Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
It doesn’t seem that long ago that we tried to revive wet smartphones by sticking them in a bag of rice and hoping for the best.
Now, most modern smartphones are “water-resistant.” If water gets into them, they won’t be destroyed, like in years past. Still, we’re not supposed to dunk them in the water. But try telling that to kids.
Earlier this year, Apple announced that it would scan your iPhone and iCloud photos for child sexual abuse. A fierce backlash ensued, and now it looks like that the company has ditched the project completely without telling anyone.
Common sense says you pick up the iPhone, open the camera app and just start shooting. That’ll work, but there happens to be so many settings and features hidden within these phones that stump way too many people, even some of us pros sometimes.
Thus, I was inspired to jot them all down and explain them one by one, with tips on what I think are the best settings for each one of my top 13. And I’m singling out the iPhone here because A., I’m an iPhone user, B. I think the 13 Pro is far and away the best smartphone camera on the market and C. if you’d like me to do a follow-up on Android, just say the word!
To begin, let’s assume you’ve updated to iOS 15, the latest operating system. Next, open the camera app. Here’s what you’ll see, and what I recommend.
For years, Apple’s iPhone Live Photos has been my favorite smartphone camera trick. But now the tricks are seemingly gone!
There’s always a lot of fuss made about the cameras whenever a new iPhone is released or… pretty much any smartphone these days, really. But are they as good as many people think they are? Well, probably not as this video from the folks at Corridor Crew demonstrate in this video.
In it, they put the iPhone 12 Pro Max (they didn’t have the iPhone 13 Pro Max in time to make this) up against the original iPhone. Yes, the one from 2007. They put the images through some AI algorithms to see if the quality of the original can come even close to a modern iPhone and yeah, it kinda does.
The reaction I’ve gotten from people watching my latest #shotonaniPhone Photowalks video episode has been across the board.
“What camera did you use to shoot this? It looks amazing.” That was the first comment. My sentiment too.
This is related to the one key new feature of the latest iPhone, which is “Cinematic Mode.” It allows the photographer to blur the background as we do in Portrait Mode for iPhone stills, or by shooting with a small F stop on our cameras.
The new iPhone 13 Pro has some pretty cool new specs, including a macro lens. Sure, it can be of great help for us photographers, but have you ever thought that it could help a doctor in his job? An ophthalmologist Dr. Tommy Korn has recently demonstrated how the iPhone 13 Pro’s macro eye photography helps him and his patients, and it’s really fun to see (no pun intended) how phone photography can be repurposed.
There’s been a lot of hype about the camera in the latest crop of iPhones from Apple. And it seems that it’s been somewhat justified. At least, certainly more justified than past iPhone releases, that have turned out to not be quite as good as most of their Android contemporaries. The new iPhones look to have seen some decent camera upgrades.
With the iPhone 13, there are four different models, offering a couple of different camera arrays and Apple’s put together this seven-and-a-half-minute video to help you figure out which model is right for you. While the video does talk about other factors like battery performance and construction, the overwhelming majority of the video is focused on its photography and video abilities.
Apple has warned iPhone users not to attach their phones to motorcycles or scooters if they value the camera function. High amplitude vibrations at particular frequencies can degrade the phone’s camera systems over time.
Apple released a long and very specific support document on Friday called “Exposure to vibrations, like those generated by high-powered motorcycle engines, might impact iPhone cameras.” The high-frequency vibrations caused by these vehicles can seriously mess up the functioning of the built-in camera system, gradually degrading the phone’s optical image stabilization, or OIS, and closed-loop autofocus systems.
Right after announcing that it would scan your devices and iCloud for child sexual abuse images, Apple faced a strong backlash. So strong, in fact, that the company has decided to postpone the controversial feature. At least for a while.
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