(embiggenable) • iPhone
Since around April 20th, I have covered a lot of ground - 4 separate trips totaling approximately 4,600 miles. Slept in my own bed about a dozen nights during that time. It should go without writing that I am glad to finally be home for an extended length of time. Amongst other things, I can get back to this blog on a more constant basis.
As a result of my travels, re: picture making, I have added approximately 400 processed, aka: finals, to my picture library. All but 10-15 of those pictures were made with my iPhone. With the exception of those 10-15 pictures, 95% (give or take a few) were processed on the iPhone (or iPad) using the Snapseed app and a handful of those were eventually given a little touch-up in Photoshop. All of the pictures now reside in folders on my primary external hard drive + external back-up hard drive.
During my travels, I kept up on some photography related goings on on the interweb. One particular item-actually a composite of several somewhat related items-which caught my attention involved a few entries on TOP dealing with sensor size and related issues of MP and picture quality. In one of those entries (Shooting Two Formats), Mike Johnston mentioned my name:
...I shoot a lot with my iPhone 7 Plus, which I've never been able to quite take seriously. I don't know why not—I think it's just a mental shortcoming on my part. Many people, for example Mark Hobson, just go right ahead and do serious projects with iPhones...
The fact of the matter is, at this point in time, my "real" cameras have seen very little use over the past 18 months. It is accurate to write that, during that time, I have "tested" the iPhone's picturing capabilities in every picture making situation I regularly encounter and it has passed muster in all but a few cases (very low light situations). Althought, in low light situations I do use a separate camera app which produces good-not perfect-results.
In any event, I seem to have arrived at a point where I feel very confident that I can use the iPhone for just about all of picturing needs and wants. That includes adding iPhone-made pictures-no excuses needed-into my "serious" bodies of work (which were previously made with "real" cameras).
Much to my surprise, I was rather stunned when, last week, I up-resed an iPhone file, using the Preserve Detail setting in Photoshop, to create a file that could be printed to my "standard" 24x24-inch exhibition print size. The result was, as stated, stunning. So much so that I went on to up-res and print 3 more files-as a test to determine if the first up-res was a fluke-and the results were the same.
In point of fact, I can write (at least, preliminarily) that the results replicate the look and feel of the 24x36-inch C prints I made (back in the day) from my 8x10-inch color negatives. The prints exhibit a smooth "liquid" / non-digital (sharp, but not bleeding eye sharp) quality which really pricks my and sensibilities. Consquently, I have a sinking feeling that I am about to go on a print making binge.
So, here I sit in a slightly perplexed state, contemplating the fact that, after a 40 year professional career of making pictures for Fortune 500 corporations (primarily at the request of their ad agencies) using Nikons, Hasselblads, 4x5 and 8x10 Arca Swiss view cameras (all of which I still have), all of my picture making needs and desires can be met with a little handheld computer and a simple software picture processing app.