Camera Phone Photography

Phone Photography

Does the iPhone 6 still step up to the plate?

Phone photography for serious work?

For some reason people tend to express disbelief – when you say; “Sorry, but I don’t have a mobile phone…and especially not for taking photos for commercial use.”

Best Camera for the Job

Owning a smartphone is more than commonplace these days and with that comes the expectation that anyone serious about business MUST have a smartphone.

Now, like me, I’m sure that you’ve heard the saying; “The best camera for the job is the one you have on you” And so, It would make sense to familiarise yourself with the camera attached to your smartphone.

Currently I have an iPhone 6. Yes, I know, a bit out-of-date. But it does me fine, I gave up on keeping up since the iPhone 4.

Anyway, the point I am trying to make, and you can judge for yourself from the examples below, is that you don’t need the latest smartphone to get some “photo-love” from the smartphone you already have.

Phone Photography Examples

edited using Luminar

Smartphone just for the camera?

Undoubtedly, a smartphone is a super handy device. So, I can half understand why the surprise when I went through my “phone-less” phase.

So finally, after 2 years without a mobile phone, I cannot say that I personally found conducting business any more difficult compared to when I did have the iPhone 4.

After all, let’s face it, you can do practically all the same things on a laptop – sort of…

… but for some reason people still tend to be massively surprised – when you say; “Sorry, but I don’t have a mobile phone…(and especially not for taking photos for actual work!!!)”

So, how practical is the use of the camera phone; of course NOT as a replacement for the DSLR camera, but more for producing images that are of a good enough quality to satisfy even the fussiest of content creators of both print and digital work ( I still have doubts where it comes to printing though. What do you think?).

Now, whilst I am aware that there are different quality camera phones on the market. Plus, seeing that I have been using an iPhone 6. In terms of quality, I anticipate some compromise.

However, at the same time I am hoping that the technology today, at least for the newest of smartphones, is good enough to confidently say that the camera smartphone is a perfectly viable piece of equipment to have for serious work.

What do you think? Do you have examples to share?

Phone Photography Results

So, my self-made challenge is to explore first hand whether the camera phone built for the iPhone 6 can step up to the plate.

In the examples above I have used the High Dynamic Range (HDR) feature for taking the photos. As well as Affinity Photo and Luminar 3 for editing.

The Brief

Okay, so let’s say I need a few outstanding photos, suitable for both print and digital use and let’s say, for the following purposes;

– social media ads, headers etc
– display ads
– printed posters, book covers…

Although I feel quite confident with producing photos for web use. My most immediate concern here is whether the quality of the photos taken with a camera phone allow for printing at large formats…

Using your camera phone photos for business, artistic and commercial purposes

1. Photos taken with the iPhone 6 Camera Phone

Personally I have always been a little sceptical where the mention of using a camera phone for serious work comes up. However, I think I may start changing my view.

Social media

2. Photos taken with the iPhone 6 Camera – Used for social media

The camera phone photos are easily comparable to DSLR taken photos in terms of appearance for digital use. In other words, yes, the iPhone 6 camera is undoubtedly adequate for producing images of good enough quality for use of the web. (But I think you knew that anyway)

Close-up shots

3. Photos taken with the iPhone 6 Camera – Used for display ads

So, pushing the boundaries a little, lets see how the iPhone 6 camera phone deals with detailed close-up shots. Now, Apple products are pretty well known for having hidden features and this is no exception for the iPhone camera and related software. Features such as the Auto Focus Lock proved to be a pretty useful function whilst taking close-up shots.

To get the focus to lock is a simple case of tapping on the desired area of the image on your iPhones screen and holding for a few seconds. Whilst doing this, you can also adjust the exposure with the slider that appears on the screen. Actually, you can control the exposure slider from anywhere on the screen….but that’s another blog post. The following image is an attempt at depicting a close-up with a little depth. (a little noisy but fixable if you really want to go to “town”)

Camera phone photography for large format printing

4. Photos taken with the iPhone 6 Camera – Used for posters

Okay, so whilst I’m not going to actually get these printed. I will however prepare them for large format printing, using my typical workflow for preparing posters for printing.

Although, this test doesn’t guarantee that my images will reproduce well in a poster format. At least without actual ordering a print. It will give me some idea of at least how much enlarging the image can withstand.

Once the designs are complete I import them into my Printful account and test the artwork using the available mock-up generator for large posters.

From here, maybe I can get an idea of how suitable the size of my image is for printing…?

HDR photography

One more thing, HDR Photography…

Well, there are a few things that immediately peak my interest. Such as the cameras introduction of HDR photography technology. Which coincidentally is a topic I have been encouraging photographers and general creators to explore. And also which gives me a hint that there has been some obvious progress towards making the camera phone a more viable product for professional use.

If you are unfamiliar with HDR Photography, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and basically provides a wider range between the dark and light colours within a photographic image. This is ideal for achieving detailed and dramatic looking photos from photo editing software such as Aurora HDR.

Another feature I find of interest is the capability of manually adjusting the exposure and focus and locking. But, I’m sure there’s a lot more to discover later.