PHOTOGRAPHY EXPOSED
by John Peters A.R.P.S.
SMARTPHONES
Taken with a smartphone leaning on the car window sill, late afternoon in December. What knowledge and equipment would you need when using a DSLR?
What can I say about smartphones in relation to photography? The technology in smartphones today, has advanced beyond much DSLR technology. OK smartphones are fairly new compared to DSLR's or mirrorless camera's, so smartphones are going to adopt the latest technology. When we take into account AI, optical telephoto lenses, massive sensors, fancy algorithmes, cheap but effective apps, little wonder we are presented with top class photographs, day and night.
Let me ask you, what are the things you grab when leaving the house? Probably your wallet, your car keys and your phone. There you have it, your phone, also a camera. With the latest smart phones offering large resolution, probably as high if not higher than your camera, you have with you, the ideal photographic tool. Who needs a DSLR? Seriously though, with the kind of resolution on offer, editing, cropping, enlarging, has never been easier.
Apps and addons such as tripods, filters, magic arms and more can be bought at a fraction of the price of the DSLR or Compact equivalent. One app I purchased does away with a tripod and allows the use of slow shutter speeds, very useful. Ive tried panning, used filters on a phone, even neutral density filters to allow motion blur. OK I only have the use of one arm and hand but I'd choose software generated blur anytime, panning or motion blur with a phone is extremely hard to do.
We all feel some satisfaction knowing our phone came out tops, when compared to x, y, z. The truth is, buy any smartphone from one of the well known makers, the camera will be very good. Take these comparison videos on 'youtube' with a pinch of salt. Look at them by all means, but don't pay them too much notice. What do 5 or 10 points in a rating equate to in the real world? Not much.
One major advantage of smartphones is they are designed to work at a large aperture, they have a better D.O.F. at large apertures when compared to a DSLR camera, above all, they are designed to elliminate camera shake which probably ruins more DSLR photographs than any other factor.
I had to sell all of my DSLR eguipment when I survived a brainstem stroke in 2014. I narrowly cheated death but being a determined sort of person, I've progressed and still do photography, using a smartphone. After all, composition is king!
Taken with the wide angle lens on a smartphone. A good sky makes for an interesting photo, note the leading lines of the field that take your eyes to the horizon in the distance. Composition and placement of the camera are so important. Photographed handheld from a mobility buggy as are most of my photos.
Again, taken with the wide angle lens on a smartphone. Contrasting colours help this photo, the reflections add to the image too. The composition is helped by the ramp leading your eye up and to the horizon, broken by the chimney and lighthouse. A good sky adds to the scene. A few seconds later, the chap noticed me taking his picture from the car and stopped hosing. I was in a public place, so there was not much he could do anyway. At some point, especially if you try street-photography, it pays to learn the laws on photography.
Again, taken with the wide angle lens on a smartphone. A change of viewpoint, high up on a bridge straddling the A1 looking towards Eyemouth. The road makes a superb 'leading line' taking your eye through the photo to the horizon. Ive tried panning on a smartphone (advanced), I've tried using ND filters (advanced), but the feeling of speed on the cars was created in free software using motion blur and layers. See paint.net for a more detailed explanation. One of my most favourite photographs taken with a smartphone. Not bad for a one handed stroke survivor!
Again, taken with a smartphone. Another of my most favourite smartphone images. As I said, composition is king. This one reminds me of the Ukranian flag, blue and yellow. Who needs a polarising lens (advanced)? The colours were enhanced in Fastone, the clouds burnt-in a bit in Affinity photo version 1 and the contrast applied in Fastone. Paint.net layers were usedwith the graduated opion to vary the sky a bit. Pain.net and Fastone are available and usable for free, and Affinity version 1 was bought and owned for £ 25, compare to Photoshop or other 'paid for' products. Yes I'm a 'tight jock' but we all like a bargain! I guess describing how each photo was taken, replaces the need for top tips. See Faststone (F page) and Paint.net (P page) for my use in detail. You won't see that on other tutorial sites.
