I never really used to take photos on my phone; in fact, I used to be really against it because I never thought the camera was good enough to capture what I wanted. Of course, it's great to always have a camera on you so you can take a photo, which makes the smartphone one of the best tools around. With today's technology, these cameras just keep getting better, and I am finally beginning to use my phone's camera just to work on my composition and angles when I see something of interest.
Now I am not speaking for Apple here, but after getting my iPhone 7 Plus, I have started taking a lot more photos on my phone while at work or when I'm out and about. I used to have other phones like the Galaxy s5, Galaxy s6 Edge Plus, and the iPhone 6s. All the cameras appear to be of equal quality, but I never actually used my phone camera as a true camera. This brings me to my point of the article where I now actually try to use my iPhone camera to capture a good photo.
In this article, I will be showing photos that I have taken while shooting a few houses/apartments for work with interiors that stood out to me. Instead of snapping a quick photo, I sat there for a minute or two lining up the angles on the grid to get myself a well composed photo like I would if I were really photographing the place. I'm not sure why I started doing this, but the first apartment below was definitely because I got really bored using that Matterport and decided to take photos of other rooms while that thing was spinning itself around. From there, it may have just been because it's kind of neat to see that a phone can take such a great photo and I can show people the homes I've been in on the fly and mention that the photos were only taken on my phone.
It all started when I threw the grid on, on my iPhone 6s. Ever since then, whenever I would take photos, I would make sure everything was aligned. Being a real estate photographer, having any slanted angles would really bother me so using the phones camera and the grid on the default camera app, I started to just play around and take the time to set up some photos to see how "good" I could get them to look. My intention was to make it look like I was actually shooting real estate, just not with a DSLR and flash.
The before photos are straight out of the iPhone camera in jpeg quality with absolutely no sort of editing or alignment. The after photos are slightly touched up with alignment corrections and color adjustments from an edited jpeg file. Honestly, I think the photos come out great straight from the phone and once you can shoot the angles nice and straight, you almost don't even have to edit the photo to make it look good.
Now these aren't the most expensive homes you'll see online, but they are all in the two-million dollar range and are located in New Jersey. The top two are apartments in Hudson County, where I was using the Matterport, and the bottom house was in Bergen County, where I was doing video. I was really impressed with all of these properties and look to continue snagging a few pics with my phone if I have the time to do so while on the job.
I would encourage everyone out there to start using their phone camera just for the hell of it. It really is a great tool; you can use it when scouting locations, planning a scene, shooting behind the scenes, or just for practice in your field. Throw those grids on there and practice some basic photography skills. it can never hurt. Remember that phone is more than likely in your pocket, so if you ever need it, don't be afraid to use it!
In the images where you were shooting facing windows, did you add light to balance out the indoor and outdoor exposures or was the exposure difference within the dynamic range of the phone?
For a few of them I was facing the windows but that makes the light pretty harsh and everything inside darker. Usually I try to stand where the light is coming in so all that natural light fills the room and everything is lit really well. Aside from that there is no extra lighting that I set up, just natural light. Everything on the phone was automatic so I maybe pulled the exposure up or down a little bit when using the focus on the phone.
I'm surprised how good they turned out. I wouldn't use most of the ones with exterior scenes though. Not sure if that's the result of using the phone or casual setup due to using the phone.
Thanks, I never thought they would come out this good myself until I gave it a try haha. Like I said above, shooting into the windows is a bit difficult but if they light is soft enough through the window usually you get a good photo. It is more than likely something with the phones camera and the fact that these aren't .dng files means there isn't much room to adjust the photo further when editing.
Interesting article. Thanks for sharing your experience. One question: Are these iPhone photos taken hand held or with a tripod ?
No Problem! The photos were just taken handheld on the iPhone which is what takes a little bit of getting used to. So grid on and I do my best to line up all the angles in the actual photo rather than later when I edit them.
....the phone is the best for making calls, navigate on web, maps etc etc... is the camera as good as the phone doing these things? :)