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Quality of Photos

A

AFPoster

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 14, 2008
1,564
152
Charlotte, NC
So I'm getting into photography and videography and I am using my iPhone 6 Plus. I figure before I make the investment, I better make sure I am doing this more than just a one time thing.

That said, I always notice during the iPhone keynotes when they show off the quality of photos, they are outstanding. I still can't seem to take those types of photos. Is it fair to say that the photos / videos being used on the iPhone are really taken from a high-end DSLR. Because even if I take a great HDR shot, when I zoom it becomes grainy, but Apples in the Keynote is still crisp.

Just curious
 
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Maybe you are just a bad photographer? I really doubt apple is lying to the consumer when they show photos taken on an iphone campaign. I have been able to get fantastic results with my iphone 5s over the years.
 
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I'm not even close to a pro photographer but the images on my 6S from both cams have been great quality so far. So I think the keynote images are legit.
 
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It's a point and shoot camera and we're not professionals. Just because Apple took it with an iPhone doesn't mean there weren't slave flashes, backfill flashes, light reflectors and absorbers, manipulation by apps, etc. I think there are some shenanigans going on with Apple's demo photos. But Apple knows the limitations of the camera better than anyone and can compose a photo so as to minimize the shortcomings and highlight the strengths.

Take a look at the photos thread and see what regular people are doing with their phones and compare them to your photos.
 
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PNutts said:
Just because Apple took it with an iPhone doesn't mean there weren't slave flashes, backfill flashes, light reflectors and absorbers, manipulation by apps, etc.
Click to expand...

They specifically said in the keynote that the photos were unedited, so I don't think there is any post-processing going on. Use of tripod, supplementary lighting etc.? Quite possibly, especially for video: check out the behind the scenes video about the "1.24.14" ad that was shot on iPhones for a look at the sort of gear that gets used.
 
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It's like when they demonstrate face time. The picture quality i get during FT is never as flawless as they show.
 
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Assuming you have decent amounts of light you can take great photos with any recent iPhone. Two things come to mind, one is the aforementioned amounts of light, the second is any potential vibrations. Try leaning on something when you take photos, and if there's nothing around to lean on, at least make sure you keep your elbows pressed against your chest. That should help quite a bit.
 
Just experiment and take lots of images. It is a learning process. The more light the better as when light is dim, the iPhone turns up the ISO and will cause noise or mushy details from the camera applying Noise reduction.
 
The sample pictures Apple shows are always easy targets. Bright beautiful landscapes, flowers in the spring, autumn leaves, that kind of stuff. It's actually hard to take a bad picture in those conditions. Quality quickly detoriates when suddenly you're taking a picture of an everyday not-so-spectacular scene in suboptimal conditions.

Just think about: what exactly makes the sample photos look so good? Is it really the quality of the camera? Or is it the scenery and/or the subject of the photo?

It's all marketing. They're not lying, their photos are real, but still it is some form of trickery. Just look at this page: http://www.apple.com/nl/iphone-6s/cameras/photos/ . It's actually harder to take a picture of beautiful scenery that looks bad than one that looks good.

I also notice all the pictures are downsized to about ~2MP, which makes noise and stuff disappear at the cost of detail.
 
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PNutts said:
It's a point and shoot camera and we're not professionals. Just because Apple took it with an iPhone doesn't mean there weren't slave flashes, backfill flashes, light reflectors and absorbers, manipulation by apps, etc. I think there are some shenanigans going on with Apple's demo photos. But Apple knows the limitations of the camera better than anyone and can compose a photo so as to minimize the shortcomings and highlight the strengths.

Take a look at the photos thread and see what regular people are doing with their phones and compare them to your photos.
Click to expand...

This is incredibly insightful. Never would have thought of the additional steps Apple can be taking when utilizing the camera in a shoot.

CNeufeld said:
Did you look at this thread?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-6s-camera-vs-professional-dslr.1930560/#post-22118013

C
Click to expand...
I have not until now. Thanks for sharing!

willmtaylor said:
Don't zoom. Ever.
Be very still.
Experiment with focal points and exposure.
Investigate other camera apps.
Click to expand...
When I mentioned zoom, I was referring to after the photo was taken, to zoom in on the detail. In Apple keynotes they do this and it's crisp the whole way through. When I do this, even with proper lighting, etc...mine get's grainy as I zoom
 
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While the new 12MP offers more ability to enlarge a photograph, it's still not the same architecture as a DSLR chip and you'll definitely notice that difference at full crop. We're also at limited by it's small lens and inability to optically zoom. That being said, you can still get some pretty great photos out of it at a decent size, I have a couple of 40x30 prints from it that have came out great. IMO point and shoot at its finest but for photographers used to a DSLR, still not quite there yet.
 
