Mobile Photography

Hype for Google’s new flagship phone has intensified in recent weeks with photographers excited about what new technology the tech giant will be squeezing into its latest model. To add to the fervor, a leaked promo video suggests that a dedicated astrophotography mode will be incorporated. 

While the Pixel 4 may soon be upon us, right now, the Pixel 3 and 3a series arguably represent the high-water mark for smartphone photography today through a combination of decent optics and more-than-decent artificial intelligence. 

If you believe the advertisements of smartphone manufacturers, the cameras of those devices are amazing and suitable for professional use. Sometimes (often?) these advertisements turn out to be fake, shot with professional DSLR cameras. But how good are those smartphone cameras really?

The 2019 iPhone Photography Awards have been run and won. And the wonderful photos that took out the awards only serve to fuel the debate about gear, technique, and vision. 

It's a case of comfort and user experience. In this review, I analyze what it feels like in hand and see what the added benefits are when putting a phone into it instead of shooting with a regular cover. 

Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi has announced two new cell phone cameras. The first has a 64-megapixel sensor in the flagship Redmi phone. The second has a 108-megapixel sensor built for a future phone. 

A wedding video team from the Philippines called Wishing Well Films released a wedding highlight video produced entirely using smartphone cameras and various Kase mobile lenses. Though the wedding was documented using mirrorless cameras by the team, they threw in the free wedding highlight video shot entirely on smartphones.   

A filmmaker in New York City recorded a video through his car window, shooting at 960 frames per second. The resulting clip makes it seem as though moving pedestrians are frozen on the spot. 

Adobe’s Premiere Rush app, a piece of software focused on editing shorter length, social media focused videos, has just received a major update to version 1.2. This update brings a major feature, requested by many users. 

Mobile phone cameras are progressing at breakneck speed. And just when you thought you'd heard it all, there's word that Apple is working with something that sounds ordered by Doctor Evil in the "Austin Powers" series: smartphones with new camera technology, complete with "frickin' laser beams" attached to them. 

The app swings into virality every now and again, but do people know what they’re signing up for? 

Smartphones are not what they used to be. There was a time a few years back when I personally said that smartphone cameras have no place in the serious field of photography, but things have definitely changed. 

Drawing tablets have always been a necessary tool for photo retouchers but just about everyone can benefit from incorporating one into their workflow. Now the new Huion HS64 is a great affordable entry-level option. I first started using a drawing tablet in high school as a graphic artist and it took me a long time to get used to it.

Could you hang up your fancy professional camera and lenses for half a year and shoot with nothing but your phone? This photographer did just that, and his perspective on the entire experience is quite interesting to listen to.  

If you're tired of having people get in the way of a good photo, then this new iOS app called Bye Bye Camera may be for you.

 I don't spend a lot of time with iOS photo apps, but this caught my eye for creativity and the technology used. 

Has the notch problem been solved? Oppo is showing off a smartphone that places the front-facing selfie camera under the screen. 

After a few compatibility and speed tests, for the first time, I will be leaving my laptop behind when I go on a seven day trip out of the country later this month. It’s all thanks to iPad’s new iPadOS, which this year will provide support for external drives and a group of other pro features we’ve been starved for since the iPad first came out. 

Today, Apple released the first public betas for multiple platforms that will be refreshed this fall. 

While smartphone manufacturers recently have been focused on improved computational photography to advance image quality, Samsung won’t be stopping on the hardware end. 

About 1 billion people use Instagram each month, that’s 1/8th of the world population. The top four countries other than the United Sates are Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Russia.  That’s a huge variety of languages, cultures and perspectives, yet the most followed people on Instagram are celebrities.  

A new day, a new product is unveiled to cater to the millennial generation. Samsung has just released details of a vertical TV, which is being touted as ideal for viewing your Instagram feed on the big screen. 

While hype around its folding phone continues, Samsung has also acquired patent approval for another, different type of characteristic: a “multi-face display,” wrapping around both sides of the phone. The feature would allow both the phone user and their subject(s) to see what the image looks like while taking pictures. 

Despite advancements in mobile phone camera tech, the in-built flash often leaves much to be desired. One company has now unveiled a handheld, wireless Xenon flash for when you’re looking for studio-esque lighting for your phone photos. 

With the newest flagship smartphone cameras taking huge leaps in sensor and software technology, are we seeing the beginning of more professional usage in the commercial market?  

A startup based in Tel Aviv, Israel, have raised over $5 million in Series A funding to further a mobile app they are calling “the world's greatest photography game.” GuruShots is turning photo-taking into a game in which users rank each others’ photos in order to score points. 

By now, we’ve all heard of magazines shooting a cover with the latest camera phone tech. "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" has taken it to new heights by airing an episode filmed entirely on the Samsung Galaxy S10+ which has an ultra-wide camera lens. 

I thought I'd seen iPhone camera capabilities stretched just about as far as they could go with add-on apps, but I was wrong.

