BPP 218: Mark Hemmings - iPhone Photography for Dummies
Mark Hemmings is a travel photographer and educator that just published his newest book iPhone Photography for Dummies. An all in one resource for those looking to take better photos with the gear they already have! Today Mark shares many tips on getting better compositions, what apps to use, and how to see light better.
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In This Episode You'll Learn:
How to take better photos with an iPhone
Some of the strengths and challenges when shooting with an iPhone
Why there is room for mobile photography and professional dslr photography
How to use composition to take better photos without changing your camera settings
How to use your iPhone to capture the best moments
When you should NOT use an iPhone to shoot
Resources:
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Full Episode Transcription:
Disclaimer: The transcript was transcribed electronically by Temi.com and may contain errors that do not reflect accurately what the speaker said. Because of this, please do not quote this automated transcript.
Raymond Hatfield: 00:00 Can I tell you something about the listener of the beginner photography podcast? Yes. So they typically have a DSLR or a mirrorless camera or an interchangeable lens camera. So why today are we going to be talking about iPhone photography?
Mark Hemmings: 00:17 Yes, so, well, thanks for asking that because just recently, in fact last week a brand new book was released on very proud of called iPhone photography for dummies. Now, this is the for dummies series that spans almost every conceivable aspect of knowledge. And I was really happy, pleased, and honored to be asked to be able to write one on iPhone photography. Now, interestingly, I am fully immersed for the last 22 years in DSLRs in back then film, cameras and mirrorless, but also I use my iPhone a lot and I think probably over the years I've gotten to be known as a somewhat of an expert in mobile device photography, specifically iPhone. And so yeah, I was really happy to get this work as a writer, as an author first time for the wildly publishing's for dummies series. Yeah.
Raymond Hatfield: 01:21 She on your iPhone right now, which I think speaks to a, your, your constant commitment to maybe mobile first photography, or just, just I guess just the versatility and usefulness that we have gotten to at this point in time, which is, which is really exciting. So, you know, I'll be honest when it comes to iPhone photography, I'm, I'm just appointing shoot kind of shoot it. Right. I don't really use anything aside from the shutter button composition, and then sometimes the flash and that's it.
Mark Hemmings: 01:54 I greatly currently apologized my friend do you see
Raymond Hatfield: 01:58 It's massive. That's a massive spider and it's terrifying. Yeah.
Mark Hemmings: 02:02 It's so big and it's, it's bothering me. So I'm sorry. I'm not,
Raymond Hatfield: 02:06 No worries. I would move to, Oh my goodness.
Mark Hemmings: 02:11 Oh, I don't want to show it to you. It's too grotesque. And I'm in, I'm in a cold Canada. We don't usually get spiders that the, yeah, that would freak out your, your viewers out, I think. Yeah.
Raymond Hatfield: 02:25 Right. Somebody is going to be watching on YouTube and just start hitting their computer screen. And I'm going to get a bill in the mail for somebody who needs a new computer.
Mark Hemmings: 02:34 Okay. Second, we will get the same. Okay. Well, I think that's probably a better anyway for lighting.
Raymond Hatfield: 02:41 Yeah, definitely. Definitely looks great. Absolutely. Yeah. Nice green lush. I like the the backlight there, so I'll just get right back into it. And it's basically saying that as, as a, as an iPhone photographer, I'm definitely just at the point that you variety. I don't use any sort of settings or anything like that. Except for, you know, just, just my own composition and using the flash. So I think that this episode is really gonna be an eye opener for me. But before we dive deeper into the world of iPhone photography and mobile first photography, can you remind myself and everybody listening kind of how you got your start in photography?
Mark Hemmings: 03:21 Yeah, certainly. So my start in photography was way back in the day with film and I was really glad with the you know, being forced to have that stress and that anxiety of you know, working for a client and having no idea if that film was any good. And that edge, I think propelled me to really study deeply the basics of exposure and understanding that you only have one shot. And then when digital came by the way, that was 22 years ago, and then when digital came, I was an early adopter and a lot of my career as a travel photographer happened. And that was a real great awakening, but the, the start of my photography career ultimately was in the movie industry and working as a stills photographer, that person would take pictures of the actors and also a location photographer. So I'd go around looking at different places where the production team could plan for the shoots. And since then, it's been a lot of travel, normal commercial photographer and photography teaching as well.
