Kim A. Thomas, a photographer out of San Francisco, recently shot an entire wedding using just her iPhone. She processed everything using Instagram as well. The couple, Jonathan and Brandi, wanted her to do so by request. She never used an SLR for any of the shots. Her main camera was the iPhone 4s with an iPhone 4 as a backup. She did use an SLR mount for her lenses and a tripod. Take a look at the shots and let us know what you think of them!
Here's a shot of the full array of equipment she used during the wedding:
“I photographed the wedding with my iPhone 4s, along with a backup iPhone 4, an SLR Mount and my 50mm f1.4, the Glif Plus and an Olloclip (all from Photojojo). I brought my tripod along for stabilization in what would possibly be a poorly lit City Hall, and I also brought along my phone charger (not pictured). To my surprise, the light in City Hall was perfect.”
Kim writes about the decision,
“I've heard of iPhone weddings before, but I've only heard of 1 (maybe 2, according to Google), and so when Jonathan told me he was looking for a photographer to photograph their wedding with only an iPhone, I was esctastic. While I love my 5D, I'm a huge Instagram user and take more photos with my iPhone than any other camera I have. It's the camera, er, phone, I always have on me, and it's what has documented some of my best memories.”
Be sure to check out the full blog post to read about all the other details from the wedding!
Here are the shots from the wedding below.
[Via Photojojo via Kim A. Thomas]
Fantastic!
Neat :) I'd process these w/Snapseed and shoot w/King Camera. Instagram is not really a photo editor.
LOL, well the photos are decent, but I doubt with that resolution you'd be able to get any decent size prints out of it. I hope they got a good price on the wedding photography, or free.
Ben
You would be surprised. I work in a pro-commercial print lab that also
does pro ink-jet print work for museums around our city. The guy that does the
printing can get a good 1 meter x 1 meter print out of a hipstamatic
file.
I dig these a lot!
I guess my complaint is, there's nothing here you can't do stylistically in photoshop, and now they can't decide later that maybe they want something a little cleaner down the road? Oh well, to each their own.
Really well done. A Big High Five.
These are really nice! I love that the couple wanted this. I wish she would have used VSCO Camera app. That app would take these images to another level.
Per the photographers original post
" I also used PhotoForge2 for straightening and enhancing a few photos, and VSCO cam for a handful of other photos. "
These have way more character than most wedding photo I have seen...Including my own.
With the limited tools Kim had at hand, no doubt she did a wonderful job. And most of all, she delivered what the client requested. However, I believe that later on, the client will want professionally crafted and edited prints, which a phone camera or a social network photo editor can't deliver. I wouldn't do the job without assuring with a second (and also a third) shooter would take those another pictures, which are really worth the price the client pays in the end.
Good luck printing those out.
I think she did a good job with these, but what was the couple thinking? Next they're going to hire a carpenter to add a garage to their house, but instead of having him use his expertise to decide which tools to use for the job, they're only going to let him use his hammer and a hand saw...
I think this is actually a cool way for the photographer to have fun doing something different and the client gets unique looking images for a very reasonable price. You would have to make sure they understood the limitations up front for sure. I like the images and think an Instagram wedding was a cool idea.
This is just dumb. Maybe for some shots. I do love Instagram, but man this the overkill! Shoot with a damn camera. If you love the Instagram look so much, have your photog apply the filters after. They're really not that difficult to achieve! As Garrett mentions above, there's just far too many limitations. And moments missed!
Soooo limiting. I don't see one close-up intense moment. No details shots? Boring Hipsters
I'm starting to think that you didn't read the whole article, or research this further before you commented. These are only some, of the 120 photos that the photographer submitted to the couple. So maybe there are some detail shots like you'd like to see but we just didn't get to see them. It's also unfair to assume that the photographer is a "boring hipster" and it's unfair to assume that it's a negative thing when first off, it was the couple's choice to shoot the wedding on an iPhone and iPhone only and ultimately that it yielded unique results. How often do all wedding photos look exactly the same? In this case the photographer faced a new challenge of shooting a wedding in a cropped mode, with a limiting camera and she overcame those challenges and provided some excellent results. If you take a look at her portfolio, she's a very talented photographer and it's unfair to be so rude and dismissive after one quick glance at an except of her work.
