iPhone or Camera Phone Images

iPhone or Camera Phone Images

by William Lulow

I have been kind of fighting making images with my iPhone but have referenced it many times in these pages. I recently took possession of my new iPhone 13Pro and have been exploring the camera that is built into it. As a consequence, I have not been making that many images with my regular DSLR lately. Being on vacation for most of the month of January, 2022, I have made a conscious decision NOT to carry my “professional grade” cameras with me everywhere, like I have been used to over the years. One of the reasons is that the camera in the iPhone 13 is really far superior to any of its predecessors. For one thing, it has several lenses that can be used for various purposes and along with that, several modes that enable the photographer to obtain many different effects previously only available with “regular” cameras.

It has a “portrait” lens. The ideal lens for portraiture is one that is a bit longer in focal length than “normal” lenses. The reason for this is that slightly longer lenses tend to compress the features of a human face and make them look a bit more in proportion. Another reason for using a longer lens is that it tends to throw the background out of focus thus concentrating the attention on the main subject. Here is an example of portrait mode:

Here, the background is slightly out of focus which lends more attention to the subject.

In this one, the background is totally soft and makes the subject stand out.

Here, again, in “portrait” mode – note the soft background. This was achieved in “Portrait 1.5″ mode on the iPhone 13. There is also a separate application you can download to help you control your iPhone’s camera. I mentioned it in a former blog piece. It’s called ‘FOCOS,” and it enables you to overlay a number of controls to the phone’s built-in camera including an aperture or “f/stop” scale, an aspect ratio setting as well as the camera’s flash control and a self-timer. So there is quite a bit more control you can exercise without just tapping the screen and hoping for the best. These kinds of improvements were no doubt designed for people who definitely want more creative control instead of just the simple capture.

As I have often said, if you wish to make really good photographs, you need to be able to think about what you want to show first, then have the tools you need to enable your visions to be implemented. The new iteration of iPhones certainly attempts to put these tools at the user’s fingertips, literally. The iPhone 13 Pro allows you to switch lenses, with all the concurrent changes that it includes in using lenses of different focal lengths. Once you begin to use these cameras you will be convinced that cell phone manufacturers are really trying to provide users with superior instruments which come very close to being able to provide the kind of choices offered by regular, digital cameras. The fact that they are just about always in your pocket (if you aren’t already looking at them), makes them that much harder to ignore. But even though they have some manual attributes, they are still designed to work almost automatically. So it means that even to use them carefully is not the same as using a DSLR in manual mode.

Here is a shot that I saw from the car, but I didn’t have my regular equipment with me:

This image was made with my iPhone 13Pro. I carefully monitored the exposure, composition and saturation. These kinds of formations from nimbostratus clouds are not so rare in southern Florida, but when they occur they make for beautiful images. So, because I always have my camera phone with me, I was able to capture this formation on the spot. (I actually drove to a spot I knew, got out of the car and made the image. I did not shoot from the car).