ice storm ~ all pictures (embiggenable) • iPhone
A WINTER RAIN STORM LEFT A COATING OF ICE on everything. Fortunately, the weather turned warm-above freezing-immediately after so ice storm damage was minimal.
In unrelated news, re: the medium and its appparatus, there was yet another entry on T.O.P. that, tangentially, touched upon the use of the smartphone for picture making. Predictably, the smartphone as a picture making device boo-birds chimed in with the usual chorus of what I would label as ill-informed and downright ignorant commentary ...
... first and foremost on the ignorant scale is the make-no-distinction / blanket statement that smartphones make image files that lack image quality. OK. Let me go on record writing that smartphones can not make image files which match the technical image quality standards of a FF digital camera. No DUH. Most would state that smartphone files are not capable of making files that are comparable, re: file technical quality, to those made using any "real" digital camera. Pure unadulterated BULLSHIT.
The first problem with the aforementioned claims is that the comments make no distinction whatsoever about which smartphones are being referenced. The implication is that all smartphones are deficient image making devices. And, like all simple-minded generalizations, this patently wrong. Just as in the digital "real" camera world, there has been a steady increase in smartphone picture making capabilities to the point where the latest generation of smartphones are very capable picture making devices.
So, IMI(nformed)O, anyone who is making a comment, re: smartphone technical image file quality, who is not experienced with using the latest smatphones, is not qualified to have an opinion.
The second problem with the aforementioned claims is that I suspect that most, if not all, of the ill-informed / ignorant comments are made by picture makers with a limited knowledge and ability, re: image file processing techniques. To wit, as I have mentioned in previous entries, in order to get the best results from smartphone image files, a user must know and understand how the AI / computational workings of the device work ... because, without that knowledge a user is at the mercy of the machine's brain instead of the user's brain.
The machine wants to do what the machine wants to do. However, when making pictures with a smartphone, there are techniques, often referred to as work-arounds, which can be employed to achieve the result that the user's brain wants to achieve. Follow up the use of those techniques with proficient and knowledgeable image processing techniques and ...
... VOILA. You have an image file that, when printed-in a book or a framed print on a wall-can be compared quite favorably to a book or print made from almost any "real" digital camera image file.
And, no, to be certain, the image file will not compare favorably to a file made with a "real" camera when viewed at 100% on a monitor. Nor will a print, dependent upon print size, from a smartphone compare well against a print made from a "real" camera image file when viewed at a viewing distance with one's nose close enough to the print to smell it.
So, to sum it all up and to let you know where I stand on the subject of smartphone picture making... if your viewing pleasure is 100% on-screen magnification or nose on print and your image file processing skills are minimal at best, please take your comments on smartphone pictures and shove it where the sun don't shine.
FYI, my next entry will address why, technical qualities aside, the iPhone works, for me, as my primary picture making device.
ADDENDUM: to be clear, if your thing in the pictue making world is enriched by pixel-peeping / print sniffing, more power to you in your preferred picture making milieu. My issue is not with you or your pursuit of what you consider to be picture making "perfection". In fact, I wish you well in that regard but ... my issue is with your denigrating opinion, implied or otherwise, of what others might consider their pursuit of picture making "perfection". It is a rather pointless, unproductive and somewhat insulting endeavour.