Lee Morris Responds To The iPhone Fashion Shoot

Wow, the iPhone fashion video has really blown up over the past few days. The video has been viewed by almost 300,000 people as I write this. My 3 websites have been completely crippled for the past 2 days. So crippled in fact that we couldn't even login to create/edit posts.

As with anything controversial brought into the lime light there will be people on both sides. I have received countless comments and emails thanking me for this video but this video may have gotten even more negative comments. At first I tried to respond to everyone individually but that quickly became impossible. Last night I read a very well written post on macgasm.net named "Why the 3Gs fashion shoot is misleading" by Joshua Schnell.

In this post I will comment on every point I have read brought up about my video.

I'll start with the biggest complaint: Lighting.

First I will quote a paragraph out of my original post that I am sure most of the haters never read: "So before I say anything else let me start by saying; I created this video to simply show that you should not be limited by your camera. Obviously there was a lot that went into this shoot including a professional model, hair and makeup, a studio, lighting, and a retoucher. We may create another video in the future where we shoot with only natural light but this video is simply about the camera. There are so many photographers who are obsessed with noise, sharpness, color, dynamic range, megapixels, chromatic aberration, moire, distortion, etc. So many photographers get wrapped up in the technical side that they forget how to take compelling images. This video is for them."

I believe I made it clear that this video was only supposed to show the limitations of a terrible camera giving it the best possible chance of success. I understand however that I did say "you don't need fancy lights" at the beginning of the video and then I used fancy lights. Yes, Dyna-lite strobes and power packs are expensive but they are expensive because they are strobes. We didn't even use them correctly... we were only using the underpowered modeling lights that were 200 watt bulbs. The lights we got from Lowe's were actually much brighter and for $50 we got 2 lights and stands. I believe my most complicated lighting setup used 6 lights so if you were to do it yourself it would cost $150.

"But Lee! You have all of those light modifiers as well!" It's true, I do, but all these products are doing is making the light smaller or larger. That is what hard and soft light is, small or large light sources relative to the size of the subject. You can modify light with anything. You could have up a huge bed sheet and fire light through it or you could bounce light off of a wall. You could simply move the bare bulb lights closer or farther away from the subject.

It was hard enough doing a full photoshoot with a cell phone and I didn't want to complicate it even more by buying cheap lights that I didn't need when I already had perfectly good modeling lights. I also didn't have time to create homemade light modifiers when I already owned the real deal. Just because I didn't do it in the video doesn't mean that it isn't possible. But remember, lighting wasn't the point anyway. This was supposed to be about the camera.

Someone else commented "I'd like to see you go outside without any of that light and take a good picture with the iPhone." Are you kidding? That would be even easier because there is a fantastic light outside that is free called the sun. I take pictures professionally all the time and I don't bring a single light or reflector with me. There have been millions of great images taken outside with cell phones. I wanted to do something new so I shot a studio session and of course that is going to require lighting.

Someone on Youtube commented "If you take away all of that lighting the pictures wouldn't look as good." My head almost exploded when I read this. OF COURSE! Photography is all about lighting. If I didn't have any lighting in my studio the pictures wouldn't just look bad, they would be black.

One reader, attempting to be smart, wrote this in our comments "...next time (you're) snapping pix round town with your iPhone – bring two huge flood lights..." and Joshua Schnell, in his Macgasm article wrote: "Not exactly something an everyday iPhone user would have kicking around their apartment, is it?" referring to my lighting gear. These are not your every day type of pictures, this was a professional session.

This brings me to my next point: This video was created for professionals.

Fstoppers.com is a website dedicated to showing professional behind the scenes videos of photoshoots. A couple weeks ago we did a poll and only 2.6% of our readers do not own a DSLR. Only 1.7% of our readers were not interested in photography and just happened to stumble across our site. That means that almost 95% of our readers are either pros or serious amateur photographers. This video was created for them, not the average iPhone user. Why would the average iPhone user ever even want to take fashion photography?

