Tuesday, May 10, 2016

I-Phone Photography


I am a professional portrait photographer, but never took many photos
with my phone!   For an upcoming European vacation,
I decided to challenge myself to learn how to take great phone photos.

I have the I-Phone 5 and first I practiced in my own backyard using
the default camera on the phone.  

It is SO different from my DSLR, but quite liberating to simply click
the shutter.

I really loved how it captured this flower against the sunrise!


This is how my Canon 5D Mark 3 captured it with my 50mm f1.4 lens.


I really love the wider angle lens on the camera.

Then I downloaded the camera app called Camera+.
You take the photos right from this app and it allows you 
to set shutter speed, ISO, and more.  It was very easy to learn and 
costs $2.99 for the app...Worth it!

After lots of practice with Camera+, I downloaded some
editing apps.   I really love Snapseed for basic editing and
some nice filters.  That's where I begin editing.

I edited this drab photo:


Into this with just a few easy clicks!   Pretty swell!!!


 I LOVE a photo editing app called Pixelmator!
You can actually CLONE with this app.

I tried it with this photo on the beach.  I wanted to remove
that boat trailer.


I used my finger as a mouse to clone and in an instant...
the boat trailer was gone!   It's not perfect, but pretty dang
great on my phone with my finger!

This app is pricey at $4.99, but worth it!



With an app called After Focus I was able to swipe over the background
in this next photo with my finger to blur it.

I do miss playing with depth-of-field, so this app helps me achieve
similar results for 99-cents in the app store.

I added the sun flare with an app called Lens Distortion .
It has lots of lens flares, fog overlays, and more and is free in the app store!



I also enjoy a free app called PhotoWonder that includes
lots of  facial beautifying features including skin smoothing and
thinifying!   It works like the liquify tool in photoshop.
   I did love all the special effects and decorations
that come with this app.

I am astonished at the macro capability of my I-Phone camera!
I simply used the sharpening feature in Snapseed for the center
of these flowers.  Snapseed also has a healing brush!








Can't wait to share the phone photos I take in Europe!
Meanwhile, download some of these fun editing apps and
create some great photos with your phone!

2 comments:

  1. My Question is how do these photos look after you print them at say an 8x10 or bigger size?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Pam, It really depends on which phone camera you use and the number of megapixels. For example: The iphone 5 has 8 megapixels and the iphone 6 has 12.
    You can usually squeeze out an 8 X 10 with fairly good quality with the earlier phone models, and you can print much larger with the megapixel 12 phone cameras.

    ReplyDelete