Photos with iPhone 4!

So I finally caved (well finally gave up the money, I've wanted one for a while now) and got myself an iPhone. Its a pretty amazing little gadget, the first smart phone I have owned and so really blows me away. Its intuitive user interface and myriad of amazing features is very easy to get excited about, and its seemless integration with my macbook as far as calendars, photos and music goes is fantastic. I wont go on too much about the gadget itself, most of you probably know how cool / well featured they are. What I want to talk about, or more  importantly show you, is the amazing photographic ability of the 5mp camera.

The below photos were all taken in the first week or so of owning the phone, and were enhanced with Adobe Photoshop Express, a free app (one of many photographic apps) that can be downloaded to use on the phone to edit images after capture, ready for immediate upload. You can do it on the spot you stand as you take the image, it is simply phenomenal! The camera also has a built in HDR function which actually produces reasonable results, and with some tweaking, become pretty reasonable images. I must say in playing with PS express I have probably over worked the images a little, they look great on the stupidly high resolution screen of the phone but the viewing experience alters slightly on a computer screen. However you want to look at it, the fact you can now have such an impressive camera with you at all times even if you don't want to bring a separate camera is super cool! There are some more features that I will discuss below.

The first shot I took

A HDR image

Leftovers one night, Indian Tikka Masala and Thai Green Curry

Another HDR image featuring the Japanese Maple in front of our place. Soft focus processing.

The Leaves on the ground from the Maple, with high saturation and sharpening.

High Contrast and Saturation on this heart shaped Autumn leaf.

A HDR halo is noticeable around the top of the tree on this one.

It can be tough to get the balance right on an image you may normally use filters for, but this is remarkably better than the original image after playing around with exposure and contrast controls in PSE

Looking towards the North Shore from Kitsilano Beach. Highlight blown out by trying to get some detail in the dark foreground.

HDR again, I quite like the result here! nice punchy colour with saturation boost.

Went a bit extreme with this one after the sun light gave an interesting lens flare / bokeh effect.

Black and White conversion with contrast and exposure adjustment.

 So, even though these aren't world class images, they are still pretty amazing considering. I think the only thing I will use my point and shoot camera for in the future is time lapse! The iPhone camera has a built in flash with on/off/auto setting, a built in gps marker to tag your image with the location it was shot, and also has the capacity to shoot HD VIDEO!! I have yet to really play with that. I should also mention the ability to tap the screen when composing your image to direct the camera to focus on a certain subject in the frame, and the ability to tap a button and switch to the front facing camera for self portraits, IF you are that way inclined!!


I am looking forward to shooting some more images as the opportunities arise. Especially candid or street photography of interesting moments that I may observe when I DON'T have my camera with me!