A really interesting thing happened to me this year that I want to share with you. This spring and summer I became very disenchanted with my DSLR camera.
Curiously, and to my complete amazement, I am finding my smartphone, which is one of the latest versions, to be more than adequate for taking 95% of the pictures while I’m at home.
At home, in my day-to-day wanderings, errands, being with my kids, just general daily life, my smartphone is allowing me to be very spontaneous and creative in moments that ordinarily I wouldn’t or couldn’t have been with my DSLR.
There used to be a time when I would carry my DSLR with me everywhere- but not anymore. Age is a part of it, it’s pretty heavy! But it is also that I’m getting used to a very light portable camera that is always with me – and when I’m not using my DSLR, I often completely forget about it.
All the photos in this post are shot on my smartphone.
This out of focus photo, taken from a moving car, totally fascinated me. This is so not my usual style, but the colours and feeling of it is beautiful to me.
I didn’t use my smartphone for many years because I didn’t consider it a real camera. This has changed for me in the past 2 years.
I mean, I still don’t think of my photos from my smartphone as my “legitimate photography” but I’m starting to. I haven’t completely overcome that mental hurdle – yet.
But the quality is getting better with each new phone, so maybe one day I may be dumping my DSLR and going full smartphone? Honestly, I wouldn’t mind.
At the Arles photo festival this year. Pretty interesting….. 🙂
I think, like many people do, that the future of photography lies with software and very small cameras.
When cameras can be super high quality and fit in your front pocket – then why would you want to carry a big DSLR or even a mirrorless camera with you? Smartphones are only going to get better, so they’re going to have a much wider range of abilities than they have now and it’s all coming very fast.
I know mirrorless cameras have only just really kind of come to their own but I think it’s a little bit too late.
I think within the next five years the quality of smartphones will be comparable to a DSLR.
Some people say 10 years, but I think it’s going to be much quicker than that.
I am discovering there are many advantages of shooting with a smartphone.
For example, my kids totally accept me shooting them with my phone, but if I pick up my DSLR with its gigantic lens and I put that in their faces, they run away.
What has been a big shift for me is to realise that I am now shooting a lot of images that will never be prints.
This is strange, because I have always photographed on the assumption that my very best images will come to be printed.
But smartphones are not quite there yet on the quality, and so cannot resolve the fine detail that you want for prints.
I had to face the facts that these photos are strictly for screens, which nowadays is 99% of all photography.
And when I did accept this fact, and almost split my brain into photos for ‘screens’ and photos for ‘prints’, I realised I could play more with my creativity, experiment and have fun with this new way of shooting.
My photography becomes a multi-facetted pleasure – and so it’s not always about the end result – which in the past was a ‘good print’.
With the freedom of experimentation what I find myself doing with my smartphone photos is to over-process them – and I actually feel good about it!
I like pushing that contrast and I like pushing a saturation. Sometimes they give me more of an illustrative feel that an actual photograph and I think this might be due to the lack of detail and the lack of high-resolution.
I’ll push the color and push the contrast to make up for what is lacking in the more traditional photography sense: quality and detail.
So there – maybe I am not ready to give up my DSLR yet, but I am enjoying the ease of smartphone shooting, and not worrying about its limitations.
I’d love to know, are you shooting with your smartphone? Maybe you are only shooting with this now? What do you love / not love about this new photo medium?
Let me know in the comments – it’s great hearing your thoughts.
Happy photographing,
Anthony and Diana
Lisa
05/11/2019 @ 2:34 PM
Good question. Some time ago, I remember seeing a chart showing the megapixels needed for various print sizes, and it left me very confused, because it just didn’t seem to work that way with my phone camera. I later recall reading a post explaining that the pixels/megapixels on a DSLR and those on a smartphone are not created equal due to the size of the sensors. So back to square one…
At any rate, the only sizes I’ve ever attempted to print are 4×6, 5×7, and 8×10. The 8×10’s have given me mixed results, but those with much sky in the background are often quite grainy when printed at that size. I imagine, though, that the more expensive phones would do a better job than my economy model.
This may or may not be of value in answering the question, but the available picture sizes on my particular phone are as follows:
4:3 (5.0M) 2576×1932
4:3 (3.1M) 2048×1536
16:9 (3.7M) 2560×1440
16:9 (2.4M) 2048×1152
1:1 (3.7M) 1920×1920
Maybe a dumb question, but does the M stand for meters? And how exactly do I use that information? 🤔
Lisa
05/11/2019 @ 2:38 PM
Oops! Let me try that again:
4:3 (5.0M) 2576×1932
4:3 (3.1M) 2048×1536
16:9 (3.7M) 2560×1440
16:9 (2.4M) 2048×1152
1:1 (3.7M) 1920×1920
Ralph Rinke
20/10/2019 @ 3:43 AM
Hello Anthony,
I enjoyed your article and especially the moving car photo, nice.
I’ve been using my iphone for a number of years now and find it very liberating and rewarding.
I have enough resolution to print my images in platinum/palladium and cyanotype. I do print small and over mat, but enjoy using the “camera” at hand.
With everything online these days, you really don’t need much more if all you do is post to the web.
If you’re interested in my iphone pics, have a look – https://www.instagram.com/ralphrinke/, they were all taken with my iphone except one.
