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Live photos are a selling factor.

shahin90

shahin90

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 23, 2012
136
66
I went for a hike today at Garibaldi Lake in B.C. and took live photos from the waterfall, rivers, and friends posing. I can tell you that the photos look amazing with this feature and make the pictures bring a lot of great memories and we really enjoyed watching them. It amazed my friends and convinced them to get the new iPhone. I'm not sure why people think this feature is a gimmick.

Btw, I had to reduce picture quality a bit to upload.
IMG_0202.jpg
 
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That's a gorgeous photo! I was taking some beach pics earlier today as well and the 4k as well as live photos look fantastic. The significant camera improvements combined with force touch and TouchID make this a stellar upgrade. I don't see how it can get better than this, aside from shrieked bezels.
 
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I won't say it's a gimmick, but it is disappointing that this is unique to the new devices. I can't think of a hardware requirement that renders previous devices incapable of recording like this (do correct me if I am wrong).

Being that pics take twice the space, I see that being potentially restrictive to someone who takes a lot of photos. I realize you can toggle, but you probably aren't going to be toggling much in the heat of the moment; I believe much of the best pics are spontaneous rather than the staged "day cheese!"

For me it's certainly not a selling feature. It's a cool feature that I will use, but I wouldn't pick s phone up just for this. And as a side note, you can mimicking the functionality on a non 6s/plus device by taking burst and uploading them to google (there is a setting for this to happen automatically so it's virtually seamless). It automatically stitches them into little "videos". Look basically the same (no sound though).
 
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shahin90 said:
I'm not sure why people think this feature is a gimmick.
Click to expand...

If 0% of viewers can see a live photo you are trying to share on the web then I think it's clear why people think this feature is a gimmick.


Don't take my snarky comment wrong. As a photographer then I was actually very very excited for this feature. But after using it for but then several things became very clear as to why this CURRENT version is a gimmick:

1) Sharing. The limitations in showing a photo are a big deal. You wanted to sell the forum as to why the gimmick isn't a gimmick but you can't show us the Live Photo that is supposedly so amazing.

2) Low quality of non-Keyframes. The comoression of the surrounding frames are not clear or high quality. So you have a good shot surrounded by moving blocks

3) Blur when launching animation. These aren't the Harry Potter photos people expected because that blur when you activate a shot is just jarring. Apple needs to find a way to loop the file from the main shot to make it more fluid.

4) Tripod Required. Okay, not "required" but the slightest movement at such a low frame rate makes it very unpleasant to view.

And now the big one that will upset people...

5) Apple did Live Photos wrong
While the idea of grabbing surrounding frames around a picture makes sense, it seems like the right way to do this is to turn a high quality 4K video burst into a photo. This may create a very small workflow (edit, trim, save) but the results would be more consistent frames and far more visual appeal.

Okay well that's my view. I'll keep using it because It's a good 1.0 start but it won't graduate from "gimmick" for a generation or two and I definitely wouldn't say this particular version of Live Photos is a reason for someone to buy a 6S.
 
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urkel said:
If 0% of viewers can see a live photo you are trying to share on the web then I think it's clear why people think this feature is a gimmick.


Don't take my snarky comment wrong. As a photographer then I was actually very very excited for this feature. But after using it for but then several things became very clear as to why this CURRENT version is a gimmick:

1) Sharing. The limitations in showing a photo are a big deal. You wanted to sell the forum as to why the gimmick isn't a gimmick but you can't show us the Live Photo that is supposedly so amazing.

2) Low quality of non-Keyframes. The comoression of the surrounding frames are not clear or high quality. So you have a good shot surrounded by moving blocks

3) Blur when launching animation. These aren't the Harry Potter photos people expected because that blur when you activate a shot is just jarring. Apple needs to find a way to loop the file from the main shot to make it more fluid.

4) Tripod Required. Okay, not "required" but the slightest movement at such a low frame rate makes it very unpleasant to view.

And now the big one that will upset people...

5) Apple did Live Photos wrong
While the idea of grabbing surrounding frames around a picture makes sense, it seems like the right way to do this is to turn a high quality 4K video burst into a photo. This may create a very small workflow (edit, trim, save) but the results would be more consistent frames and far more visual appeal.

Okay well that's my view. I'll keep using it because It's a good 1.0 start but it won't graduate from "gimmick" for a generation or two and I definitely wouldn't say this particular version of Live Photos is a reason for someone to buy a 6S.
Click to expand...

You are looking at this from a professional photographer perspective. I am not expecting these photos to create a video. They create a gif like image for me with sound and the point is the memories they bring which looks amazing to me tbh.
 