Im sorry but who the hell uses a phone camera for photography.... yes the iPhone has nice camera but seriously...
 
Polaroid said:
Im sorry but who the hell uses a phone camera for photography.... yes the iPhone has nice camera but seriously...
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I do, on a daily basis pretty much. And I work as a photographer. Clearly I don't use my iPhone for any professional work, but I certainly use it for decent shots in all other regards. The best camera is the one you actually have with you, I always have my phone with me.
 
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AFPoster said:
So I'm getting into photography and videography and I am using my iPhone 6 Plus. I figure before I make the investment, I better make sure I am doing this more than just a one time thing.

That said, I always notice during the iPhone keynotes when they show off the quality of photos, they are outstanding. I still can't seem to take those types of photos. Is it fair to say that the photos / videos being used on the iPhone are really taken from a high-end DSLR. Because even if I take a great HDR shot, when I zoom it becomes grainy, but Apples in the Keynote is still crisp.

Just curious
Click to expand...

It is the device/iOS. The iPhone 6/6+ and 6S/6S+ have great cameras BUT the do not have good fine level detail when compared to other top end devices and DSLR cameras.

For any who want to see an obvious example: walk into the street with parallel parked cars and look down the street. Focus at a mid-point of the street so you can see the cars and their license plates. Take photos of any definition you want, HDR or not. Take your photo and look at it on your phone or another device and see how far down the row of cars you can read the license plates. The stock results are not top of the line. DSLR and other high end phones take better photos.
I've done this with a few devices and found that in all cases the iPhone has an issue with fine level detail when zooming in. This looks like it is an application of the compression algorithm as some apps can take pictures with a better level of detail for output than the stock iOS camera.
For casual use this is a great device. For professionals or classroom work, unless this is what you want, you might want to look at alternatives.
 
iapplelove said:
My 6 plus takes outstanding photos, when the lighting is right.
Click to expand...
Yeah good amounts of light is really the key. As soon as the light goes as does the quality. No smartphone really has a sensor big enough, or optics good enough, to get good low light shots... yet.
 
Rhonindk said:
It is the device/iOS. The iPhone 6/6+ and 6S/6S+ have great cameras BUT the do not have good fine level detail when compared to other top end devices and DSLR cameras.

For any who want to see an obvious example: walk into the street with parallel parked cars and look down the street. Focus at a mid-point of the street so you can see the cars and their license plates. Take photos of any definition you want, HDR or not. Take your photo and look at it on your phone or another device and see how far down the row of cars you can read the license plates. The stock results are not top of the line. DSLR and other high end phones take better photos.
I've done this with a few devices and found that in all cases the iPhone has an issue with fine level detail when zooming in. This looks like it is an application of the compression algorithm as some apps can take pictures with a better level of detail for output than the stock iOS camera.
For casual use this is a great device. For professionals or classroom work, unless this is what you want, you might want to look at alternatives.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it would be nice if they allowed you to shoot in raw for this very reason. I know some of the Android phones do.
 
ericgtr12 said:
Yeah, it would be nice if they allowed you to shoot in raw for this very reason. I know some of the Android phones do.
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Try out ProCamera8: http://www.imore.com/best-manual-camera-apps-iphone#slide6

"ProCamera 8 boasts an entire repertoire of features and manual controls and even TIFF image export, which is about as close as you'll get to RAW in iOS. The vividHDR feature in ProCamera 8 also works stunningly well and really makes your images pop. There are a lot of tasteful live filters to choose from too."​
 
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willmtaylor said:
Try out ProCamera8: http://www.imore.com/best-manual-camera-apps-iphone#slide6

"ProCamera 8 boasts an entire repertoire of features and manual controls and even TIFF image export, which is about as close as you'll get to RAW in iOS. The vividHDR feature in ProCamera 8 also works stunningly well and really makes your images pop. There are a lot of tasteful live filters to choose from too."​
Click to expand...
Great minds think alike eh? ^^
 
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AFPoster said:
So I'm getting into photography and videography and I am using my iPhone 6 Plus. I figure before I make the investment, I better make sure I am doing this more than just a one time thing.

That said, I always notice during the iPhone keynotes when they show off the quality of photos, they are outstanding. I still can't seem to take those types of photos. Is it fair to say that the photos / videos being used on the iPhone are really taken from a high-end DSLR. Because even if I take a great HDR shot, when I zoom it becomes grainy, but Apples in the Keynote is still crisp.

Just curious
Click to expand...

Sounds like you could use some help. The advise I've seen here is good, but one place you can go and get the max amount of info is:

iphonephotographyschool.com

Great articles and it's free.

Good luck! :cool:
 
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