Monochrome, taken on a smartphone in colour, converted to Monochrome in FASTSTONE, free software. (See under F). Heavily burned and dodged to emphasise the light and shadows. Darkened at the edges and corners using the VIGNETTE option in PAINT.NET, again, its free to use, who needs Photoshop? The old photographers used a vignette quite frequenly. Check out some Cart De Visite photo cards produced by the old studio togs. A vignette can be low key or high key, both are effective at controlling the eye to help concentrate on the subject matter
This smartphone photo illustrates Depth Of Field perfectly. On some phones, it is given a fancy name. One manufacturer calls it PORTRAIT mode, other manufacturers have their own term for it. On an iPhone, you may take a photo at a large aperture, save it, then adjust it to use a small aperture ( say F16 - Large DOF), you can save this version too. So from one photo at say F1.8, you can create a second photo at F16, quite a handy feature. Huawei actually have a lens with an actual aperture ring on it, allowing you to vary the Depth Of Field (DOF) using the aperture just like a DSLR. Some of the Apps and algorithms in phones are way too good and getting better all the time.
Notice how the foreground in this photo is sharp, but the objects in the distance are slightly blurred. DOF again, used to advantage in this shot.
Huawei also further developed the PERISCOPE lens, a true opical telephoto lens but designed to fit in a phone. Notice on your average 135mm telephoto lens, there is usually a bit of space between the front elements and the rear elements, the challenge is how to reproduce this in a narrow smartphone. The answer, build it sideways. Many smartphones have a zoom option that is digital, using an algorithm. Huawei offer a good and true optical zoom or telephoto option way in advance of many other manufacturers. These other manufacturers must rely on a big sensor used with some type of algorithm for digital zoom.
Its important to know the difference between optical and digital zoom. Ideally, you want a good optical zoom capability, not just digital zoom capability. This becomes really important when comparing to a DSLR. Your standard lens may be 50mm on a DSLR with your average tele lens coming in with a focal length of say 135mm, roughly 2 1/2 times that of your standard lens. On a phone, you are looking for at least 2 or 2 1/2 times optical zoom on the tele option to equate to a 135mm tele lens on a DSLR. Having said that, digital zoom is pretty good now.
This photograph was taken on a smartphone mounted on a mini-tripod costing just a few pounds. It came with a bluetooth remote iphone camera release, so that I could fire the camera without touching it which would have added vibration. I also used an app costing just a few pounds that almost made my smartphone function like a DSLR. The imortant thing was I was able to select a very slow shutter speed to induce movement into the turbine blades. This also illustrates the fact that this smartphone, an iPhone 11 pro actually takes 9 shots to produce the best shot. You can see blurring of the blades before the main shot, blurring or individual shots of the turbine blades after the main shot. To get the best possible output, the phone actually rapidly takes several photos and combines them together. The result is a highly detailed image with accurate contrast levels. An HDR photo, some refer to this feature as 'Deep Fusion', AI gone mad? Perhaps this and the following image should appear under 'composition'.
This is the previous example with simple elements added illustrating aspects of composition, enhancing the photograph. Who needs a DSLR? I'm joking really, I would pick a DSLR or mirrorless camera over a smartphone if I were serious about producing large scale images. This was an early shot when I was learning about smartphones. I now prefer HUAWEI over an IPHONE.
Huawei or Iphone, Samsung or Google, don't waste any of your time watching one of these "comparison" or "best of" type reviews - the simple answer - they are all good and take brilliant photos and videos. These review type sites or Youtube videos tend to follow a strict sequence, but dont always cover what is important to you or me. I use an IPHONE 15 PRO MAX for day to day stuff but for photos, the HUAWEI P60 PRO is tops for me. Things like a "floating shutter" or "voice shutter activation" or "pro-settings" swing it for me but each to their own! By the way, Google apps can be installed on a HUAWEI, no problem. What Apple doesn't broadcast, 48 Megapixels are only available on 1X mode, which is kind of a cheat. The Huawei outstrips the IPHONE in general resolution. Don't believe everything you are told by smart marketing. Apple have been at it a long time - they are good!