Raymond Hatfield: 04:33 So when I know that you said that you were an early adopter of digital photography, but would you say that you were also an early adopter of mobile first photography as well?
Mark Hemmings: 04:44 Yes, but I think so because in 2012, I, if I recall it was an iPhone four S and that was the first time I took a photo with my iPhone and that was in Mexico. And I had a huge, very heavy Nikon. I think it was the D 300 S if you recall that, and I just felt silly with that huge, you know camera, a big, heavy lens. And I said, you know what? I'm just going to see and really do. And I was hooked, you know, it was really great because I'm a street photographer and a travel photographer. And I found a lot of times I was getting better pictures or sorry, better opportunities to capture the scene in front of me with my iPhone, because it was less con it was less the people on the streets didn't feel like they were a target and that's really important. That's one of the really great values of being a mobile photographer.
Raymond Hatfield: 05:48 Yeah, of course taking photos with a phone is one of the reasons actually, why I switched to Fuji was just essentially to blur that line, you know, having that smaller camera, being able to be at weddings and be a little bit more you know, behind the scenes and kind of blend in more and I've always wanted to actually just shoot an entire wedding on an iPhone, but I think I'm scared to tell you the truth because we are removing a lot of the the controls of the settings. You know, as, as we, as professional photographers, we know the technical side of photography. So when it comes to iPhone photography from me, my brain goes right to all of the challenges that iPhone would bring up when shooting rather than using an interchangeable lens camera. So I know that we talked a little bit about blowing that line and making it easier to interact with your subject, but what are some of the biggest challenges that you face when shooting with an iPhone?
Mark Hemmings: 06:49 Well, one of the biggest challenges is actually being met as we speak is the fact that a small sensor camera does not have much what we call bit depth. Now that's a technical term. I'm sure that you, you know, what that refers to, but essentially the larger the sensor on a camera usually not always, but usually allows for greater levels of capture in the shadows and highlights. I'll give you a real world example for someone who doesn't have much hair, take a look up here to see this white spot. Yes, this is due to a very small selfie camera from my iPhone. That's what we're recording on right now. Now we have a larger camera and, you know, a DSLR or a mirrorless, there would be more information, more pixel information, which could actually produce skin tone, normal non blown-out section a year.
Mark Hemmings: 07:45 And of course on my face and my shirt, the engineers came up with a digital solutions for a lot of these, these physical or, or analog problems. And that would be, for example, in iPhone, they have something called a smart HDR, deep fusion night mode. These are three aspects that are largely digital solutions like computational scenarios that are happening inside the iPhone while the pictures being taken that will actually produce results that, that mimic or very, very close to raw capture in DSLRs. Now it's true that this is a digital solution. It's not perfect, but what's really promising is that this technology is that its baby stages. And it can only go, you know, farther, higher and better from here.
Raymond Hatfield: 08:37 Do you think that, I guess, let me start with one question before what I was about to ask is are we going to be entering a world in the future where you think that both having a DSLR or a mirrorless camera and a small center iPhone do you think that we're going to in a world where both of those can still exist?
Mark Hemmings: 08:58 I think that the polarization is going to be even stronger. We're professionals, we'll still have DSLRs and mirrorless or advanced amateurs who love, you know, like landscapes, nature, Safari, astrophotography, fashion, anyone in the magazine, all those people will still have them. But I do see with regards to me saying, you see the average person is probably not going to be buying DSLRs or mirrorless is as much as they used to. So if you're making money with photography or you, it's your great passion, the DSLR and mirrorless more. So the mirrorless industry will be going strong. I feel, I hope however, the mass vast majority of people will be just using the cameras on their iPhones or Android.
