(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(UN-embiggenable) ~ illustrative purposes only
SO, I AM HAVING MY MORNING COFFEE AND DONUT AND reading my regular AM reading-NY Times + my 5 daily photo site reads-when I come across a link on my Facebook feed to a site which sells lenses that can be used on an iPhone. Something I have been contemplating as a possibile purchase ... not because of need, but strictly for the hell of it.
While purusing the site, I discovered that it also offered a "pro" camera app for the iPhone. The app allows complete control over all the iPhone's camera module functions ... everything from precise focus and exposure control-not with sliders but the ability to select aperture, shutter speed and ISO for each shot-to the ability to shoot RAW. Pretty much all of the manual controls one would have on a "real" camera.
AN ASIDE I will admit that the ability to make RAW files had some appeal. After all, until my switch to making pictures with the iPhone, RAW format was the only format I ever used in my picture making. You know, the quest for ultimate control and quality cuz, you know, the JPEG format is inferior in every way, except....
....the fact of the matter is, after 18 months of make pictures with the iPhone and its JPEG output, I have been repeatly and very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the image files and the subsequent prints I make from those files. END OF AN ASIDE
In any event, after my morning wake up routine, I went out to my wife's garden in the backyard knowing that there would, most likely, be some interesting dead-stuff-emerging-from-under-the-snow to be pictured. Sure enough there was. And, after making a few pictures, I went back inside and commenced to processing them.
As is usually the case, the image files required only a few minor tweaks before they were ready for printing. After making dupe files and uprezzing them to 19x19 inches for printing, the printing commenced and a short time later, I had some very fantastic prints.
Prints that meet every criteria I have for making beautiful prints which capture and express exactly what I saw and wanted to convey. The prints are sharp with great detail and a wide range of the very subtle colors I saw in the actual scene. To my eye and sensibilities, they are "perfect" prints.
The net result of this exercise made me realize that wishing / wanting for more better image quality, aka: in this case via RAW files, is, for me, a fool's errand. Cuz, whenI really think about it, what's better than "perfect".