Neal Osborn
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I had a half day off and played around with the iPhone for fly fishing and fly tying shots. Unfortunately (as expected) this is not a good macro camera for doing fly tying stuff. But it will get good exposure under natural lighting at a minimum focusing distance of about 1.5 feet provided there is not direct sunlit background.
The camera phones have a “sweet spot” for autofocus and the iPhone appears to have a matrix metering mechanism. If you rotate the phone on a horizontal axis then the exposure will compensate for the midtones. Again, avoid bright sunlit backgrounds or the metering will expose for the highlights and the mid/shadows will go to dark.
Post processing for these images: Noise reduction –> High pass sharpening –> Clarity –> Tone Curve –> Boost color 15%.
The Tibors
This is what happens if you have a bright background or sunlight – the camera will expose for the highlights and the mid/shadows will go dark. Avoid this situation to get better pictures. For the above image I rotated the field 90 degrees so the sun was camera left and the background was not back lit.
The flies
Artsy Fartsy
I have enjoyed this thread very much. Lot’s of good experience-based information here. Recently, I started a secondary business in medical macro photography and that has been a steep learning curve in itself. Luckily I was able to work on a robust project for a startup device company from the start. However, it doesn’t take long before the real world sets in and you realize that making images for others is a tough and thankless business. All that stuff about dealing with marketing and advertising representatives hits pretty hard when the project gets going and you realize everyone has an opinion and revision requests.
With that in mind, I quickly found it necessary to have a webpage for the clients to view the markups and videos. It was necessary to get a SmugMug account and learn CSS and Java. However, I learned through feedback that my original site design was too decorative and full of unnecessary galleries like fly fishing and “my interests” instead of the medical images that were the real money so to speak. Like my Grandad always said, “focus on what you’re good at.” Furthermore, the content of my images are fairly sensitive material to the casual observer, so I had to learn how to password protect the links and also copy-right/watermark images. It is now a very boring but functional webpage which is focused at the moment on medical anatomy and product images.
During the process of building the site I looked at hundreds of SmugMug community sites and learned that indeed most are nothing more than personal or semi-professional blog-and-family sites similar to what iWeb does anyway. Yet, there are some amazing Pro sites out there with images for sale. Having a personal site is invaluable to direct the clients for focused viewing but they can be distracting if not done properly.
I agree with David that nothing beats face-to-face contact!
Bill, these are indeed full sized images. The iPhone camera is actually not a good phone camera per se (compared to others out there), however, there are a few tricks to bring out the pop. My recipe is noted below followed by a few articles on iPhonagraphy.
1. Get the best image by holding the camera STILL.
2. I always brace the phone/camera against a wall or solid surface, hand-held just doesn’t work well with this camera.
3. Search for light. Seriously. Even in low-light you can move the camera around until you find the sweet spot. Avoid harsh light and bounce diffused light if possible (i.e. use a white plate or white shirt to reflect or diffuse. The camera sensor will respond better to diffused light.
4. Again, hold the camera still without any motion.Post Processing (LR).
1. First I reduce luminance noise.
2. Increase clarity about 30%
3. Increase the blacks via the black slider (often use a major adjustment here).
4. Increase saturation about 25%)
5. Adjust the tone curve, generally to a very subtle s-curve.
6. Sharpen, global and edges.A few examples from this morning.
Sushi the other night
Links
http://photocritic.org/amazing-iphone-photos/
http://www.iphonefootprint.com/2009/03/how-to-take-better-pictures-with-your-iphone-camera/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sionfullana/sets/72157606373779150/
http://photocritic.org/interview-with-an-iphone-photographer/
Photoshop is an amazing tool with tremendous flexibility for different professional applications. Like every other piece of technology it can be applied to different skill levels, from amateur to advanced. When used correctly it is indispensable. I have spent the last 6 months immersed in PS because it was necessary for tone mapping my medical macro images. Along the way I have seen tons of both good and bad examples of PS application for photography. An example of good application is the photographer who uses the technology to “subtly” enhance a photograph for photorealism – some of my best images have 15 or more layers, each with only a very subtle correction. An example of bad application, IMHO, is the use of filters without a solid understanding of the fundamentals of photography – don’t get me wrong, filters are fun and often very useful for saving time, but many people gravitate toward filters (e.g. HDR) without knowing when something looks “baked”. This discussion could go on forever without a conclusion . . .
I really like the examples Zach provided above. They have a place in publication and also the occasional edgy or pop effect adds variation to a slide show, etc. However, I know he employs these sparingly. That is the key. At my local camera club meetings I tend to quickly get annoyed when people flood my sensors with baked/filterized/fakey images.
Are we photographers or graphic designers? That is the question. Getting a good picture is a skill. Creating a graphic composite is a skill. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive but generally one is independent of the other. It is tempting to be both (very tempting once you get good at PS).
BAKED
NOT BAKED
BAKED
NOT BAKED
LUKE WARM (MICROWAVED) This is Tone Mapped to correct white balance, a bit on the fake side, there is only so much you do with an image that is lacking from the start.
BAKED
NOT BAKED
NOT BAKED
BAKED
WARMED (NOT BAKED) This image is exposure blended. Took forever (298mb file and 12 layers), still a bit on the “fake” side. After all that work I have come to dislike this picture but it taught me how to reshoot in the future.
BTW, David . . . Silver EFX Pro is an awesome filter. One of my favorites. The above B&W images where done in Silver EXF.
Mike that is great news, thanks for sharing. I know you have worked hard to apply the knowledge and the effort is being rewarded. Seeing your work in print is a great feeling.
