Apologies that I haven’t posted anything recently. I’ve been over in France visiting family. Whilst I was there, I became quite hooked on taking photos with my phone. That’s despite having a great Micro 43 camera with me in the form of the Panasonic G9. I simply found it much easier to reach for my iPhone a lot of the time.
Here’s a good example which I shot inside a church in Nantes. It was so easy to line everything up on the iPhone and then take the shot without worrying about shutter speed or depth of field.
I don’t have a fancy phone with several lenses. This was taken with a basic iPhone SE using the standard camera app. I then exported it to Photoshop on my computer to process it using Nik Silver Efex Pro and Nik Perspective Efex from the Nik Collection 6.
As for the shaft of light, I spent a lot of time trying to capture it using my iPhone but for whatever reason it didn’t come out well. I could see the light with my eyes, but the phone struggled to record anything other than a bright patch. I’ve therefore added the light in post processing using Luminar Neo.
Overall, I’m quite impressed by my little camera phone. I found that I could enlarge the finished image to 24 inches whilst still producing a good quality print. I think that with results like this, I will be trying to do more phone photography in the future.
Before I go, I’ll mention that my July newsletter is published tomorrow. If you don’t get the newsletter, you can subscribe on my Lenscraft website.
I hope you like the image and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Very cool. I like it.
Thank you very much.
Great image as always Robin. I guess we all go through phases. I’ve just been in Italy and my XT2 never came out of my bag, or my hotel rooms as it went on because I chose to be an “ultra lightweight photographer” using the iPhone14Pro instead and raw images where appropriate, which I seem to be defaulting to rather often. Sure, there are limitations but as always you have to be creative with it and where I have images I like that are below par then the software at home these days is just amazing for sorting out issues. I know people will argue about this but the fun and the creative process remains in using the equipment to achieve what you envisage in conjunction with the software, or what I call the digital darkroom. Another reason is that most of my images are unplanned and opportunistic as I travel, so little time to set up the shots. That said, my Fuji and lenses are not for sale but ready for the planned moments.
I can imagine the iPhone 14 is a lot better than my little SE and gives a choice of focal lengths. The phones are definitely much easier to use and I need to investigate some of the different available camera apps (let me know if you have any recommendations). As you say, cameras are great but they don’t capture that unplanned moment very easily.
The wide camera has bad distortion but if desperate I crop heavily and straighten in LR… or take a small ‘panorama’ as a cheat. For speed I let the iPhone do its thing but tweak focus and/or exposure or same if I switch to ProRaw. I sometimes use the Lightroom app camera in raw and also Halide – which is good but only if I’m planning the shot and maybe using a tripod. And the arguments about Apple Pro Raw captures versus true Raw I admit confuse me – but the results are fine so…. I also found useful a site called nocamerabag.com. for some.
Thanks. I appreciate the advice and hints. The NoCameraBag website also has some useful and interesting stuff on there. I’ll enjoy reading that.
Robin, I too have a micro 4/3 Olympus, however being at a very busy time of my life I rarely get time to use it.
However with my iPhone SE I have a lightweight easily accessible imager taker with me at all times.
I still practice all the same set up and composing of images as with my campers and get amazing and very acceptable images.
Much to the annoyance of my photography group I even win monthly competitions.
Good images are as much to do with the photographers view as the expensive equipment.
You are quite right about the photographer’s part in taking the image. I can also just imagine the look on peoples faces when you reveal the shot was taken with a camera phone.
Hi Robin
Nice church Inerior Image
So you have gone Ultra Light as I did almost a year ago now, although I used an iPhone 13 Pro Max. Like you I did buy the Fuji XT 5 earlier back in February, but I get more fun out of the iPhone. The Battery life of the Pro Max is great for this, the phone re-invents Photography for you !
I did a whole load of simple tests just to see what I could get out of it, and found it quite remarkable. I started collecting these simple results and turned it into a 30 min talk/presentation for a couple of cameras clubs I have been a member of for many years, one was on zoom, the other was in person live.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max will do most types of photography, but will not do bird on a stick, backlit rabbits at 200 yards, or football photography, you need 150-600mm lenses for that. The convenience is amazing, I also use a selfie stick with bluetooth shutter release, it helps hold the phone a little steadier.
I found the best mode to use it in was .jpeg not .HEIC or RAW. The reason for this is when in this mode, the smart HDR kicks in, with Apples clever alogrithyms, and AI, enabling particularly good indoor shots handheld, virtually eliminating blown out highlights. Some of the low light shots are quite low noise compared to my Fuji XT5 ! I find the screen is to die for, being twice the size of a mirrorless camera, thus enabling you to be more creative.
At 83 carrying a rucksack stuffed with lenses and the kitchen sink is out for me ! I just love the convenience of the phone, nobody takes any notice of you, but take out an SLR, and the security guards come running out of their offices in Bristol saying, you can’t take pictures here.
Wide lens (approx 35mm equivalent), 14mm, Standard lens 27mm, and Tele 77mm. The macro is to die for, but only available on Pro, and Pro Max models.
Hope this is of interest to you,
Kevin James
Bristol
Thanks for all the tips and advice. I really appreciate it but I wish you hadn’t shared them. I now want to upgrade my phone.
I would agree with this, though I prefer the slightly smaller Pro than the Max. It’s true, photos straight out of the iPhone are excellent so I mix and match dependent on the image I want – HEIC for the occasional ‘Live’ photo in loop or ‘long exposure’ and ‘portrait’ mode cheat for adjustable DOF and family shots etc. and ones where I don’t need 48mb files. But Raw I use often (via Apple or LR or Halide) for the creative stuff because I know I want to post-process and create the image I want not what Apple creates. When it comes to tripods all the photo techniques can kick in if you incorporate desktop software into your workflow – focus stacking / exposure bracketing etc (though less often needed with these little lenses). Of course there are many images that can only be captured with your mirrorless / full frame / lens combo (as Kevin amusingly points out) but the convenience of ultra light travel, combined with mini tripod and/or ‘selfie’ stick and the different creative challenges that are presented when having the iPhone as your image capture tool are immense and I’m increasingly less embarrassed to admit it! I have large A3 prints on the wall that are credited to previous iPhones and desktop processing and I would challenge anyone to know the difference at that size. All good, debatable fun.
That’s one of thurches I go to mass In every week. Beautiful isn’t it. I still prefer using my cameras though. Having a dedicated machine for dedicated purpose, and having nicer lenses etc. But now and again the phone does come out and I will use it to create an image.
I do love this church, and you are right; it is beautiful. Nantes does have more than its fair share of beautiful churches. I also used to visit the Cathedral (and the camera shop next to it) but I haven’t been in since the fire.
I understand what you mean about preferring a dedicated camera (and I agree) but the phone comes in handy at times.
We obviously have the same haunts. The same photography shop. The cathedral. I can’t wait to go back to mass in there!