Raymond Hatfield: 09:52 Yeah. it's, it's, it's hard to tell what the future has coming, but I think I'm of the same viewpoint of, I can't imagine it going really any other way, unless there's, you know, what really excited me there for the long time was that was it the light 16 camera? The one, it was like a cell phone camera, but it had the six, 10 cameras built into it. And I think afterwards you could either choose your own focal distance as well as a focal plane for like what you wanted and focus, because honestly, like when we're shooting with DSLRs, you can miss focus. And it's always nice after the fact to be able to edit, but being able to zoom in with an optical zoom after you've taken the photo would just be incredible. Now I know that, you know, I phones have introduced multiple lenses and things like that, but do you see any sort of technology like that coming and well, yeah. Do you see any, any more technology like that coming or is it just the you know, single lens type system that were, that were used to,
Mark Hemmings: 10:55 Well, the, the best scenario and it's already happening is a mixture of analog, or we'd say physical processes. That would be the physical glass of the lens and the physical chip mixed with the computational algorithm, the the software and the firmware that's behind the, the processing of that image. Now, I, I'm not well versed in Google world and Android, but I do understand that there's a new camera. It's 106 megapixels, and there's also Android cameras that have physical zooms. And I would say that that aspect of having a physical zoom where the lens physically goes in and out capture more telephoto and more wide angle, that might be something that is highly valued in the future. The trick is, is that an iPhone or an Android is thin and has to be, cause if it has to fit in our, in our pocket.
Mark Hemmings: 11:53 However, the true the true quality in my opinion is physical processes where we have the physical ability to zoom in. Now, if that's not possible, then what Apple is doing. And also a lot of Android manufacturers is simply putting in a third lens. So that would be called the two X lens. And that is equivalent at least on the iPhone to a standard 50 millimeter view. If I recall now you have that 50 millimeter view, which we all love the nifty 50. And then the good thing is, is that you can extend beyond that 50 millimeter view through their digital zoom. Now it's true that digital zoom isn't a manufactured or a fake or an artificial zooming in. However, I was really surprised I did a T easy X, you know, like 10 X on the digital zoom. And I was really surprised how far I could get and the quality of the image. Now, the quality of the image with artificial digital zoom usually is terrible. However, it's all based on, you know, the geniuses behind these you know, the software developers who are creating this, this magic both on the Android and the iPhone side.
Raymond Hatfield: 13:11 All right. So obviously there's a lot of promise going forward in the future as far as kind of where we're going to be going with digital photography, but maybe I maybe we jumped in a little too headfirst. Maybe we're getting a little too technical. Let's go ahead and scale it back and just kind of start from the beginning. I know that in the app store, there are tons of camera apps. Is there something in particular that we should be using? Is there something special that you use or do you just use the stock camera app? Is that fine?
Mark Hemmings: 13:39 Oh, I love this question because I have very specific instructions for people based on their device. Now, if you have an iPhone 11, then I suggest that you use the, what we call the native camera and the word native camera simply means the camera that is that's given to you on the iPhone. If you have any other iPhone, by the way, I'm going to get into Android in a second. But if you have any other iPhone, I suggest the Lightroom camera. Now this is the Lightroom mobile app it's free. And the labor camera is so good because it allows you to shoot me in a DNG. Now that's a raw format, really good quality, and you can edit those photos extremely well. Now, with regards to the Android world, I would suggest unless you have the latest super S20 or I think it's the pixel for, then, then I would suggest the Lightroom app as well. But if you have the, the newest S20 and the pixel four, then you're probably gonna do just as well with your native camera that's on your device.
Raymond Hatfield: 14:52 So why is that just cause I'm, I'm completely unaware. I have a, an older iPhone completely unaware as to why what makes the native camera app on the iPhone 11, just as good or good enough compared to the light room app.