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lordofthereef said:
I won't say it's a gimmick, but it is disappointing that this is unique to the new devices. I can't think of a hardware requirement that renders previous devices incapable of recording like this (do correct me if I am wrong).

Being that pics take twice the space, I see that being potentially restrictive to someone who takes a lot of photos. I realize you can toggle, but you probably aren't going to be toggling much in the heat of the moment; I believe much of the best pics are spontaneous rather than the staged "day cheese!"

For me it's certainly not a selling feature. It's a cool feature that I will use, but I wouldn't pick s phone up just for this. And as a side note, you can mimicking the functionality on a non 6s/plus device by taking burst and uploading them to google (there is a setting for this to happen automatically so it's virtually seamless). It automatically stitches them into little "videos". Look basically the same (no sound though).
Click to expand...

The A9 may also have something to do with being capable of always constantly taking the before and after shot to make the Live.
 
Yea I took a few pics of the fog-topped buildings in downtown Atlanta tonight and caught a few cars zooming by in front of me. Really made the whole thing pop. Was really cool. Too bad we can only tell each other about these "pics".
 
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urkel said:
If 0% of viewers can see a live photo you are trying to share on the web then I think it's clear why people think this feature is a gimmick.


Don't take my snarky comment wrong. As a photographer then I was actually very very excited for this feature. But after using it for but then several things became very clear as to why this CURRENT version is a gimmick:

1) Sharing. The limitations in showing a photo are a big deal. You wanted to sell the forum as to why the gimmick isn't a gimmick but you can't show us the Live Photo that is supposedly so amazing.

2) Low quality of non-Keyframes. The comoression of the surrounding frames are not clear or high quality. So you have a good shot surrounded by moving blocks

3) Blur when launching animation. These aren't the Harry Potter photos people expected because that blur when you activate a shot is just jarring. Apple needs to find a way to loop the file from the main shot to make it more fluid.

4) Tripod Required. Okay, not "required" but the slightest movement at such a low frame rate makes it very unpleasant to view.

And now the big one that will upset people...

5) Apple did Live Photos wrong
While the idea of grabbing surrounding frames around a picture makes sense, it seems like the right way to do this is to turn a high quality 4K video burst into a photo. This may create a very small workflow (edit, trim, save) but the results would be more consistent frames and far more visual appeal.

Okay well that's my view. I'll keep using it because It's a good 1.0 start but it won't graduate from "gimmick" for a generation or two and I definitely wouldn't say this particular version of Live Photos is a reason for someone to buy a 6S.
Click to expand...

Considering one of the most popular video sharing formats at the moment is highly compressed 3-10 second 256-color gifs, I think you may be grossly overestimating the quality people demand of short impromptu videos. If you want professional-looking, high-quality video, that's what the actual video recording option is for.

The whole idea behind this is that you don't think about shooting video. You just take still photos like you always have, but later on you can replay that little bit of immersion. Most of the videos will probably be pretty bad, but some of them will be surprisingly good. Looking back at 15 years of photos I have in my library, there are sure a lot of old photos that I would really enjoy being able to play a snippet from - heck, even if it was just the audio without the video, it would still be cool. It takes you back to the moment in the way a static shot just can't.
 
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non-6s owners can view live phones. All they have to do is click on the phone (as you do normally) and then press and hold. Sent a few live photos to my friend she has a regular 6 with iOS 9, she was able to view the animation
 
shahin90 said:
I went for a hike today at Garibaldi Lake in B.C. and took live photos from the waterfall, rivers, and friends posing. I can tell you that the photos look amazing with this feature and make the pictures bring a lot of great memories and we really enjoyed watching them. It amazed my friends and convinced them to get the new iPhone. I'm not sure why people think this feature is a gimmick.

Btw, I had to reduce picture quality a bit to upload.
View attachment 586728
Click to expand...
I just saved your picture and tried to play it as a live photo. No dice
 
I've taken live photos and then regular photos and compared them. Seems like the live photos are lesser quality to my eye. I've left it off. I might turn it on when I take pics of the kiddos.
 
Actor0209 said:
The A9 may also have something to do with being capable of always constantly taking the before and after shot to make the Live.
Click to expand...
I don't think so. At least not the before part. The way most smartphone cameras (including iPhones of yesteryear) work is by "constantly recording" and then just saving a particular frame in that feed. I can't speak of "the next 1.5 seconds", but the video before the frame is absolutely already being buffered.
 
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I was a little excited to use this feature because it seemed cool. But the truth is its terrible! It's a total gimmick. Is it cool once in a while, yes. But it's a gimmick. And hardly a key reason to upgrade.
 
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