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So I want to throw out something quickly - just because someone claims a photo has been shot on an iPhone doesn't mean that they shot it in the same way as you

by safog 7y ago

So I want to throw out something quickly - just because someone claims a photo has been shot on an iPhone doesn't mean that they shot it in the same way as you or I would. Lots of people have special lenses that they attach in front of the iPhone camera lens to get a macro / wide angle view. They almost always shoot RAW with an app that supports this. They also use a mini tripod to stabilize the photo and use techniques like long exposure. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEH38ZxUYAQDPBT?format=jpg&name=900x900 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEH38ZxUYAQDPBT?format=jpg&name=... There's also a lot of editing skill that goes into this - a photographer won't simply take whatever processing the phone comes up with use it out of the box. I personally use the lightroom mobile camera to capture RAW photos and play around a bit with curves, exposure, hsl etc. to get the look I want. I assume if they're a pro photographer, they move the RAW photo to the PC / iPad and add some photoshop magic as well. The output (depends on the photographer ofcourse but for the ones I like) looks very natural and doesn't have the same look as simply applying an instagram filter on top of an iPhone camera shot image. Obviously the composition etc., that folks are talking about matter a lot as well but IMO, these days camera hardware is so good that you can get all sorts of detail out of what you assumed was a blown out camera RAW. Crops work fairly well too because of how high-res the photos are, so if you're not too pleased with your initial composition, crop + photoshop fixes will get you a long way. As a whole, photography these days is about 70% editing and 30% photo taking technique (lighting, composition, aperture, shutter speed, iso etc.)

nicoburns 7y ago
> people have special lenses that they attach in front of the iPhone camera lens to get a macro / wide angle view To be fair, one of the things highlighted in this review is that the new iPhone has this functionality built in. Everyone (with this phone) has a wide angle view now.
- wlesieutre 7y ago
  To nitpick a bit, the standard iPhone lenses have always been wide angle. The new ones are ultrawide.
  - sib 7y ago
    True, but only by the standards of traditional photography... The standard iPhone lens (26mm) has always been pretty much normal for phone camera lenses. When Apple introduced the second lens (51mm), they called it "telephoto," even though that focal length is pretty much dead-on the traditional definition for a "standard" lens. No traditional photographer would call a 51mm lens a telephoto lens. So, for people who grew up with phones as their primary cameras, the new 13mm lens really is the first thing that they'd call a "wide angle" lens. /end_nitpick ;)
    - bydo 7y ago
      To continue this, “normal” is a technical term in photography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_lens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_lens
    - bt848 7y ago
      Can we please speak in terms of angle of view? Converting everything to "35mm SLR equivalent" focal lengths is tiresome and misleading. The main camera on an iPhone has a 70-degree field of view, which most people consider wide.
      - sib 7y ago
        While I agree with you (hobbyist DSLR photog with everything from 14mm to 500mm lenses) that field of view is more precise, I think most people don't know the correlation between the two. I'd say that far more people in the general population understand the 35mm equivalent. The main camera is a wide by traditional standards, but not by phone camera standards, where the main (primary, "normal") camera has always been a wide angle, so nobody whose primary camera is a phone would think of it as wide.
la_barba 7y ago
The author has claimed that these are unedited pictures. Do you have any information that contradicts this?
- safog 7y ago
  It seems very unlikely that they are unedited. Any link to that claim? I just re skimmed the article and didn’t find anything along those lines. For example I would guess this pic has some photoshop to emphasize the light and atleast some simple Lightroom. https://bit.ly/2kSXgc8 https://bit.ly/2kSXgc8
  - la_barba 7y ago
    Um, because the images have the text "Unedited Iphone XS" on them..? But ok, I don't want to go over and dissect every single image here. That is of no benefit to either of us. The larger point is your "let me throw something out" simply muddies the waters without basing it in fact. "I don't believe it" is not really a basis for making a claim about someones work, and actually is quite unfair to both the author and the audience. Sorry, I'm a bit touchy about photography like that ;)

by safog 7y ago

nicoburns 7y ago

> people have special lenses that they attach in front of the iPhone camera lens to get a macro / wide angle view To be fair, one of the things highlighted in this review is that the new iPhone has this functionality built in. Everyone (with this phone) has a wide angle view now.

wlesieutre 7y ago
To nitpick a bit, the standard iPhone lenses have always been wide angle. The new ones are ultrawide.
- sib 7y ago
  True, but only by the standards of traditional photography... The standard iPhone lens (26mm) has always been pretty much normal for phone camera lenses. When Apple introduced the second lens (51mm), they called it "telephoto," even though that focal length is pretty much dead-on the traditional definition for a "standard" lens. No traditional photographer would call a 51mm lens a telephoto lens. So, for people who grew up with phones as their primary cameras, the new 13mm lens really is the first thing that they'd call a "wide angle" lens. /end_nitpick ;)
  - bydo 7y ago
    To continue this, “normal” is a technical term in photography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_lens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_lens
  - bt848 7y ago
    Can we please speak in terms of angle of view? Converting everything to "35mm SLR equivalent" focal lengths is tiresome and misleading. The main camera on an iPhone has a 70-degree field of view, which most people consider wide.
    - sib 7y ago
      While I agree with you (hobbyist DSLR photog with everything from 14mm to 500mm lenses) that field of view is more precise, I think most people don't know the correlation between the two. I'd say that far more people in the general population understand the 35mm equivalent. The main camera is a wide by traditional standards, but not by phone camera standards, where the main (primary, "normal") camera has always been a wide angle, so nobody whose primary camera is a phone would think of it as wide.

la_barba 7y ago

The author has claimed that these are unedited pictures. Do you have any information that contradicts this?

safog 7y ago
It seems very unlikely that they are unedited. Any link to that claim? I just re skimmed the article and didn’t find anything along those lines. For example I would guess this pic has some photoshop to emphasize the light and atleast some simple Lightroom. https://bit.ly/2kSXgc8 https://bit.ly/2kSXgc8
- la_barba 7y ago
  Um, because the images have the text "Unedited Iphone XS" on them..? But ok, I don't want to go over and dissect every single image here. That is of no benefit to either of us. The larger point is your "let me throw something out" simply muddies the waters without basing it in fact. "I don't believe it" is not really a basis for making a claim about someones work, and actually is quite unfair to both the author and the audience. Sorry, I'm a bit touchy about photography like that ;)