Hopefully, it will be a multi-lens model and one which can withstand the temptations of updating for several years. Then you can dive into FilmicPro and ND filters for full control of video and make it all complicated again.
I’m looking at various attachments to make the iPhone a bit less slippery and to get that stray finger out of the upper left corner of my shots.
Don’t count me as a lost case yet, though. I finally got a Fotodiox adapter which allows the use of the 55mm lens from my 50-year old Pentax Spotmatic on the G9 and am having a great time getting reacquainted with shooting fully manual.
Ah, the Bat bridge...
Do you have any pictures of the bats?
You can't really go to bed every night before dusk can you?
“... and make it all complicated again.”
Hilarious! Made my day! A day worth living ;-)
Keep safe!
Come to the Dark Side....
Seriously, I sold all of my Olympus gear back in November because my iPhone 11 Pro Max was outstripping most of it. Loved the cameras and lenses in a tactile sense, but for the kind of shooting I do, street, travel and documentation, it just couldn't compete. I'd make the argument that the newer iPhones are the Leica M3 of our day. Wait for the 12 Pro before you jump.
Bad situation with no win-win solution, either destroy the economy and everyones lives or shutdown for health reasons. Glad it is not my decision.
If you want to get fancy with RAW or manual controls on your phone, check out Halide, or for long exposures generated computationally, Spectre Camera. They are a couple bucks each, work well, and very nicely designed.
Hey Unknown, That's the problem with political discussions around health issues. Everyone wants to break it down to a binary, "either or" kind of calculus. But it's instructive to look outside our country (which is less than 5% of the world's population) to see how more advanced countries are handling the same pandemic. Countries that are not as wealthy as ours are supplementing worker's lost wages up to 80% for a much longer period of time. Few in other countries need to worry about going broke if they need healthcare. Other countries have better social safety nets. Citizens of other countries are united in their approach to prevention and masking.
We could open up Texas and the economy if we were willing to do it safely. But a few Yahoos who misunderstand their "Constitutional Rights" have basically fucked it up for everyone else. Next time you hear that we had to shut the businesses down again just look to the degenerates in the red hats and blame them, not the hardworking people wearing their masks and washing their hands.
You have a right to swing your arms around until you hit me in the face. Then your "Constitutional Rights" fly off into the ether and we correct you. Forcefully.
Just saying. If we want to do this right we close the bars, close the non-essential businesses and make the wearing of masks in public mandatory. A month or two after we ALL do that you can pretty much count on opening it up. But if the selfish people don't comply then we'll be in the "start and go" mode until we get a workable vaccine. There's the real choice.
Brian B. Thanks for the info. I'll certainly be checking out Halide.
You might consider evaluating and reporting on the various add-on lenses and accessories at https://www.shopmoment.com/ .
Hypocam for black and white. Camera + or Halide for RAW. RNI Film or Snapseed for post processing. Filmic Pro for video. The native camera app on the 11pro is very good too. I’m using my 11pro more and more. In good light it’s pretty terrific and I have a case that’s good for stability. The iPhone is very much part of my approach now.
Certainly not a binary issue but from a personal point of view a lot of people have lost jobs and businesses. Not saying that shut down was not proper or necessary to flatten the curve but pain is still pain. As I stated before glad the decision is not mine but shutting bars and mandating masks seems a good step.
You’re in the Adobe universe are you not? Just install Lightroom for iPhone. It has a camera that does shoots raw (dng) and HDR and long exposure. You can adjust the photos On the phone in the same way you would on your desktop and the files will sync down to your desktop where you can do Photoshop if need be. You can even process them directly in LR and/or PS on an iPad if you’d prefer since the pictures are available in the Adobe cloud.
Seeing the bats amscray at the bat bridge was one of the highlights of my last trip to Austin a few years ago. What a party with all of the tourists crammed together to see them at sunset. I sure hope that the park is closed now. In San Francisco's Delores Park, the park department has painted white circles to aid in social distancing. I've heard that it's working quite well and people are very respectful with staying within their circles.
Being reluctant to stop using my Lumix lenses I'm just hoping that some of all that clever computational photography will find its way into an M4/3 body. I'm also reluctant to keep buying the latest top-end phone when I will never use all its features.
Ditto what James said about Lightroom. I have the app on my older iPhone 6. It works well most times. (I do have to restart the phone every blue moon when the photo I just took doesn't appear in the gallery).
You can adjust shutter speed, ISO and set a timer without much fuss. The photos look better (to me) than the iPhone camera app.
I still prefer editing photos on a desktop so I export the image there for post processing. The sliders in the app are straightforward if phone editing is preferred.
How the world is changing.
First really noticed your self portrait below the “bat-bridge” today.
These days it signals safety, concern for others - brains!
A year ago, this image would have signaled immediate danger! A hold-up or worse.
How the world is changing.
Wearing a mask is not a political statement ... It's an IQ test (somebody said)
I still use a Sony Xperia smartphone I acquired in 2014. It proved early on to have quite a good camera for stills and video use. Your photos prove that smartphone cameras do the job as well as regular cameras in a lot of circumstances. My Xperia is quite beaten up and is developing various issues - and I am looking to replace it. The photographer/videographer in me leans towards the iPhone 11 Pro. The miser in me leans towards the new iPhone SE. I don't think photographers, serious or otherwise, can overlook the smartphone camera as another tool in the toolbox - even if it is a tool for personal use.
Congratulations on your "switch to a new system".
Welcome to the world of phone photography!
While the phone camera is certainly convenient for walk-around snaps, I became aware three years ago what a wonderful, creative tool it is for more serious photography. (You are limited, of course, in how you use the final image due to the sensor size.)
Here are the 2019 Mobile Phone Awards - this is the architecture-design awards section:
https://mobilephotoawards.com/architecture-design-winners-9th-annual-mpa/
If your browser permits, you can view the camera info and software used by r-clicking on the image and selecting "image properties" or the like.
The first photograph, for example, uses a HUAWEI VOG-L09
Software used: Adobe Photoshop 21.0 (Macintosh)
Richard
And, once gain, you explain so clearly why Olympus is the latest victim of Apple, etc. I say this as a dedicated Oly OMD user since they first camera came out on 2012. I have some medical conditions that make it hard for me to both hold a camera and hold it steady. The Olympus IBIS saved my photography life. I'd love to see an iPhone I could hold as steady and as easily as my OMD.
Before you sell all your "real" cameras and go over to the iPhone side, take another walk in the early and late evening and make some twilight and other challengingly "dark" images. In my experience much of the greatness I see in well lit images sort of fades away.
Used cameras aren't worth much any more so I'll keep the lot I have. As to phones, thanks for the warning. I'll head out on the first clear night and do some photos. I might bring along a small tripod just to even the playing field....
This is a timely post for me as I’ve also found myself using my phone camera more and more, especially since I recently upgraded and bought one with a second “telephoto” lens. It’s not really telephoto, more like a 50mm equivalent, but it matches my way of seeing perfectly and I use it all the time. The computational wizardry behind these cameras is amazing and the only time I’ve had a poorly exposed shot was when I switched to manual control and screwed it up myself!
As I’m not an Adobe subscriber I use Snapseed to process the pictures and then they go straight to my Instagram account. I like Snapseed’s conversions and, for a freebie app, it has quite a sophisticated toolset.
Ogawd -- now Kirk is going to start switching phone systems. :)
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