Again, enjoyed the article.
Anthony Epes
25/10/2019 @ 6:44 AM
Hi Ralph
Very interesting comment you made. Are you saying you are making platinum/palladium prints from a smartphone?? How do you get them to the negative state?
Dawn Penso
19/10/2019 @ 8:38 PM
I used my smartphone exclusively on a trip to Guatemala with a friend about 18 months ago. Unfortunately she dropped her camera the day we arrived and had no backup camera so I loaned her my compact zoom and used my phone, the intention being to take it back after a day or two. Well of course I couldn’t really be that unkind so used the smartphone for all my shots. It was a great experience, I had to think much more about composition, where to stand, and was truly amazed at the quality of the shots, some taken in relatively low light in the forests of the highlands. I like the idea of smartphones taking the place of mirror less cameras, although I’m delighted with my Fuji system, but weight and convenience are winning features.
Anthony Epes
25/10/2019 @ 6:46 AM
You are a much kinder person than me Dawn. I would want my camera back right away…and give my friend my phone! 🙂
Lisa
19/10/2019 @ 4:23 AM
Hi! I’m intrigued by your article. At this point, the only digital camera I own is built into my $100 smartphone. Is it a great camera? Not by any stretch of the imagination. However, it has stretched MY imagination, trying to improve my limited photography skills with nothing but a smartphone. Surprisingly, some of my photos have actually been good enough printed as 8×10’s to win first, second, or third place at our local fair. I doubt that even the best ones would print well any larger than that.
There are some obvious advantages, of course, to using a smartphone camera (even a cheap one like mine), but I feel rather handicapped. I’m really looking forward to getting a DSLR, so that I can learn more about and practice both the technical and the creative aspects of good photography. ☺
Anthony Epes
25/10/2019 @ 6:54 AM
What i would like to know is – what is the maximum recommended print size for these phone cameras? With 35mm film it was 5×7 inch, though printing much larger, like 16×20, still gave great results.
I guess we have to go by the megapixel rule just like you would with a DSLR, but for some reason that does not seem right to me. The reason being – smartphones do not pick up much detail with their tiny sensors but can still be 10+ megapixels. There should be another standard here! Anyone, Bueller, anyone…
Mary Newth
18/10/2019 @ 7:38 PM
Anthony…..
I shoot with my Nikon when I go out for a shooting adventure and to do small set up indoors. I also walk 15 miles a week for exercise. I carry my iPhone to track my miles and use the camera while I walk. I have found that my “seeing” skills have improved greatly because there is nothing else to do when I’m walking but look around and think. I edit my iPhone photos with Snap Seed which works much like Lightroom, so I also get editing practice. I have gotten some really awesome photos over time. If I see something worth the trip back I try to recapture it in my camera.
Anthony Epes
25/10/2019 @ 6:56 AM
That sounds like a very peaceful and practical experience. How many times has it worked going back to capture it with your camera? I find success there very elusive.
Sandra
18/10/2019 @ 6:33 PM
I have stopped using my camera altogether now that I have the P20 Pro. I get much better images from my phone and can edit and post on the fly. The only time I ever printed photos was for photography course assignments, so I’m not worried about losing that quality.
Traveling with only a phone camera is liberating and makes one less of a target in sketchy areas. I always use a wrist tether to deter theft and lessen the possibility of dropping my phone.
Anthony Epes
25/10/2019 @ 6:59 AM
What camera did you decide to abandone for a phone?…(this is the future people! Just what I said in the article, like it or not it has begun!)
🙂
Alison Wishart
18/10/2019 @ 6:10 PM
Hi Anthony – loved this article ! I don’t use my phone as much as I should (and after enjoying this article I plan to make more of an effort). I find the phone awkward to handle as a camera and with the screen glare it feels a bit less under control . Alison
Anthony Epes
25/10/2019 @ 7:01 AM
I think screen glare and actually seeing what is in the frame is the toughest bit about using a phone as camera. That and the serious lack of depth of field control ( soon to be fixed im sure). Glad you liked the article.
Marcia Clement
18/10/2019 @ 5:48 PM
I’ve gone from a DSLR to a mirrorless because of the size and weight while travelling. I hadn’t done much with my smartphone, an IPhone 7 until I went to Ireland in September. I decided I would challenge myself to use only my IPhone while I was in Dublin, thinking that when I rented a car I would use my mirrorless because I could just pull it out whenever I stopped. However, to my surprise, I found my IPhone so much handier that I ended up using it 95% of the whole trip. The only downside (if you can call it that) was that while I am by no means a professional photographer, I felt even less so when I was just one more of the crowd holding up a smartphone!! I suspect that in the future unless I intend to be photographing wildlife, for example, where a good zoom lens is useful, I will travel with just my IPhone which is so much more compact and useful for so many other things.
Marcia Clement
Ottawa, Canada
Anthony Epes
25/10/2019 @ 7:05 AM
Honestly, I feel the same way about looking just like another amateur with a camera phone. I think i am over it now because of my technique, which is to not stand or be near anyone else who is taking pictures…makes me feel better about being a photographer. Superior even! Haha 🙂
You have a very nice camera. DO NOT abandone it yet!!