Louis's comment used the plural of the word hipster. Since there were two clients, and only one photographer, I assume he was calling out the clients. It would probably be "unfair to assume that the photographer is a 'boring hipster.'" It's a good thing he didn't do that. It's unfortunate that you didn't read his comment or research further before you were so rude and dismissive after one quick glance at what he wrote.
(by the way, the word is excerpt, not except)
It's an interesting idea, and perhaps fun to do for a portion of the shots at the wedding... But shooting the whole thing on iPhones?! Nah.
If the clients happy with them, and will continue to be happy with them for the rest of their lives then great for them, but in the end they look exactly like what they are... camera phone pictures/snaps at a wedding.
I´m sooo gonna use an Iphone for my next wedding!!
haha,.. it's freakin awesome,.. but still we should provide the backup documentation from SLR. :-)
Love the idea of departing from the traditional photography ideal of using a regular dslr and experimenting with different media!
i want to be all snobby but the pics speak for themselves, really great work, the resolution is usable its a shame for the couple they cant print these out it big sizes, that said i know not everyone wants prints and you can still get decent small prints from these.... overall client got what they asked for - great pictures on iphone :)
Most people who have a court house wedding don't have a photographer at all. I think this is a cool little way to save money and still document your special day for someone who just want something small and low key. I would do it
Art is subjective and people will always have their preferential styles and mediums whether that art was produced by sketching, oil painting, a Linotype process, a Polaroid image, an iPhone, or an 8x10 view camera using black & white film. To me these images have a unique look, great composition, and exude the character and emotion of the day. Kudos to the photographer for taking up the challenge and producing this work. Since it was commissioned by the couple, it is them and only them that truly decide if the photographer did a great job and the value met or exceeded the cost and their expectations. I suspect that they were happy with the results.
OK, let's see...iPhone 4s costs about $500, right? Canon T2i (550D) also costs about $500. The lens (50mm f1.4) she already had. Now-I wonder-if she shot those SAME photos using Canon T2i and a 50mm f:1.4 what would be the comments? 'Ah-oh', 'great','fantastic', 'amazing', 'awesome'...? I don't think so! All the fuss here is only about using a PHONE to do a job meant to be done by the PROPER tools of the trade, that's all! IMHO, the point is missed by far-pictures are mediocre (at best), and as such I don't think that anybody would publish them, but.the sensation is-the phone! Personally, I would like people to talk about my PHOTOS and not my equipment...
Something else-let's say, some day, you are visiting a doctor because your vision is gone bad an he pulls an iPhone, starts an app. for vision diagnostics and examine your eyes that way? Would you say 'awesome' and 'great' or would you insist that he uses a PROPER equipment? Well, would you??
You are clearly off the mark with that doctor analogy. The iphone is still a camera and she used camera lenses.
iPhone is a mobile phone. I'll call you on your camera to explain...but wait, I can't, I don't have your Guide number!!
Great images great style, its all about the photographer, not the tool :)
The wedding took place in the 1970s, right?
In 30 or 40 years from now, people will wonder why photographic equipment in 2012 was so bad that photographers couldn't make better pictures.
It's all about exploring photography. I shoot a lot of stuff with a Kodak Duaflex II that I taped up to sort of work with 35mm rolls. If someone wanted to pay me to document their wedding day with that thing, I'd love to.
Experimentation for its own sake? While the photographer did a great job with an iPhone and Instagram - what if the couple wants to print photos. The iPhone has a limited range, the pictures show some obvious noise issues online. If they expect to order prints or an album, they may be disappointed with the quality. I don't see anything wrong with doing something different or using this as a supplement to a regular camera - a way for family/friends far away who couldn't be there the day of to share in the wedding online. But, you have to think about the 'big picture'.