Mark Hemmings: 15:06 Okay. Yeah, that's a great question. And the reason being is that iPhone 11 comes with those three factors that I was referring to. One is night mode. One is deep fusion, one is smart HDR, and this is all you know, aspects of the camera taking three shots, almost instantly to balance. Like I said, you know, like bright spots on my head you know, to get really good sunsets where the sunset isn't blown out and too far too bright, and the new, the newer devices have these, you know, electronic wizardry aspects that allow for insanely good photos, even though they're not raw. Now, if any of your viewers, most of them probably know what raw means, but that's simply an uncompressed image that retains a lot of digital information now, while it's true, that Lightroom allows for RA. And I encourage it. I found that the, the, at least on the iPhone, which I'm used to the iPhone 11 pro max, I got better results from the iPhone. Even though it was not raw, it was called a format called H E I C. And some of your viewers may, may know about that. It's just a newer format. That's a bit better than JPEG.
Raymond Hatfield: 16:23 Do you think that that is something that we're going to have to worry about in the future different types of file formats and stuff, cause with Apple kind of making the switch to this AGI C format rather than JPEG is, is, is there anything going forward that we should be maybe concerned about or to prepare ourselves with?
Mark Hemmings: 16:41 I don't think so. I have, because a HIC or hake, whatever you want to call it is it's easily exported to JPEG. Very simple. I've had, I've had zero interoperability problems with it. In fact, almost all new software receives and reads and understands hake images now. So I don't see a problem with that at all.
Raymond Hatfield: 17:06 Okay. Okay. So when it comes to, let's get back to these settings, right? Why we're using either the native iPhone app on the iPhone 11, or going forward newer or using the light room camera app, maybe an older iPhones, you know, a large part, as you know of DSLR shooting is adjusting your settings just for total image control, right. Are there any settings that we should be using or changing on our phones to be able to take the best picture possible?
Mark Hemmings: 17:35 Well, the, the iPhone photography workflow was meant to be simple from the very beginning. And I appreciate that where you have very few options, it's a really stripped down way of taking pictures. Now, a lot of people will know that when they push their finger on the screen, that activates what's called the H E a L w button. And that's usually a little yellow icon that pops up, which means that the exposure is locked and the focus is locked. I hope I said that. Right? Auto AE AF lock. Yeah, that's right. However, my understanding is that in iOS 14, there may be a separation of those two, so we can actually do what other apps already do is where we can lock the exposure. This is sort of like mimicking a manual adjustment on our DSLRs or mirrorless and independently lock the focus. And this was not possible before. Now. It may be very possible on Androids and it's certainly possible and almost all the popular camera apps available on the app store. However that is just one more aspect of being able to get into a more manual adjustments, but still keeping the device super simple so that everyone can enjoy photography.
Raymond Hatfield: 18:58 So obviously I would consider keeping photography simple. You know, I guess you could look at it both ways, either a strength or a weakness. But when it comes to the strengths of iPhone photography, we've kind of talked about those weaknesses, small image sensor kind of limited by the lenses that we're using. I want to take a moment just to talk about the strengths specifically of iPhone photography. Where do you think the iPhone shines most?
Mark Hemmings: 19:25 Yes. And what I'll probably do is say that this is also for Android as well. The first couple the mobile photography strengths, are you being able to react super quick and almost instantaneously by pulling your camera out of your pocket? Now that's not always the case with DSLRs or mirrorless. You're unlatching your camera bag if you even have your camera at all. So that is one real strength is the you know, in, in two seconds I can get a picture from, you know, having my phone in my pocket. That's good. The second is because I'm a travel photographer and a street photographer. I find that people are, are like so much more inclined to to allow photography with an iPhone or an Android. And they do get nervous with big cameras because you know, who knows who you are, like, why are you photographing, you know strangers without their permission on the street with a huge $6,000 camera, which I've done by the way.