Phone giant Huawei seemingly have no qualms in the face of being caught using DSLR photos to promote their cameras, as they’ve been busted again. Promotional images for the upcoming P30 Pro including a photo lifted from notorious child photographer Jake Olson. 

If you are documenting a moment, cell phones are the best camera hands down. But if you have a choice and care about quality, stop pretending they are equally effective. 

Get the most out of video editing on your portable workstation iPad by learning how Ted Forbes of The Art of Photography gets it done. 

Up until a few months ago, I had an elitist view and was of the opinion that my editing process on my 27-inch iMac was the “best” way to edit a photo. But smartphones have changed the game dramatically. Here I've shared some reasons to help you consider including or switching to your phone for your editing workflow. 

Smartphones offer countless useful resources for planning and shooting photos. With tens of thousands of apps, it can be difficult to know which are the best. Here are my top five. 

This first one is probably already installed on your phone, but it has a number of less well known features that make it a great tool for planning.

Regardless of what your opinion is of Adobe's subscription model, it is fair to say that Lightroom, in all of its variants, has grown into a powerful platform for photographers, especially on the desktop. With that said, the more I use Lightroom CC Mobile on iOS, the more impressed I become. 

Apple's latest iPad Pro ads tout what you're able to do with the new tablet as it gets closer and closer to offering the full capabilities of your computer, camera, and editing suite. Today, however, Apple shared a look into how it made those ads with the iPad itself (from the shoot to the edit) as the iPad Pro became both subject and filmmaker. 

Last week, Adobe released Lightroom CC Version 4.1.1 for iOS. While such "dot releases" are usually used as maintenance updates with bug fixes, performance improvements, and updated raw libraries, Lightroom CC Version 4.1.1 adds welcomed support for Apple Shortcuts.  

Obsura 2 has been out for a while, but somehow I missed it. Now that I've connected to this photo app I'm happy to sing its praises.  

Following recent reports that Apple is planning to add next-gen 3D sensors into its devices later this year, new rumors and leaked images hint the tech giant will increase the size of the camera module to accommodate three rear cameras. 

I'm a big user of Content Aware Fill in Photoshop. It's hard to take a photo and not want to remove something. But if I'm shooting with my smartphone, I usually don't want to transfer an image to my computer for serious editing unless I have to. My smartphone photos are usually casual and quick, but often retouching is needed on those photos too. 

Your smartphone might have the perfect auto-mode for the job, why not save some time?

A smartphone will never look as good as a DSLR. But if you’re out for drinks or spending time with family on New Years Eve, you might not want to worry about getting the perfect shot. Hopefully this short list will help you reach the best of both worlds. 

Have you ever wondered why the back of your DSLR has a wide screen on it, or why your monitor at home has a landscape-orientated format? I always thought this was scientifically proven to be the best and most powerful way to watch motion on a screen, but this video shows us how wide screens became the standard. 

Well-known tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee recently put together an ultimate smartphone camera test complete with a proper white board bracket, millions of blind votes on social media, and more. But when a Blackberry beats an iPhone XS, you know there's more to take away from this than pure camera specifications. 

A photographer has outed Samsung after she caught them using her photo to demonstrate the alleged capabilities of their new Galaxy A8 Star. What’s more, in the post she wrote about it on DIYPhotography, she revealed the photo in question was taken with a DSLR. 

It's always refreshing to me to get behind the scenes and see how some cool images are made. Then, to realize that the only light source was a cell phone LED along with a few props, I realized that my studio needs a shopping trip. 

I received the new Moment 58 mm Tele lens a week ago to test, to test so I set up a home studio and got some shots. I also received some other Moment gear, which is also reviewed.  

Raw Power is a standalone application, but also includes extensions for both iOS' and macOS' Photos applications that give you more creative editing control over your photos. In short, it's the extension that Apple should have included with Photos. And it just got a big update. 

Adobe released an update to Lightroom CC for iOS. In addition to adding camera and lens support for the new Apple iPhone XS, XS Max and iPhone XR, Lightroom CC for iOS version 4.0.2 includes support for Apple’s new iPad Pro and second generation Pencil. 

RED is a company that's known for making some of the best cinema cameras currently in production. They're known for producing super-high-resolution cameras, but they're also known for their eye-watering price tags. RED has recently produced their first ever smartphone, and so far, the reviews don't look great.  

With a show of hands, how many of you have practiced long exposure photography using your camera and some neutral density (ND) filters? Whoa, that's a lot! Now, how many of you have practiced this type of photography with your mobile phone? Hmm, not as many people. That's ok, though!

See examples of how Apple’s latest computational photography technique, Smart HDR, allows the iPhone to compete with the dynamic range in several of the top full frame cameras on the market today. 

I've bemoaned the state of current Android camera apps and so, in the first of this two-parter, I interviewed Martin Johnson, the programmer behind the well respected Snap Camera HDR. As a follow-on, this article interviews Mark Harman, developer of Open Camera.