This week, I took a few days out to spend some time walking in the Yorkshire Dales. I say I took some time out, but I always like to take a camera with me for some photography. You never know what great landscapes you will find as was the case with my first day near to the town of Settle.
My first walk was a short 8-mile circuit that I devised by studying the OS map. Although I knew some the start of the walk, most of it was new to me. After walking the first couple of miles I noticed the day was feeling easier than usual. This was despite most of the walk having been uphill and often quite steep at times.
I also noticed a great view of the surrounding landscape and decided to stop to take a photo. That’s when I realised, I didn’t have my camera gear with me. For some reason that I still can’t figure out, I had left everything in the boot of my car.
Faced with walking back down the hill for a couple of miles to rescue my camera I decided to press on and instead use my iPhone.
Unfortunately, my iPhone lens is too wide and to my mind, creates the wrong perspective for this landscape. Dramatic hills feel diminished, and I find the strong colours in the images garish, although they do convert well to black and white.
But what I did discover is a great strength of the iPhone when you move in close and low to a subject. It becomes easy to capture great depth of field and give an image drama. This following shot is probably one of my favourites from these few days, even though I remembered my camera on subsequent walks.
Please don’t ask about any settings. I just pointed my phone and snapped.
I hope you like the image and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Welcome to my world of leaving important photography gear back and having to do with what I bring. Good iPhone test. Nothing beats the portability. I wonder if anyone could tell it’s a phone versus full frame SLR in some cases.
I doubt anyone will be able to tell the difference most of the time. The phone is also much easier to use.
Have you done experiments printing? Hows’ the result, without of course, trying to enlarge the files?
No, I haven’t tried to print it but it looks reasonably detailed. I can imagine it would look ok printed.
I like both images very much. Nearly IR-like. I am not asking about settings, but I would like to know a bit about post 🙂
How big could you print? I like iPhone in sunny weather, but find shadows – for me – unacceptably noisy.
I have printed images up to A3 without issue – but – using the latest iPhones, capturing in RAW, and plenty of processing in LR and other software, especially for noisy skies – and – limited to well exposed images. As for shadows – most raw shots will adjust nicely in processing, or if I thought I’d really struggle and my brain was working I take bracketed shots and blend. But that means not leaving your tripod in the car either 😂
Interesting, thanks. My iPhone 11 produces very noisy shadows. A3: Seems a lot to me, but that is probably a matter of personal taste.
When I have a tripod with me, so I have either FF or MF camera with me too 😊
My iPhone is a basic SE which is a cut down version of the 11. I suspect if I try to recover shadows it will look noisy but Topaz DeNoise will take care of that for me. A shot from an iPhone is never going to compete with a full-frame DSLR but it probably doesn’t need to. If the photo will end up on the internet then the downsampling will hide any noise in the shadows (especially if you use something like Topaz DeNoise with it first). If you are going to print, then providing it isn’t colour noise you are unlikely to see the noise in the print. Printing, especially to matt papers is very forgiving, much more than some would have you believe. As for the processing of this image, I opened it from my Apply Photos into Photoshop. I then used Exposure X6 on it as a plugin to Photoshop. I applied the Konika infrared preset but reduced the level of the halation to make it look more like a regular black and white. If you’re wondering why I chose the Konika preset it was because I scrolled through all of the presets to see what caught my attention. Sorry, nothing scientific or magical here.
Sorry, I forgot to answer how big you could print. I would say A3 as a general print but there’s nothing to stop you from going larger with a matt paper and a softer image effect. Viewing distance is also important. Stand back 5 feet and A2 or 30″ x 40″ is going to be acceptable. The only people who peer into the detail of an image and then criticise it are other photographers who print. The general public doesn’t care.
Thank you for both answers. We have touched the matter of Exposure X6 already, but I hesitated. Should try it perhaps.
It’s a shame I didn’t know you were here, you could have popped in for a coffee and a natter. I live in Settle, close to the rugby pitches and have a wonderful view of the hills. I have some photos of Attermire Scar that I took shortly after first moving here back in 2005. I hope you had a pleasant visit. Did you stay over or travel each day? Such a shame I missed you. Thanks for sharing your work, Robin. You always inspire me to get out and take more photos.
Thanks Nigel. Although it’s only around 1.5 hours drive for me I decided to stay. I discovered a place called Falcon Manor which I’m sure you will know. I’ve driven past it many times but never really taken in that it’s a hotel. Anyway, booking directly on their website was cheaper than booking an average B&B on Booking.com. Bargain, and a thoroughly enjoyable stay. Perhaps I will see you next time.
Which iPhone are you using ? That is important to know to be able to comment .
Thank you
Ooops just saw that it is the iPhone SE
I repeatedly encounter photographers who are not investing in the best camera in your pocket but willingly invest in photography gear.
The camera that is always with you is called an iPhone …that camera also lets you make phone calls , surf web , read emails etc
I’ve had every iPhone and now have the 13pro . That camera is outstanding..including the ultra wide . It captures raw data too .
I could write a volume on the massive massive leap forward if you embrace that the camera that is always with you is a smartphone ..and invest in the best .
Lens correction is an available option in the configuration
The 13pro is now 3 x digital zoom
Triple lens camera
Staggering quality
I think I agree with you, with the caveats that my Fuji X camera system will always trounce my iPhone that I use extensively (as being always with me and being in a current phase of full kit laziness). But the quality obtainable from top iPhones is remarkable in increasingly wider conditions when developed carefully with the right software. (I dont much like the standard phone algorithms except for snaps). I would put it that I love the challenge of getting great shots from an iPhone WITHIN its limitations. PS, I have been capturing in RAW on the iPhone for a long time as it became available using the Lightroom Camera two or three years back i think.
I have to admit that I would love an iPhone 13 Pro but it’s the price of a decent lens. Seriously though, I like to keep and use my phones for as long as possible. It feels wasteful to upgrade all the time. It’s only 12 months back that my iPhone 5 died and I bought the SE. I may have to look at buying some clip-on lenses for it though. As you say, it’s a great tool and one you are unlikely to forget.