Mark Hemmings: 20:32 And I felt ridiculous doing it. So that's the second aspect that's really important. Now the third aspect is that with an advantage of being able to have a workflow, like I'm a professional, you're a professional photographer and the, the workflow aspects of me being able to take a picture, put it into Lightroom because I'm a Lightroom user. And that, that image going straight up to the cloud to be safe in case my phone was stolen, or I dropped it in the water that is just unbelievable amount of insurance. It's an insurance policy. And all you have to do is just make sure you're near wifi or set it to, you know, cellular if you've agreed cellular plan, which I do like 10 gigs or whatever. And I have pretty much guaranteed instant protection for every photo that I take through that Lightroom camera, or even through my normal native iPhone camera. It's really, really good to have that workflow stability.
Raymond Hatfield: 21:47 Yeah, that's something that as a professional photographer or as, as camera manufacturers have tried to make cameras more for professionals, they've added dual card slots, and they're just making things almost more complicated to be a professional photographer and ensure that your images are safe. So that is a huge benefit to be able to shoot on your phone. So that is as you said, I mean that, that's a huge, that's a huge plus, but I want to go back to that first thing that you were talking about because it reminded me that, you know, I've said this on the podcast a million times, and that is, that will simply moment matters most. I think that it matters more than the tech and to a degree. I think that the moment matters more than light as well. So can you talk a little bit more about how using the iPhone maybe on the street or just simply using the iPhone, you can lean into that concept of moment matters most. Mark Hemmings: 22:39 Yes. Yeah. So what I tried to tell people when I'm teaching DSLR or mirrorless, I'm going to explain this first is that speed is key. And so I always tell them, you know, when you're doing the street and travel photography, cause I teach these people in different countries around the world, we need to be quick. And that's why I suggest aperture priority F 5.6 or F 4.5 auto ISO. So that's the recipe I use for super fast reader, travel photography. Now in the world of iPhone or Android or mobile photography, it's, it's even easier because there is no real adjusting of those, the three parameters on the exposure triangle, it's you compose, you make sure that the lighting is good. And even if, even if the lighting isn't the greatest, you take the picture anyway, and you just pull it out of your pocket, get the shot and you're all set. So what I've found is that the, the usage of mobile devices for taking pictures, at least in my instruction, when I help people with is that they're inclined to study and appreciate composition far more because that's almost the only factor that they're dealing with is composition. They don't have to deal with, you know, all the complexities, which are actually good complexities, but they don't have to deal with that. So they really study composition. They study how light affects the subject, which is something that I really like.
Raymond Hatfield: 24:10 So composition, obviously for those listening is just simply how you compose your frame. So can you share maybe how the iPhone is more conducive to working on your composition rather than a DSLR?
Mark Hemmings: 24:22 Yes, exactly. So these days we have articulating screens on our newer DSLRs and mirrorless. That's great. That means that you can flip up the screen to see the picture better, but to be honest, that's still smaller than probably the smallest cell phone that screen. So the ability to have a very large screen to compose our photos and to see just how the elements fit into the picture space inside this rectangle is quite valuable. And that really sort of kick-starts people into a love of composition and understanding theory. That would be the rule of thirds. The golden mean all of these things that, that, that we, we learned theoretically, and then hope to place or to put into our actual practical photography. So essentially to sum up the answer, it's the large screen that is incredibly beneficial. And I do find that the large screen of the iPhone or a good Android is actually a much easier it's brighter than the back screen on your camera. And it's a it's instant, you know, instant preview, which is awesome. And I think that's well, well suited for a quick review and for learning composition.
Raymond Hatfield: 25:34 So I know that you can actually turn on in a iPhone. I believe they just call it grid view or something like that. Which is essentially just the rule of thirds, right? So almost they're, they're really pushing this idea of focusing on composition. So I would, I highly recommend turning that on. Do you, do you keep that on as well?
Mark Hemmings: 25:57 Yes. Yes. And not only is it good just generally, because it really drills in the theory of the rule of thirds, but it's also good for simple things like landscapes. When you have water, you don't want crooked water and that rule of thirds grid, even if you don't follow the rule of thirds, at least will help you line up the horizon. And it's incredibly useful for architecture buildings, interiors.
