PHOTOGRAPHY

When you leave home and hit the road, be it for work, play, or pretty
 much anything you set out to do, you should always carry a camera. 
There is a photographic axiom that says, “What is the best camera? The 
camera you have with you!” and that is undeniably true. The camera you 
will sling over your shoulder is going to change over the years and a 
new camera can stimulate you and put you into a photo-taking mood by 
simply being new. The technology changes, and even the great masters 
used a range of cameras across their careers.<br />
<span id="more-185858"></span><br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185861" style="width: 535px;">
<img alt="This shot was taken while I was at a stop light sitting on my Vespa. I looked up and the drama of the clouds struck me. I slipped the phone out of my pocket pointed it straight up and make this shot. It looked good in color, but the B&W was more dramatic." class="size-full wp-image-185861" height="700" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/clouds-and-buildings.jpg" width="525" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
This
 shot was taken while I was at a stop light sitting on my Vespa. I 
looked up and the drama of the clouds struck me. I slipped the phone out
 of my pocket pointed it straight up and make this shot. It looked good 
in color, but the B&W was more dramatic.</div>
</div>
<br />

But sometimes you leave your camera at home because it’s just too 
heavy and cumbersome. Compositions and photo movements abound, just 
because you don’t have your camera with you doesn’t mean you aren’t 
seeing and the photo opportunities are not present. Three things you 
don’t leave at home that are non-negotiable are; keys, wallet and mobile
 phone. The camera and phone combo may be the greatest technological 
achievement of the 21st century because it allows us to always have a 
camera with us, and the ability to share our images.<br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185862" style="width: 650px;">
<img alt="Taken at dusk on a bridge over the Arno River in Florence. I pushed the saturation to give it extra punch. I also shot this with my trusty Fuji X-Pro1, but made the same shot with the iPhone so I could tag and share it by the time I stepped off the bridge." class="size-full wp-image-185862" height="480" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/arno-river.jpg" width="640" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Taken
 at dusk on a bridge over the Arno River in Florence. I pushed the 
saturation to give it extra punch. I also shot this with my trusty Fuji 
XPro1, but made the same shot with the iPhone so I could tag and share 
it by the time I stepped off the bridge.</div>
</div>
My only ‘photo-phone’ experience so far has been using the Apple 
iPhone, so if you are going to call me an Apple fan boy, go ahead, I 
accept that moniker because I believe in the iPhone and started off with
 an iPhone 3 in 2007. The first photo I took was a homeless person in a 
ATM bank lobby. Later I would shoot what might have been the first 
iPhone wedding of NY fashion designer Michele Korn using only the iPhone
 3. <br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185863" style="width: 650px;">
<img alt="Keep your eyes open when walking and when you see something interesting, bam! You can capture faster than you can call your mom. Construction site for Hudson Yards project in NYC. " class="size-full wp-image-185863" height="421" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/hudson-yards-construction.jpg" width="640" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Keep
 your eyes open when walking and when you see something interesting, 
bam! You can capture faster than you can call your mom. Construction 
site for Hudson Yards project in NYC.</div>
</div>
I fell in love with the device, simply because it was always in my 
pocket! Dutifully I went from iPhone 3, to 4, to 4s, skipped a 5 and got
 the 6 early in 2015. The progression has been upward, but the 6 was a 
big leap in quality from its predecessors. All images shown in this blog
 post were taken this year with the iPhone 6.<br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185864" style="width: 485px;">
<img alt="Still life with the iPhone, you bet!" class="size-full wp-image-185864" height="700" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/homage-to-edward-weston.jpg" width="475" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Still life with the iPhone, you bet!</div>
</div>
So here are my 6 recommendations for getting better photos when shooting with an iPhone:<br />

