I would like to know how you think about the following of my thoughts.
It's about image quality and what the devices do to get the most out of it and what apps do to get the most out of it. And it's about my experience that you can't have both at the same time.
The device brings with it image stabilization. This means you have longer exposure times with lower ISO values. This can help reduce loss of sharpness due to hand shake or wind and whatever reason and means less noise.
Now you would say, that's good, lets combine this with the RAW shooting capabilities of some apps and you have the best out of two worlds.
This is a quotation from the ProCamera blog (
https://www.procamera-app.com/en/blog/procamera-raw-dng-ios10/)
"When shooting RAW photos, no iOS image stabilization and processing is applied. You get the unaltered sensor data."
I understand this is no limitation of this app or of any other app. It's just the way the device handles shooting RAW. And I am ok with that. I mean, at least I know about such things and can decide how I want to handle certain situations. But what's about you? Did you know about this? Are you more the shooting-RAW-at-all-costs-type of user (using a tripod maybe) or the I-paid-for-image-stabilization-and-want-to-use-this type of shooter (who just wants all the technical advantages the device offers)?
Btw, do you like to shoot using manual controls for ISO and shutter speed? To my experience the same limitations apply here like the ones for RAW shooting. No image stabilization is applied. And the same goes for HDR and other shooting modes other than just plain snapping an image or video.
I’m finding that the more things change the more they stay the same. If you photograph with a variety of cameras, as I do, you can’t help but be constantly aware of the difference in quality between them. In spite of this, or maybe because of the extra challenge, I remain a dedicated iPhone photographer and I am constantly seeking ways to get better quality. But I have no illusions about image quality on the iPhone. You can’t expect to get large sensor 40MP results from a 4mm sensor. It’s getting better, but slowly. In addition, any technique we can use to extract better quality from our tiny sensor images can also be applied to bigger cameras, widening the gap even more.
The truth of the matter is that any compact camera makes better pictures than an iPhone, but that’s not why we do it. The combination of on-board computer and multi-numerous apps makes the iPhone (or similar) a very powerful image making platform not found in any other camera system. To some degree this is the way of the future and we stick with it because we recognize the potential. Should regular cameras gain this on-board editing with third party apps then lots of people will move in that direction.
What has been famously said, or asked, “What is the best camera? The one you have with you.” And we all know that everyone carries a cell phone these days.
On the other hand I also drop into a go-with-the-flow mode when photographing for mobile screen use, what I would call casual use, when jpegs are “good enough” for most mobile sharing applications.
One thing I have learned from painful experience. Don’t go very far down any new path without also examining the results on a bigger screen. Often things that look good on the small screen look awful when it is big enough to actually see what it there. I have wasted valuable time and ruined too many pictures this way.
Since I got my 7 Plus I have used RAW more and more but this presents a conundrum. Since there is not yet much support for processing RAW files on the device then most of the advantages can only be appreciated when processing on a desktop computer, which goes against the “all-mobile” definition. It is definitely true that making RAW originals on the iPhone and processing them on a desktop computer can yield remarkable results. You might almost say, unbelievable. So to some degree I am more focused on what can be done entirely on the device and save the RAW files I make for others uses, should they come up. I’m sure we will have better on-device RAW file handling before long but the demand for it is quite limited to a small percentage of keeners.
A similar issue comes up when making HDR photos of moving subjects. On mobile there aren’t any HDR apps with any good de-ghosting tools so you take it as it comes and for non-mobile use I can take my 3 brackets (which I always save) to my desktop computer where there are better options for de-ghosting. But then it becomes a non-mobile image.
One way to reduce the amount of jpeg image noise processing is to use the base ISO whenever possible. ISO 25 or 32, depending on who you read. Even more essential with RAW shooting to reduce the amount of noise reduction required later on. This is completely familiar to me from the film days.
I have always been a tripod user. Years of photographing with Kodachrome 25 or Panatonic X reinforced this. Beyond that there is so much more you can do with any camera when you use a tripod. Certainly, any video work involves a tripod. Now Live Photos also offer more options if shot on a tripod.
