The iPhone 6 for serious photography
As much as I love using my NEX 6 Sony mirrorless camera for the quality and the experience of using a proper camera to shoot photos, sometimes it is very quick and handy to whip out the iPhone and take the picture. I do find that it is faster to get to the point where I can shoot a photo with the iPhone. There is a little slider that you can use from the lock screen which will take you directly into the camera application so that you can be ready to shoot within seconds. There are times when I could have the iPhone out of my pocket, picture taken and the phone back in the pocket before I would have got the proper camera booted up and ready to take the picture. Photography though is not just about quick snapshots, it is also about considered photos capturing a specific scene, a delightful composition, a special moment that needs to be set up just right or a piece of photographic art. There is absolutely no reason at all why you shouldn’t use the iPhone to do this sort of photographic work in many situations.
ShoulderPod S1 for iPhoneography
When to use the camera on the phone and when to use the big sensor camera
Seeing as photography is all about catching light, the first question to be asked is about how much light do we have for our photograph. If we have the best light where we know we are going to get a great picture whatever camera use, then why not use the megapixels on our camera phone. We can take advantage of the touchscreen where we can set focusing and the exposure control using our fingers on the screen. Yes, I know there are some cameras that do have touchscreens also.
[Tweet “Serious photography with a serious bit of kit.”]
Always in the pocket.
Another advantage of the iPhone camera is that you always have it with you. I know that my iPhone is always in my pocket and it is good to know that photography is always with me. Well, not always because if the light is low then I know I’m not going to get a good picture from my iPhone. The images get very grainy, very quickly. There are some applications that you can use which will give you more control such as Camera Plus and it is very easy to change from shooting photos to shooting video. With Camera Plus I like the way that I could set the camera up to connect with my iPad. I can put the iPhone in a specific position where I would not be able to see what the camera is seeing, but then connected to the iPad over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth I would be able to control the iPhone camera from the iPad. It is another creative option available.
Camera apps I have on my iPhone and iPad now
- Camera Plus
- HDR
- Pencil Camera
- Photosphere
- Paper camera
- Apple iOS camera app
- Is the gram
- Slow Shutter
- ProCam XL
- VSCOCAM
- Hyperlapse
- Capture
- KinoMatic
- Spark
- FiLMiC Pro
Some of these applications on the list are more suited to or dedicated to shooting iPhone video. The application I use most of all would be the Apple iOS Camera App and this is because it is the application most easy to get at. It is also the application most used because I am accustomed to the way it works. It is also easy to use and I would have to spend less time researching what each of the settings can do.
Getting the settings correct.
One of the problems of using different applications for different photographic situations is that it is very easy to mess a photo by having the incorrect settings. This could be that the last time you used the application you changed some of the settings to suit a specific purpose. The next time that you pick it up, those settings that were saved from the last time no longer apply to the type of photo you want to take. What would be really handy on any of these photo applications would be to have a button that would quickly take you back to default settings.
The Photosphere and also the HyperLapse application are specific to a specialised branch of photography. I really enjoy taking the photos where it is as if you were inside a bubble and you can do a 360° view of your situation. It is great to be able to post these onto Google+ so that other people can see what it was that you saw.
The joys of iPhone photography
I won’t be giving up my Sony NEX 6 camera any time soon. In fact, only yesterday I took it to my favourite beach nearby and used it for taking photos. I was able to shoot with a long lens of surfers out on the waves. The iPhone 6 camera is good but would not have worked as well for that photo event. What is really good is to have choices of which kit to use for whatever situation and the iPhone 6 is good for that. It gives me extra creative options as well as being the camera that I always have about my person. Long live iPhoneography!
