The iPhone & Commercial Photography

The iPhone & Commercial Photography

by William Lulow

It’s been a while since I wrote about iPhones, but they have certainly improved over the years. I got my iPhone 13Pro about a year ago now, and have enjoyed it immensely. Some of the improvements have included a three-lens array, better focusing techniques and much sharper images. I also have integrated it into my commercial image-making when I have needed to. I have a friend who refers to it as a camera with a built-in telephone, but let’s look at the reason it was created in the first place and how it has changed over its many iterations. When the notion of how to incorporate a camera into the manufacturing of a portable telephone first got started, there were already many devices that used small lenses, some even with lights attached, for various medical purposes. There were even tiny cameras attached to plumbing snakes to determine where a drain clog was and to assist in removing it. Not to mention the extremely tiny cameras used in angioplasty! So, the technology was there, but consumers were demanding the ability to take an image and preserve it digitally ever since the internet was invented. The iPhone was able to deliver what was demanded of it to a remarkably high degree of accuracy and quality.

This success has prompted many people to think about photography and even professional commercial imagery as something as easy as taking your iPhone out of your pocket and snapping as many pictures as you think you need for any given purpose. The thing that made me think about this again was a client who came to me for professional headshots and showed me some images a large company did of her husband for their own website. It was made with an iPhone, no special lighting or background.

I mentioned that I use my iPhone occasionally in my commercial work, but only when it is easier to use and would produce images consistent with the overall quality of my work. One thing it does quite well is to make images in low light conditions. But users have to understand that it does this at a sacrifice in some image quality because it will; automatically increase the sensitivity setting (ISO number) as well as open the aperture to maximum and slow down the shutter speed, to ensure a properly exposed image. The iPhone is hard to use in a MANUAL mode so all of this is accomplished automatically. The problem comes when the image really isn’t sharp enough for any commercial use because you are hand-holding it. Here is one such image I made recently on an assignment:

This was made at a corporate event and I knew it would probably be used only on a website and not enlarged too much, but I wanted to capture the feeling of the event rather than go about lighting it correctly to make an advertising shot, which would not have been possible at the time and not actually necessary. My regular DSLR camera would have needed a tripod and a different lighting setup, but, this image had its purpose and the iPhone was able to meet the demand fairly well. It is not up to my normal standards as an image, but it was enough to capture the feeling of the moment with everyone looking at the speaker.

This is what iPhones were designed to do. You can carry them in your pocket as so many people do, and it’s perfectly capable of making good, average-looking images. Some people claim they can be used even with studio flash units. I have investigated it and it is possible, but not so easy. You need some software (an app) and some specialized connections so that the lights actually trigger the camera instead of the other way around as for normal cameras.

In addition, most iPhones today use a different form of digital image called an HEIC file. (The acronym stands for HIGH EFFICIENCY IMAGE FILE). One thing about these files is that if you want your clients to use them, they must be converted to JPEGs. So there is another step in the workflow. These steps added to the fact that the iPhone was really a convenience and not designed to take the place of professional image-making equipment, make the iPhone not really suitable for standard, commercial studio work. And, they tend to breed the attitude that for some uses, an iPhone image is “good enough.” It may be able to do the trick under some circumstances, but you simply cannot compare the quality of an iPhone image with that made from a normal DSLR in the studio because the latter can use studio lighting techniques that the iPhone has difficulty employing. There is an app called “TricCamLite” that allows the photographer to sync one or more studio flash heads to the iPhone, but after looking at it and downloading the app, I found that it was not the same as setting up studio lights and syncing them with a Pocket Wizard or other type of flash trigger.

There are plenty of courses and even an “iPhone School” of photography, but results are just not the same as regular files from good DSLRs in many cases. Some are pretty good and may be acceptable for some uses, but not all. I once published an image made with an iPhone from a photographer in Westchester, NY which was truly fabulous. She mounted her iPhone on a tripod and went about making some really great 30″x30″ prints from her files. She was extremely methodical and careful about how she set up the iPhone camera and where she positioned it to make the images she got, but she is the exception to the rule. Most of us just use it for “grab” shots and not the kind of shots we would do in a studio situation.

Here is one obvious difference:

The one on the left, a grab shot with an iPhone (an older one). On the right, is a studio shot complete with hair & makeup and good lighting.

Another:

On the left, probably a grab shot with a camera phone or older digital camera. On the right, made with a good DSLR and great lighting.

The Apple iPhone 13Pro has a 12MP resolution for the camera. My DSLR has 32MB of resolution. Which do you think will produce the better image overall? There is really no contest if you are looking for really sharp images that can stand big enlargements. Here’s another studio image produced with my regular DSLR:

This is a super close up produced with my regular DSLR. Below, one produced with my iPhone 13 Pro:

This was taken with my iPhone 13 Pro and enlarged just a bit from the original. It highlights some of the problems with these camera phones in general. Most people use them for grab shots like this one. They don’t put them on tripods and they don’t take the proper care to make sure everything is color balanced and the correct lens is used. Can you get a great image from them? Of course, but you have to study the technique and employ it constantly. Otherwise you will wind up with snapshots that just can’t compete with DSLRs.

Here is an iPhone image that was every bit as good as some produced with my regular DSLR:

This is a shot of the Detroit, Michigan metro area shot from a commercial jet at an altitude of 37,000 feet. It’s pretty sharp unless you try to enlarge it. Here is another

This kind of shot is where the iPhone excels. It is well lit, not a super close-up and has plenty of detail in the highlights and shadows. As long as it is used at this magnification, it would suffice under almost any circumstances. It is when you are lighting something or someone or shooting under less than optimal conditions that its weaknesses are amplified. For most of us making normal kinds of everyday images, the resolution, detail and overall quality is quite good.

So, I use my camera-phone when I think I need to but it depends on the type of image I’m looking for and where it will be used. There is no doubt that it can make some great images and, if you are careful about how you use it, it is capable of producing some professional quality pictures.