Many years ago, even though I was already a dedicated tripod user, I decided to compare my best hand holding techniques with the tripod - just to satisfy my curiosity. It didn’t take much looking to verify that even my best efforts at hand holding were not as sharp as using a tripod.
Something that would make a big difference to me is a longer maximum shutter time than 1/3 sec. even getting to one second would be important to my interests.
If you look at the definition of “snapshot” it says something about casual shooting without much regard to quality or technique - such as using a tripod. So by extension, photography involves using a tripod, and not using a tripod is just snapshooting. There, I said it.
If you want quality and extended camera functions you use a tripod.
However, I recognize there are some situations when hand holding is better. For instance while panning, or doing other deliberate motion effects. Sometime using a tripod is just so darned awkward that not using it becomes a way to avoid frustration, even though you realize the quality will be less.
If you use a powered gimbal in the attempt to extend video beyond the limitations when a tripod cannot be used, for instance while kayaking, or riding a Ferris wheel, or walking along a trail in the woods over rough ground, then you soon become confronted by image stabilization conflicts. This is mostly where I first became aware of iPhone-specific issues about stabilization conflicts with the gimbal and which apps are able to shut off image stabilization to avoid those problems. Apps like FiLMiC Pro can shut off image stabilization. Likewise the DJI Go app. On the other hand, people using DSLRs and tripods also know that image stabilization isn’t always good and know when to shut it off. For instance if you are making a long exposure at the shore that includes moving waves ( or other types of subject movement like leaves or branches moving in the wind), then image stabilization will try to steady the wave movement and your whole time exposure will be shaky.
Image stabilization for hand held video on the iPhone really has made a big improvement in viewability so I’m thankful for that.
Another problem of image stabilization centres around the way the lens is loosely mounted, or electronically suspended, and that turning off image stabilization does not result in a steady lens the way that a non-stabilized lens is solidly mounted. Even when shut off the lens elements can jiggle around if any vibration is present.
Learning about the degree of built-in noise reduction applied by the OS to all images, except dng, was a wake up call. Usually you have some choice about whether or not image smoothing is applied, but not in mobile phones. This also means that tiff images are not as much better than jpegs as one would expect. They both start out processed as jpegs but then the tiff is saved uncompressed instead of jpeg. It has already received the heavy processing before saving.
One of the basic quality decisions is using a low ISO, which means you need a camera app that will allow you to manually set your choice of ISO. After that it doesn’t matter if you use ISO priority automatic or manual control.
Your camera app needs exposure compensation.
A good histogram is essential, even though histograms are based on jpeg data and so far we don’t have proper RAW data histograms.
Another go/no-go camera choice issue is custom white balance or white balance lock. Auto White Balance works only in a limited range of circumstances and to get correct colour you need to be able to read the existing light and lock that WB setting. The °K sliders won’t do the job unless you happen to have a good colour temperature meter with you.
Just these few choices really narrows the field of usable camera apps. Ther are several promising RAW cameras that are not much better than snapshot apps because of the lack of these basic controls.
We also know that exposing for the best quality DNG file is very different than making a good jpeg. This makes saving both RAW & jpeg or tiff at the same time a wasted effort. You can’t have optimum conditions for RAW and other formats at the same time.
When you get into some the more advanced RAW shooting techniques that consider the different sensitivity of red and blue compared to green and much more image noise in red and blue layers, and on top of that, pre-filtering the image with magenta/red filters to improve the balance, then things get a bit beyond mobile processing to accomplish.
Something I find frustrating on the iPhone, even with the bigger Plus sized screen, it is difficult to see the screen properly outdoors in bright light. Many of those useful on-screen features are useless if you can’t see them. For instance, screen grids that are too fine or too low in contrast to be visible. On-screen level indicator that becomes invisible outdoors. For the sake of image quality it is very important to avoid the need to resample an image to straighten the horizon. I think people are too casual in relying on straightening the image afterwards, not realizing losses are being incurred. Even when photographing on a tripod I often find it difficult to get the image exactly straight. The on-screen level is too hard to see and not sufficiently accurate or can’t be calibrated. With great care I level the camera only to discover later it isn’t perfectly level.