Raymond Hatfield: 26:25 Yeah. So obviously, I mean, it sounds like obviously the, the, the iPhone is a, is a very capable camera if you're using it. I guess if you're looking at it in a different sense, because I know that when I shoot, you know, with my food GS, I'm thinking a lot about the exposure. I'm thinking a lot about those are those really the two things, I guess, three things, right? Exposure moment and, well, I guess that's really it. Yeah. Just exposure in the moment, right. That is what I'm really looking for most. And it sounds to me like with the iPhone removing a lot of the manual exposure control, but still being able to control it, it really focuses on working on the moment. So this may be kind of a, an out of the box question, but why do you think there's so many, like when I scroll through my Facebook feed, there's so many bad iPhone photos. Why, why do you think that is
Mark Hemmings: 27:17 Well, that, and that's true. One thing is, is that there's an incredible amount of pressure and it's probably, it could be more so in young people. I don't know, maybe it maybe it's pressure on everybody to just push out content, even if it's ridiculous or if it's you know, meaningless. And I don't, I probably sound a bit harsh there, but one thing that and I'll come back to your question. But one thing I do notice is that it's better to put a one photo that, that has some element of, of compositional intelligence a week, rather than put out six photos a week or 12 photos that are just filling up, you know internet and social media space. So I really try to help people to reduce that stressful feeling of trying to keep up with the Joneses, by putting out all this content. I would sooner them do less posting of a little bit better quality and more, more thoughtfulness. And I think that could actually in turn reduce a certain amount of stress and anxiety, because there's so much pressure these days to you know, become a, an internet superstar through social media. I don't, I don't know if I answered your question or not, but
Raymond Hatfield: 28:43 Yeah. Yeah, well, you did. But I think that I asked the wrong question here, I guess, really what I'm looking for, or I guess the question that I should've been asking was what sorts of things do you see in a photo of, it just tells you right away that there was no sort of intentional intentionality behind, behind taking the photo and that it was just purely just a snapshot.
Mark Hemmings: 29:05 Okay. Yes. Well, one thing I will, I should have separated is snapshots just for fun. They, they don't need any artistic aspects. For example, I'll just take a quick shot of you know, my daughter's you know, walking through a path when we're on a hike, I don't care about anything. Just, that's just a memory. Now I think what you're referring to of course is when we're photographing something that is actually something that we want to present. Well, then the, the desire to, and what I teach people during photo workshops is that unless it's a sports event or a fleeting aspect, like a wildlife that disappears quickly, that you just take a deep breath, pause, look at the subject, think compose, then take the picture. And that will slow people down. Now in, in what I like to teach people during the workshops is to actually use a tripod, even with an iPhone or an Android, because that purposely and forcibly slows down the photographer.
Mark Hemmings: 30:11 Now, why is that good? It's good. It's good. Because we actually have time to think about composition. We have time to think about light. Now, when you don't have a tripod, then it's just snap, snap, snap. And that's where we get those, those results that we see online that are really subpar, or at least they haven't been thoughtfully produced. So if you don't have a tripod, no problem. Just, you know, just pause, enjoy the moment. Then take the picture. Now again, I'll preface that by saying, if you're into wildlife, if you're into sports, you don't have that luxury. You just take the picture, take it, take a ticket ticket, use burst mode, use, you know, the the continuous shooting.
Raymond Hatfield: 30:51 So talk to me more about this idea of a a phone on a tripod went shortly. We're not doing this everywhere we go. Is this only for certain use cases or, or just talk to me a little bit more about that? I liked this idea.
Mark Hemmings: 31:05 Yes. It's certainly for certain genres, like for example, landscapes, I always say, please use a tripod now, even if you don't need a tripod, for example, if you're in the bright, bright, sunny day, there's no way that you're going to have a shaky picture with an iPhone or an Android doing a landscape. However, the, the art of landscape photography is very much entwined, intertwined with the use of a tripod. This is traditionally been so, and it still is with DSLRs and mirrorless. We want to be able to, in our mindset, realize that we are appreciating this land. We're going to compose it. Well, we're going to present it well to the world and the tripod slows us down. So we have everything absolutely, you know, shipshape. And that would include SIM simple things like having the horizon straight, which is always really important. Now, what about other things like fashion photography with an iPhone or an Android or a product photography, or maybe still life, maybe you like to photograph flowers with a pretty vase. These are all aspects of photography, sorry, mobile photography that do really well with a tripod because they don't move. That's a good thing. We're not rushed. We can, you know, reduce those cortisol levels, the stress levels, because we can enjoy the process of photography. And that tripod is a real gem to to slow us down and to get that composition. Right.
