Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Apple ProRAW is Apple’s latest technological addition to the smartphone photography industry and sets a new starting point for iPhone photography with its introduction to the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max in iOS 14.3.
It is no mystery that smartphone photography is increasingly replacing cameras in many situations: myself, who have been promoting it for at least 10 years, I’ve seen a crazy evolution in this sector.
Sony has launched a new Visual Story app for iOS aimed squarely at wedding and event photographers. Or at least, ones that shoot Sony cameras. It allows for easy editing, gallery creation, cloud storage and web delivery solutions to get your images to your clients as quickly as possible.
Visual Story is a free app for Sony & iOS users. It utilises automated image transfer from compatible Sony mirrorless cameras to the cloud, after which users can instantly edit and deliver digital albums to their clients. And to help you with camera metadata and image selection, it uses AI to help pick your best images.
Smartphone vlogging has gotten quite popular over the last couple of years, but it has one big flaw. Not with all phones, but most of them. And that’s that you can’t use your high-quality rear camera if you want to see your composition. You’re stuck using the selfie camera which isn’t always that great.
Well, now, thanks to the new Ulanzi ST-09, if you use an iPhone and have an Apple Watch, you can mount the two back-to-back so that you can use the better quality rear camera on your phone and see a live view preview at the same time.
Apple recently announced the developer beta for iOS 14.3 which brings with it Apple’s new ProRAW photo feature. iPhones have actually had DNG RAW capabilities since iOS 10, but it’s never offered this capability in the built-in camera app before. You’ve always had to go for third party solutions, like Camera+ or Lightroom.
But now, Apple is implementing it in their own camera app and they’re calling it “ProRAW”. And according to PetaPixel, the cameras within the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will allow it to capture 12-bit DNG files with up to 14-stops of dynamic range. Other than the capabilities of the actual camera module itself, though, I’m not sure what it offers that iPhone users couldn’t do already.
Even though I’m not an Apple fangirl, I have to admit that the iPhone has come a long way when it comes to camera capabilities. It’s the only smartphone that supports Dolby Vision, so Apple wanted to demonstrate what it can do. In this one-minute ad, you can see a preview of all the crazy, creative, and unexpected ways an iPhone 12 Pro can be used in a Hollywood movie.
The most hotly debated topic I see about iPhones isn’t how good (or bad) the cameras are, but it’s still the fact that they removed the headphone jack, like 5 generations ago. Some have come to terms with it, although it can make things a little difficult for those iPhone filmmakers who want to use external microphones. Well, it’s getting a little easier as of today.
Rode has announced that the Rode VideoMic NTG is now fully compatible with all lightning-equipped iOS devices. The VideoMic NTG is now officially MFi-certified and you just need the new Rode SC15 Type-C USB to Apple Lightning cable (and a firmware update) to make it all work.
No matter what brand of phone you choose to use yourself, the biggest spectacle in the smartphone world each year is undoubtedly the new iPhone releases. This year, that meant the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro (well, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max, but that’s not available yet). And, following on from that announcement is the obligatory teardown from iFixit.
In an hour and a half live stream, Taylor Dixon, iFixit’s Teardown Engineer, took apart both the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro to see how easy it is to dismantle and to take a look at the components inside – including the camera modules (the camera talk is around the 44-minute mark).
I’m not an Apple fanboy by any stretch of the imagination. Before the iPhone 3GS was released, I hadn’t owned an Apple product since the Apple IIe, and I haven’t owned iPhones in a few years now, either. But I have to say, this footage from aerial photographer and filmmaker Toby Harriman shot on the new iPhone 12 Pro is just gorgeous.
Toby was given the chance to test out the newly announced iPhone 12 Pro to see how the hardware handled the challenges of his typical shoots – which means shooting from a helicopter. So, that’s what he did, filming from the air over the beautiful San Francisco bay.
Do you ever get the unexplainable feeling that someone is watching you? Well, that’s because they just might. But if you’ve updated your iPhone to iOS 14, you may now be able to tell when this is happening and delete the apps that activate your phone’s camera in the background.
They say 13 is an unlucky number, but the 2020 iPhone Photography Awards (IPPAWARDS) proves the theory wrong. The 13th annual competition winners have been announced, and they’re absolutely gorgeous. I always love seeing winners of this contest because they prove what I often say – gear doesn’t matter, it’s all about the photographer.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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