When “Good Enough” Simply Isn’t!

When “Good Enough” Simply Isn’t!

By William Lulow

We’ve become lazy with our image use lately. How many times have you heard that a particular image is “good enough” for use on a website? It’s become true that anyone with an iPhone thinks of themselves as a “photographer.” With selfies, selfie sticks and the constant barrage of images that find their way into website use, why do we need “professional” photos anymore?

Well, one of the ways you can still answer that question is simply to look at the difference between a set of professional images and those taken by a cell phone.

Here are a couple of examples:

Here, there is no question about the quality of a professional image versus that of a cell phone.

Now there are those who have actually made an art from iPhone images. But, it takes quite a bit of practice, time and effort to make it work. One still needs a good understanding of the medium and an acceptance of the fact that iPhone images can be a wholly different artform. But they don’t take the place of images obtained from good quality digital cameras.

Here are two enlargements: one from an iPhone image and the other from a DSLR. I made the two blow-ups on purpose to show the difference in quality between both images, but I wanted to show the grain, noise, etc. from both.

The problem with the iPhone image (on the left) is that the resolving power of the lens is just not what it is with a Canon lens (right image) for example. So under marginal circumstances like these performance shots, you simply cannot compare the two. Now it’s true, my iPhone 6S Plus resolves to around 12MP (not too bad). But my DSLR resolves at roughly 24MP. So, there is a marked difference to begin with.  The new iPhone X can resolve to about 18MP, but, if you are looking for quality images, you just can’t get the same from a cell phone as you can with a DSLR, period! If you need more convincing, just look at the difference in lenses. Digital lenses are big pieces of glass that have been developed for the purpose of providing the very best resolution of a subject to a digital sensor. A camera-phone is just that – a phone with a camera built into it. There is really no way it can compare successfully.

Another reason for this is that it is difficult to operate a camera-phone wholly on a MANUAL setting. There are many workarounds to help,  but the camera is always trying to second-guess you as to what the actual light values are. If lighting conditions are optimal, camera-phones will work most of the time to get you what you want (mostly a fairly well-exposed image). But should you want to manipulate things a bit to come up with a more unusual image or, if lighting conditions are marginal, automation is not going to get you there.

The problem comes when people think that an image from an iPhone is “good enough” for their purposes. This does not take into account that a professional photographer knows about lighting and what works to provide an image of superior quality.

Well, I guess we all have to decide for ourselves what quality of image we need. But if you are looking to illustrate something, do a portrait or headshot for the web or brochure, shoot an advertisement or catalog, there just is no substitute for the real thing!