Category: iPhone

working beyond familiar boundaries

whbeebe

The rubber ducky photo is courtesy of the iPhone 7 Plus, its dual lens camera, and the built-in Apple app. Using the app I selected the the short telephoto, square aspect ratio, HDR, and Instant live photo filter. 

That ducky has been in this house since my oldest adult daughter was two. Out of respect for her I won’t say how long I’ve had it.

I was attempting to write this entire post using the WordPress iOS app on the iPhone and the Microsoft folding portable Bluetooth keyboard. This isn’t the first time I’ve used or written about the keyboard. The problem is I’ve rarely used the keyboard/iPhone combination, far less than I originally intended. I bought that keyboard so that I could write just about any time, anywhere. We can all see how that turned out…

Unfortunately when I sat down tonight to try and use it, the WordPress app was rather uncooperative. It let me select my lovely rubber ducky photo and upload it to my blog, even associating it with the initial start of the entry. But when I attempted to try and write anything, the app seemed to think I wanted to modify the photo. In the end the entry just “went away” from me, and I couldn’t tell using the iOS app on the iPhone if the entry had gone to the draft side of things, or if it had just simply been deleted. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you view this, it had gone off to become a draft. The only way to continue to edit it was to open up my WordPress blog using the web-based view in Chrome on my MBP.

I have several entries using this combination, all successfully entered, so this isn’t something new for me. The only problem is I wrote them back when I had my iPhone 6S Plus, under iOS 9, and earlier releases of the WordPress app. Going forward I really do want to use my iPhone exclusively to create content for my blog. The iPhone is an incredibly powerful overall creative tool, the camera an excellent tool for documenting and providing supporting photography to my writing. The Microsoft keyboard syncs up quickly and flawlessly, and works quite well with other tools that need textual input. It’s just that when I mix everything together to write up an entry that the results are less than what I’ve experienced in the past.

I consider these minor challenges to be overcome. I want to “turn on” the writing so that I’m at least creating at least one post/day. I want to focus on the “web log” aspect of the blog. It’s not here for marketing, it’s here to log the next 365 days of 2017. I have a deep feeling there’s going to be a lot to cover. My rubber ducky seems to feel that as well.

computational photography example – iphone 7 plus vs olympus e-m5 + 12-40mm pro zoom

whbeebe

Computational photography or computational imaging refers to digital image capture and processing techniques that use digital computation instead of optical processes.

Wikipedia

You’re looking at two versions of a photograph taken with an iPhone 7 Plus using the Portrait mode of the built-in camera app. The iPhone 7 camera app creates two versions of the same image, one without the effect, and one with. The one with is obviously the one on the right. These are straight out of the phone, with no other post processing. The iPhone photo was taken using the second 56mm equivalent lens and sensor that comes with the iPhone 7 Plus. The bokeh background blur in the second image was achieved with the iPhone 7 Plus’ computational photographic capabilities.

This bottom photo was taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the M.Zuiko 12-40mm PRO zoom lens at 32 mm, giving an equivalent focal length of 64mm, at an aperture of f/3.2. Not exact, but close enough.

My biggest take away from this comparison is how well the iPhone Portrait effect computes bokeh compared to my Olympus. If I stick my nose in close enough and really pixel-peep I’m sure I could find issues with the iPhone’s Portrait effect. But then, I’d be ignoring the real point of this, and that’s how a Version 1.0 release of this software is creating an effect that up to this point was achievable only with an optical system. Whether it’s good or not is irrelevant at this point. That fact that a smart phone can achieve an out-of-focus effect very equivalent, if not identical, to what my Olympus can achieve is astounding to me. And here’s the important point to remember; the iPhone’s effect will only get better over time as new releases of the software, with better algorithms, are released. With the Olympus system, I’m “stuck” with what the lens can deliver (which, frankly, I’m quite happy with). And what the iPhone is currently achieving bodes both good and bad for standard photography cameras. This will only ramp up the competition by smart phones against cameras, especially the fixed lens cameras. Perhaps it’s time for general camera makers to wake up and add an equivalent capability to their existing camera lines, especially when using the lower-cost kit zooms.

And while we’re on the subject of computational photography, let’s also mention that micro four thirds has used a very limited version of this since its inception, primarily in distortion (pincushion and barrel) correction. It’s the iPhone which has stepped up the game a few notches with this Portrait effect.

Does this mean the iPhone can replace a camera such as the OM-D? That depends on a case-by-case analysis. It can certainly complement the use of such a camera in overall terms. In an environment with reasonable lighting there’s no reason why you can’t reach for an iPhone 7 Plus as much as you might the E-M5. But when it comes to shooting fast action, or needing low-light capabilities, or faster focusing (and the E-M5 with the 12-40mm is quite fast), or a more fluid shooting situation, then I’d probably reach for my E-M5, assuming it’s within reach at the time.

My iPhone 7 Plus has reached a level of quality and sophistication that I can consider it my backup camera to my Olympus. When I think of a total camera package that allows for immediate post processing as well as immediate sharing, the iPhone 7 Plus with all its integrated capabilities is a better solution than my E-M5. While I do have an SDHC adapter that allows me to read my E-M5 files directly onto my iPhone and iPad, that’s an extra step that can get tiresome, especially if a lot of images are involved. And that adapter is just one more item to loose track of.

I like what I can achieve with the iPhone 7, just like I like what I can achieve with the Olympus E-M5 and the 12-40mm zoom. The iPhone 7 Plus has greatly expanded my technical choices. Now if only my artistic capabilities would grow to match.