Not sure why everyone jumps to the automatic conclusion that the couple is unaware of the limitations. Enlarging, blah, blah. Its a courthouse wedding shot with a phone and I'm going to make the assumption that the couple is aware of the situation and are not expecting the same results you would get if the photographer was to use pro equipment. As long as THIS couple is happy and aware of the situation.......They are doing it to do something original.
As you may see in this post by Jerry Ghionis, he shot his 'favorite' shots on an iPhone. Yes, you can take beautiful pictures with an iPhone - equipment doesn't make the photographer! However, he also shot with another camera and captured 'select' photos with the iPhone - and had his professional team shooting as well.
http://jerryghionisblog.com/2012/05/the-wedding-of-josh-amber-select-sho...
At first I was kinda annoyed at this idea. But lets consider what the situation is. First of all it doesn't look like their first marriage(for at least one of them anyway-kid). Secondly it was done at City Hall. I don't even see any other people besides the two moms. Probably didn't have a reception at all(120 shots from the entire day to me says no). The couple also requested it. In all honesty I do have a deep hatred for instagram, but in the end you get what you pay for and I hope they paid the photographer for her time and not her gear.
Ugh, these look like crap. Flat, boring, lifeless garbage.
The photos are ok at best. I notice no detail shots or closeups at all. Just full-body shots. They may look "ok" at this size, but I don't think they'd hold up when printed at 16x20. The photographer looks like they had the mentality of a phone camera shooter, getting everyone centered in the frame and showing their whole body in every shot. This is cute for a friend to do, but for a professional to do it, sacrilege!
There's an assumption here that this job would be charged less because it's shot on an iPhone. I hope the photographer didn't offer a discount because she was using her (iPhone) camera rather than her (Canon) camera. She still had to do the job and the post. Weddings are hard work, regardless of the pencils you use!
A1 love it
Ive printed an A2 from an Iphone 4S and it looked actually looked good at viewing distance.
Being in the wedding industry for years now, I can tell you that these photographs are very in line with the current trends. People are leaning towards rustic / vintage / retro themes and these fit in perfectly with that using the filters on instagram. Plus this is a great way to save money on your wedding costs if you know someone who has an artistic eye and is good on a Mac, they can snap the shots and import them into a photo editing software package to edit / clean up anything you need. Being married for 9 years, I can tell you I only displayed 1 out of hundreds of my wedding photos - the rest stayed in an album, which I hardly look at. You're there to capture the moment, not pay through the teeth for staged photos, which I think are becoming more and more outdated with the years.
On the equipment picture you can see that she uses normal lenses, i think it is ok... the image sensor of the iphone is not bad compared to its size. There is an interessting article out there from DxOMark, they measured that the sensors from mobilephones are more powerfull than any other image sensor in releation to its size. But no question when i would shoot the most importand day of a couple i would take my NEX-7 instead of an iPhone for sure. But it is all about the photographer!
Actually it is about what the client requested from the photographer...and the photographer in this case delievered...IMO
You are right, the photographer delivered... I hope that the couple is not asking later for bigger prints from their wedding :D
Agree, thats true. I only mentioned that I would choose a more versatile camera over the iphone but that would be only my choice.
Wow the arrogance! To think you could really get decent wedding photo's out of an iphone. They look terrible, out of focus, grainy, distorted, horrid white balance, under saturated and washed out. People who think these shot are any good clearly need new glasses.
My qualms are with the lack of creativity in composition... I think the idea was a fun one (if not taken *too* seriously), it just left all kinds of room for imagination that wasn't explored.
I'm sorry but I really think these pictures are kinda crappy.
I think this would be a blast as a photographer. It would really give your creative side a shot in the arm.
Thank goodness Grandma was there with her film point-n-shoot so that the lucky couple can have a decent quality image of their big day. I'm sorry, but using an iPhone is idiotic. They could of used a real camera, gotten much better image quality, and then applied Instagram-like effects via batch processing or lightroom. There are tons of free plugins out there for Photoshop. I hope they didn't pay much for these.