<h3>
#1: Keep Your Lens Clean</h3>
Wipe you lens off each time you go to make a photograph. That lens is
 tiny, and you need it as clean as can be to maintain sharpness. A 
finger print will substantially soften the image and lower contrast. An 
actual smudge or what we call “schmutz” in New York will diffuse your 
image to the point of total failure. Use your t-shirt, a tissue, or 
whatever you have handy. Of course a micro fiber is the best choice. My 
wife Barbara keeps her iPhone in a micro fiber pouch to protect it in 
her pocket book from scratches and that makes a great way to keep the 
lens smudge and scratch free.<br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185865" style="width: 611px;">
<img alt="Nikki Sixx on tour with Six AM. I was about 15 feet back and did cropped in post. The colors were awful as most concert photography is, so I just converted to black and white. " class="size-full wp-image-185865" height="700" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/428.jpg" width="601" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Nikki
 Sixx on tour with Six AM. I was about 15 feet back and did cropped in 
post. The colors were awful as most concert photography is, so I just 
converted to black and white.</div>
</div>
<h3>
#2: Be Touchy</h3>
Your phone does have auto-focus and auto-exposure, but it can get 
fooled. Compose your image first, and then tap on the subject of your 
photo. Once you have a focus and exposure lock, you can then drag your 
finger up or down to adjust exposure. Very useful for backlit subjects 
and in that case, touch up for + exposure. This will come handy when you
 are shooting at the beach or in a snow scene.<br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185866" style="width: 650px;">
<img alt="View from Little Round Top over the Valley of Death at Gettysburg, PA. This is a great example of working the exposure. I tapped the cannon and then had to further adjust the exposure due to the setting sun in the photo." class="size-full wp-image-185866" height="505" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/little_round_top.jpg" width="640" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
View
 from Little Round Top over the Valley of Death at Gettysburg, PA. This 
is a great example of working the exposure. I tapped the cannon and then
 had to further adjust the exposure due to the setting sun in the photo.</div>
</div>
<h3>
#3: Shoot Standard</h3>
Capture with the standard camera setting. Don’t bother with the HDR 
mode, it’s better to adjust your image later in a post-processing app 
which we will talk about later. The standard photo is a 4:3 ratio which 
will give you a standard image. You might want to consider shooting in 
square mode if you plan on using Instagram, since Instagram forces you 
to use square compositions. This will save you having to crop later and 
perhaps missing a part of the image that you wanted in or is needed for 
the composition. Getting it as close to perfect in the capture, then 
fine tuning later in post is a great rule of thumb.<br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185867" style="width: 535px;">
<img alt="I saw this composition across the street and waited about 3 minutes for the traffic to clear. Look close, they are all on their phones! I corrected the perspective in Snapseed to make the lines all straight. " class="size-full wp-image-185867" height="700" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/take-a-break.jpg" width="525" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
I
 saw this composition across the street and waited about 3 minutes for 
the traffic to clear. Look close, they are all on their phones! I 
corrected the perspective in Snapseed to make the lines all straight.</div>
</div>
<h3>
#4: Avoid Flash</h3>
Turn the flash off. Yup, unless it is really dark, like the inside of
 club or outside at night and you are shooting a subject less than 7 
feet away, the flash (which is really a LED light and not a flash at 
all) will make a crappy photo. There are three settings, off, on, and 
auto. By default it’s on auto out of the box, you will want to set that 
to off. I never ever use the flash function, I hate the way it looks. A 
trick to use if you must shoot in the dark, is have a friend hold up 
their iPhone and use it as a flash light. This way, the angle of light 
gives shape as opposed to your flash right next to the lens making a 
flat over exposed image.<br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185868" style="width: 535px;">
<img alt="Go ahead, be that person who posts their food, but make sure it looks good! If you can’t shoot your dish in good light then just don’t. Use the table-cloth to add to the ambiance, feel free to arrange the salt shaker and utensils so it looks good. Never use the flash!" class="size-full wp-image-185868" height="700" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/pici.jpg" width="525" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Go
 ahead, be that person who posts their food, but make sure it looks 
good! If you can’t shoot your dish in good light then just don’t. Use 
the table cloth to add to the ambiance, feel free to arrange the salt 
shaker and utensils so it looks good. Never use the flash!</div>
</div>
<h3>
#5: Avoid Zoom</h3>
Use minimal if any zoom. Any zooming you do by pinching the image 
will digitally zoom it, and it’s better to just do that in a post app. I
 advocate if you are good with composition to use a little bit of zoom 
if you can’t physically get closer, like a shooting a building across a 
busy street, but really cropping should be done in post to maintain 
quality. When you have to 8 to 12 megapixels like the iPhone has, you 
have plenty of pixels to crop in post. Also, your focus can be tricked 
if you zoom heavily.<br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185869" style="width: 535px;">
<img alt="Street shooting with the iPhone you never miss a shot. Just keep an eye on the street signs so you don't get a ticket!" class="size-full wp-image-185869" height="700" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/parking-ticket.jpg" width="525" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Street shooting with the iPhone you never miss a shot. Just keep an eye on the street signs so you don’t get a ticket!</div>
</div>
<h3>
#6: Use Snapseed for Editing</h3>
Use the best app ever invented, and that is Snapseed (find it free on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapseed/id439438619?mt=8" target="_blank" title="">iTunes</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.niksoftware.snapseed&hl=en" target="_blank" title="">Google Play</a>). Invented by Nik and then <a href="http://petapixel.com/2012/09/17/google-snaps-up-snapseed-now-ready-to-battle-facebooks-instagram/">acquired by Google</a>,
 Snapseed does it all. I love Snapseed because it’s free, and it’s 
spectacular. I used to advocate Adobe PS Express and Camera bag but 
Google has super charged Snapseed into a beast of an app. And did I 
mention it’s free? Every image you see on this page was captured with 
the iPhone, then opened up with Snapseed and edited.<br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185870" style="width: 563px;">
<img alt="NY Harbor from a tall building in Battery Park. the Drama filter in Snapseed just really brings out the rays of light and clouds." class="size-full wp-image-185870" height="700" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/view-from-jerrys.jpg" width="553" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
NY
 Harbor from a tall building in Battery Park. the Drama filter in 
Snapseed just really brings out the rays of light and clouds.</div>
</div>
Well there you have it. Six tips to make you iPhone experience rock. Keep shooting!<br />

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_185871" style="width: 650px;">
<img alt="The house I summered in when I was a kid in the 70's. Bradley Beach. " class="size-full wp-image-185871" height="654" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/bradley_beach.jpg" width="640" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
The house I summered in when I was a kid in the 70’s. Bradley Beach.</div>
</div>
<img alt="armslength" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-185872" height="700" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/armslength.jpg" width="525" /><br />

And lastly, my two favorite things to shoot, my wife, Barbara, and the Raven Wing my Harley Davidson.<br />

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<a href="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/vespa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/10/vespa.jpg" width="563" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">source: <a href="http://petapixel.com/2015/10/11/6-tips-to-make-great-photographs-with-the-iphone-6/">http://petapixel.com/2015/10/11/6-tips-to-make-great-photographs-with-the-iphone-6/</a></span><br />

6 Tips to Make Great Photographs with the iPhone 6

When you leave home and hit the road, be it for work, play, or pretty much anything you set out to do, you should always carry a ca...

6 Tips to Make Great Photographs with the iPhone 6

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