I read a comment on DPreview that said "I don't like the fact that he is suggesting that you can work professionally with just an iPhone." Of course I am not suggesting that, and I have no idea why any adult would think that. This video was supposed to be a fun humors video that simply inspires you to stop making excuses and start working on your craft.

If I was going to create a video for normal iPhone users about how to take good pictures I would have gone outside in the shade and taken "normal" pictures. Obviously this video was geared towards other professionals.

Point number 3: "You said I could do this for cheap but then you spent a ton of money."

You CAN do this type of shoot for cheap but I actually did it for free. People everywhere have been complaining that they could never afford hair and makeup and a professional model. Guess what, I have NEVER paid for them. If your work is good enough then you should easily find people to collaborate with. Obviously this doesn't just happen. You have to prove yourself first. I can still remember my first fashion shoot. The model had never modeled before and she did her own hair and makeup. After that shoot though I had something to show people. After a couple years of quality shoots I now can call up local talent and ask them to be a part of ridiculous shoots (like those taken on a cell phone) and they are eager to help.

Point number 4: You don't need a professional retoucher.

Guess how many time in my entire career I have used a professional retoucher?...ONCE, and this was it. Pratik is an amazing retoucher and the reason I asked him to be a part of this was really just for the novelty. He is used to working on super high end fashion images that will be seen on magazine covers and his skills cannot really be used on a 3mp cell phone image. If there was ever a shoot where I was capable of doing my own retouching it was this shoot but since he agreed, I was excited to see his work and help promote his business. Remember the 2nd image in each series was his and the 3rd was my final edit. If you argue that I shouldn't have used photoshop then chances are, you are not a professional photographer, and are not the intended audience of this video. And, I knew people would argue this so I put the original images in the video just for them... If you don't like photoshop then pay not attention to the edited images. I will quote another paragraph from my original post: "People may claim that the original images don’t look that great but I was shooting with the intent of using Photoshop afterwards. If the backdrop paper didn’t fill the frame I knew I could easily fix it afterwards. With today’s market being what it is I see Photoshop as a necessary tool for every image I make. I am in the business of making money and my clients do not care if I got it perfect in the camera or made it perfect in post, they simply want a perfect image. It’s the same process with music. A band could record and entire album in 1 take, but what successful artist does that? Today, everyone records track by track one at a time and use software to combine them all together into a perfect mix."

Closing

I am thrilled with the response we have gotten from this video. I am glad that professionals, amateurs, and iPhone users have enjoyed watching it. The sad truth is that the average person is more likely to comment on an internet video these days if they have something negative to say. If they actually liked the video they have a better chance of not commenting but sharing it with friends, and that is what hundreds of thousands of people have already done.

If you are not a serious photographer then you should simply watch this video and be entertained by the fact that your cell phone camera isn't too bad. There is no way you are going to be able to take studio photography with your phone or any camera without some sort of lights. But that is fine, you don't need to take studio shots. Just remember that you can always work to take better pictures, no matter how bad your camera is. We are very thankful that you took the time to view our video. It was a good bit of work to produce and it's fun to see such a huge response.

If you are a serious amateur or an overly techy professional I really created this video for you. Obviously (at least I think it is obvious) I am not suggesting that you can do professional work with a cell phone camera. This video was created to simply put things in perspective. The people that view your work whether they are friends, family, or a paying client, do not view your work the same way you do. We love to be overly critical about photographs but it is important that we don't loose sight of the image itself. I have taken some shots that I have absolutely loved in the past and nobody else liked them; I took these pictures on my cell phone and some people said they were the best images I had ever taken (before they knew how I took them).

I will leave you with my favorite comment I have read so far. This comment comes from the most critical and technical photography forum on the net, DP Review. "These are obviously taken on a cell phone, the dynamic range cannot compete with my Canon." I tried guys.... I tried.