I have several boxes and bins of old photos in storage in my
house. If I’m looking for a certain photo, it can take hours to look through
them all to find just that right one. Using an iPhone for all my photography
over the past five years now only saves me that space, but also affords me more
creativity as an amateur. Professionals using digital cameras benefit from the
space-saving technology, but those that use iOS especially benefit from the
creativity angle.
Using an iPhone
for all my photography over the past five years now only saves me that space,
but also affords me more creativity as an amateur
Digital cameras have been available commercially for the
past twenty years. While we recognized some of the benefits of them, we didn’t
fully embrace the technology, as more often than not, we snapped the pictures
in digital form, but still insisted on printing them out. Everyone still wanted
that hard copy to hold on to, while we also enjoyed forwarding them to our
family and friends via email. Yet, we didn’t do anything to them. These were
just the photos that we took as we took them.
Two things happened in technology to change photography
permanently and for the better. The iPhone and Facebook. Cell phones included
cameras on them before, but the iPhone made it different. For one thing, it had
a strong output with 2.0 megapixels, better than most other cell phones of the
time, like zoom, but no one seemed to mind because of the other included
features. It was so easy to share the photos via email. They could quickly be
sent to friends and family, and they looked great.
Two things
happened in technology to change photography permanently and for the better.
The iPhone and Facebook.
But what really made photography with an iPhone different
was the arrival of third party apps and Facebook. Everything is now available
digitally, so much so that throughout time, many people have given up on
printing photos out, unless it’s for a specific need. Most people do so much of
the handling of their photos on their own, that there isn’t even as much of a
need for photo developing services at the local drug store.
Originally, the Camera app and Photos app were a little on
the limiting side, but the third party apps opened this up. The third party
apps were needed at first just to be able to do simple editing, such as
cropping and rotating, but soon the third party apps were adding additional
functions as well. There are so many things that can be done digitally to
photos, so many artistic and creative things, as well as fun.
You can literally download dozens of photo apps, and I have,
and literally have a little something different that each photo does. Along
with the cropping and rotating, you can also apply any number of different
filters. Additionally there are apps that can do 360 degree panoramic pictures
and alter the image in every way imaginable.
Every picture
taken could now be synched to every iOS device and Mac computer owned.
These iOS apps were so successful that Apple didn’t stop
there. They picked up those same ideas and put them into Mac apps. They’ve
always had iPhoto, but that just wasn’t enough compared to all the additional
creativity coming out of the iOS apps. They made it possible to do all the same
things on both the iPhone and the Mac, and what made it even better was when
the cloud technology was developed, and Apple utilized it with Photo Stream.
Every picture taken could now be synched to every iOS device and Mac computer
owned.
All of this worked so well together that it became very
curious as to why the iPad didn’t have a great camera. The iPhone was being
used to take phenomenal professional grade pictures, and the Mac was being used
to edit pictures taken with other digital cameras. Apple was making a play to
insert itself in the photography community, yet its newest device, the iPad,
couldn’t deliver pictures of great quality. This was fixed by the third
generation iPad as it received the great camera it should have had all along.
Apple didn’t stop
there as they also brought their iPhoto software to their iOS devices
Apple didn’t stop there as they also brought their iPhoto
software to their iOS devices, both the iPhone and the iPad, assumably so that
every great photo service they offered would be available universally
throughout their computers and devices. And of course, Photo Stream links all
of them together as well. Great photos can be taken on both iPhone and iPad,
and they can be edited on all devices and computers.
There doesn’t seem to be a reason to stray away from Apple
for any photography need. But that’s just from a amateur standpoint. What about
from a professional photographer’s standpoint? My daughter is a photography
student, and they’re still learning everything the old-fashioned way. They’re
taking pictures via film and developing them and adding effects through the
processing. From an educational standpoint, it’s probably beneficial to have to
learn how to do it this way, but it’s clearly not needed.
