Posted on 04/27/2015 12:29:59 AM PDT by Swordmaker
We talk to professional photographer Julian Calverley about making art with a phone -- and the importance of Instagram.
See the photo on the linked site:
Julian Calverley
Taking photos has long been one of the main selling points of the iPhone, but mobile photography has largely remained the realm of enthusiastic amateurs, populating Instagram and other social networks with artful snapshots. With their lower resolution and lack of upgradeable lenses, phones haven't played a big role in professional photography.
Commercial photographer Julian Calverley, however, views his iPhone as more than just a casual tool. More accustomed to working with clients such as Audi and Aston Martin on large advertising photo shoots, Calverley has embraced his iPhone on his landscape shoots, resulting in not only an exhibition, but also a printed book featuring shots taken only with his trusty mobile.
I caught up with him to find out more.
You're used to using very high-end photography equipment, so what was the appeal of using an iPhone? "I've been on Instagram for a while, encouraged by a friend of mine -- he said it's good fun and there's a good community going. It's the first time ever I'd used my phone to take pictures. I sort of got into it and it just grew and grew. I was quite surprised at just how much I enjoyed using it.
"It was a new-found freedom really. This thing was always in my pocket -- in the past, everything was thought about. I had to think, 'OK, I'm going to take my camera out, I'm going to take X amount of gear with me.'
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
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I am hardly a pro. I am touring Holland now. I use my iPhone primarily. Take out the Sony Nex7 for low light and shallow depth of field shots, relatively rarely.
Sorry, but this just conjures up the one Cheaters Episode where this ‘photographer’ cheater had two skanks in Bikinis out in his Texas rental house backyard in a kiddie pool and was making them ‘models’ into cover girls! Funny as hell, they caught him drunk with his camera phone in the midst of the session. Good show.
I am very partial to film. Anything that has such minimal resolution makes me long for the incredible potential of film. A 35mm negative has the digital equivalent of 175 mega pixels, which is way over the resolution of the high end DSLR. To me it is like trying to do great photography with a Brownie camera when you have a Nikon FM3a.
I will continue to deep freeze film for my Hasselblad 500CM and run them through a scanner after processing for a top resolution of 6400 x 9600 dpi or 500 mega pixels.
I shake too much for the lightweight smart phone camera. The galaxy does well for what it is when I’m steady enough.
I’m used to a 35 SLR body and I guess I will until they go away.
Early this year I switched from Canon to Panasonic and love the Lumix. I still haven’t touched on all the features.
A weekend back there was one of those charity run/walks (I walk) in a rock quarry. The sky was so questionable so I left the lumix at home and took the galaxy. It did OK.
Any pro who couldn’t do good work with my Galaxy 5 or 6 or whateverthehell it is is no pro. However, as a tool it would narrow what he could do considerably. Pro’s don’t just “take pictures” they compose them.
I’m one of the few dinosaurs who still has a home darkroom. But, finding film and darkroom supplies is becoming a challenge.
It just sits in my photo drawer, gathering dust.
I have a Sony NEX-7 camera with APS-C sensor. The link below shows it is 54% of the size of a 35mm full size sensor. All the major manufacturers are going to offer mirrorless sized cameras with full frame sensor this year. That size is same as the old film 35mm.
Much better resolution then any camera cell phone.
My LG G3 cell phone does take great photos and video but only if the subject is close. Example is of a hawk I took video of sitting on a tree branch maybe 20ft away. It was not as sharp as my NEX-7 would have been able to take by far. I wish I had my NEX-7 camera. The positive is I always carry the cell phone. If you are using your photos on the internet then a cell phone probably is all you need.
Sony NEX-7 test video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BOVtX4G4MY I bought mine at Ebay and saved a lot. If you get this then you would be better off buying a better lens as the 18-55mm lens kit lens is not as sharp as the one Sony offers for sale to replace it, the 16-50mm lens which is much sharper.
Mirrorless Camera Sensor Size Comparison
http://www.photographerslounge.org/threads/11266/
Physical dimensions of sensors
https://mattsassamatt.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/sensor-size7.png
From the article:
“My actual commercial advertising work is still all done on the Alpa. My commercial clients want everything to be as big as possible, they want to be able to crop it long and thin for a website, tall and thin for an exhibition stand — they want everything out of a single shot and the iPhone’s resolution simply doesn’t offer that.”
Instead of photographers, they are called "phonographers".
Agreed, when you need quality the phone camera doesn’t do it. Also, you lose all the manual controls of a better camera.
Bottom line, you might better use a compact dslr with manual features, compact, light and attaches to your belt.
The world sure has changed, digital is great, but not a replacement for the resolution you cited.
Everything has it’s place. COnvenience has it’s drawbacks, like in music the mp3 simply is not the best audio, but it is convenient.
There is a lot of digital control of the image both before and after the fact and certain automation of the lens and process of taking the pic etc.
A pro would fool around with the camera and figure out what it could do in terms of the actual intentions of the camera’s designer as well as the unintentional effects. People in audio, film, video do this all the time. No one could use one of these things as his main unit no matter how shockingly sharp and bright the pictures are. (And they ARE!)
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