iPhone Photography
I recently got an iPhone 3GS, the camera that’s built into the phone is a pretty big disappointment for someone who shoots dSLR for the past year. 3MP, super-noisy at even ISO 400, no manual control… it’s a mess. Now, big lenses and big cameras are super cool, and they take amazing pictures. But this post is about living with the tiny camera on the iPhone, or any camera phone for that matter.
Lesson 1: Know the limit of your camera, and don’t even try to push pass it, or you’ll just be disappointed.
Small cameras are known for their low dynamic range, so to get the most out of this sunset, I took two images at different exposure and merged them together with Pro HDR, right on the phone. This increased the dynamic range to at least 8 stops, making it equal to that of a dSLR. Then a bit of contrast and saturation boost completed the look.
This picture came out very bland at first, but a few tweaks in TiltShiftGen made it marginally passable. There are enough apps in the Apple Appstore to edit your photo into oblivion and back. Some of my favorite apps are Pro HDR, TiltShiftGen and Best Camera.
What the tiny camera lacks in light-gathering ability, it makes up by upping the vibrancy. iPhone photos are usually a lot more vibrant and contrasty than what you get out of a high-end dSLR. Use this to your advantage.
You CAN throw the background out of focus even on a tiny sensor like the iPhone camera, but only if you are shooting in macro. Just be patient with the focus, it can take a while to get the razor sharp image that you wanted.
That’s all for now, I am still discovering the capability of the iPhone camera. Let me know if you have any tips regarding digital photography.






