• 0
  • 0
Alan Brown's picture

Vacation iPhone challenge

As I was unable to take my DSLR with me when visiting family in Oregon I challenged myself to use my smartphone in its place. The goal was to shoot as I would with my DSLR (thoughtful composition etc), and not to interfere with family time.

Following are a variety of results, the full story can be found on my website blog;
https://www.alanbrownphotography.com/blog

As always, all feedback/comments will be treated with respect as long as it is sincere.

How successful have you been with your own smartphone? Perhaps a group challenge for August?

Log in or register to post comments
11 Comments

Love that flower shot in particular. That's like the perfect flower I'd want to give my mom or wife - clean petals with new buds waiting to bloom. Technically, dig the elements too.

On a recent trip to Europe, I took one body + one lens (35mm - 150mm). There were times though where I really wanted to exaggerate the foreground with a wide or just wanted to be discreet and that's where the iPhone came in handy.

Photo 1: Nothing special, but got me a memory shot that I wanted.
Photo 2: Both on the cell so I should be too right?

Thanks Robert, believe me I took many 'memory' shots also.

I especially like your 2nd shot. Loving the leading lines but for me it cries out for a crop - personal preferences of course.

Modern day Instagram (and crap iPhone resolution) hate your non-16x9 crop, BUT I don't. Better for sure.

Yeah, horses for courses, that's for sure. It's sad that we must all gear our art toward the restrictive needs of a phone app.

You've never done that and FWIW I hope you never will. Keep shooting what you like man. Cheers.

Great shots, Alan. Could you detail some of the apps, techniques, equipment, etc you used on your phone to get some of these shots? What difficulties you encountered...

Thanks so much for your interest Bruce. The vast majority of these were taken using the native iPhone app (plain old iPhone 12), and edited primarily in Lightroom.

Some editing was performed in 3&4 to remove slight distractions.

#4 is the result of the 'Motion Blur' setting on the Camera Pro app, with the camera being hand-held and allowing the image to build over time. It would be nice to try this on a tripod but I do like the more abstract nature of the image.

#7 similarly uses Camera Pro/Motion Blur, but in this case the camera was moved in a downward motion as the image was building.

The #2 & #6 'Ventosa-style' images again used Camera Pro (in 'Photo' mode) to capture a series of images, taking advantage of its grid display to better align the position of the exposures.
Processing of these images follows my standard workflow, details can be found under the 'Ventosa ITR guides' tab on my website;
https://www.alanbrownphotography.com/home-2

As for difficulties, nothing really jumps out. A number of attempts were taken for #4, t get both the flow of the water how I wanted it and the balance between that and the clarity of the rock. This was the best of the bunch.
Of course for some of the others (ie 1, 4 & 8), the timing of the shot is key - in #1 I actually missed the initial/natural shot and requested that the young lady repeat her pose.

I hope this helps. The Camera Pro app is worth downloading if you wish to expand iPhone capabilities, and I'm sure there are other apps that have similar features.

Let me know if you need anything further on this.

I appreciate the details Alan. I'm on team Android with a Sony Xperia 1iii. Still getting used to it but it's been great so far. I know that some people use ND filters and other apparatus to get some shots but I find it impressive you used the native app and just one additional downloaded app.

On the face of it using an ND filter is a good idea. I believe I have tried that in the past but was clunky and I don't think I had good results.
I may well try again, perhaps you can experiment with your Sony.

The other day, I read your blog article on this same subject from your website, Alan (https://www.alanbrownphotography.com/blog/2022/7/20/vacation-iphone-chal...)!

It really made me think. I appreciated you sharing your experiences because it makes me see things differently. Your compositions, themes, and technique were all fantastic as always.

Thanks for engaging and for your kind words Jennifer. I find it fulfilling to know I am able to help others.