Raymond Hatfield: 32:34 You know, I think what you said, there is something that I wasn't really even expecting the answer for, which is really that even though we're still using our phone and we have it with us everywhere, and we can just take it out of our pocket and take a picture of breakfast or whatever, still looking at it through the mindset of how can I create something with intention, how can I create something that will look its best? And that's really where that tripod comes in. Right? Cause I'm not surely I'm not just gonna like come into my office, grab a tripod, take it out there and take a picture of lunch or whatever it is. Not that I do that I used to, if you look at my old Instagram, those definitely what I used to do. But I'm not going to do that.
Raymond Hatfield: 33:15 But as you said taking, knowing what it is that you're shooting and having an idea in composing the photo, I suppose, in your head pre visualizing it before using that tripod is, is huge. And I helped that somebody really takes that away from from this episode, if they decided to pick one up, because I really, I really think that that could help a lot of people, especially fix all those horrible horizons that I see people use with their cell phone, or even when they do like the tilt. And they'll take a picture like this, that's the worst, the worst, sorry. I know that moving on, we have come a long way with the iPhone right? In the past 12 years or so now to take a good picture with our iPhone, do we, do we need the newest photo or the I'm sorry, do we need the newest iPhone? Do we need to upgrade every year that it comes out?
Mark Hemmings: 34:03 I want to always make sure that everyone knows, and I even do this for my idea, slur photo workshops and mirrorless is that I never want people to go into debt to buy gear. That's, that's the biggest mistake don't upgrade until you have the budget for it. And don't ever feel pressure from any ridiculous professional photographer saying that, yo, you gotta, you gotta upgrade. You know, your, your iPhone seven is too old or you're this and that is too old. That's not the case. If it takes a picture, then you have 80% or 90% of the work done. Now there's also the aspect of, you know, that 10% that may not be as good as the latest model. Well, you know, we have apps, editing apps, really good ones online to be able to help with that. And here's proof. I look back at my very first digital camera picture, which was, who knows when that was so long ago, it was an, I think it was a Nikon D 70 or something. And those pictures way back, more than way more than a decade ago though, they're still excellent. You know, it was a six megapixel camera. And when I looked back on my iPhone pictures, my history from back in 2012, they asked some real gems in there. So don't ever feel pressure to buy the latest and the greatest and always purchase within your budget. Because if you go into debt to buy gear, you will feel stress and that will ruin the excitement and the fun of taking pictures.
Raymond Hatfield: 35:48 I love that. Such a, such a clear answer to the question. What I want to know though is going forward when it comes to, you know, they're always talking about new advancements in, in, in mobile photography. How do we know if you know, whatever the new thing is that they're talking about? How do we even know if we need that? Like when they introduced the two cameras, I thought, okay, that kind of makes sense. But then they introduce three, you know? And then now I think, well, well may, maybe I need that. And now it's becoming more of a gear thing going forward. How do we know how to make the decision on whether or not we even should upgrade? Or if our current phones are fine,
Mark Hemmings: 36:27 I would say, here's an interesting, this is just, I'm just throwing this out there. This is totally it could be totally argued, but the iPhone eight seemed to be a progression from the seven of course when we get to the iPhone eight, I was, I felt like it finally had enough data to hold together a really good picture. And we, you know, you and I talked about bit depth and all the technical jargon and all that stuff, but let's just say that you could spend the rest of your life using an iPhone eight and still produce great pictures 20 years, 30 years from now. And the reason why I know this is because I, I, one of my clients asked me to take a iPhone four S picture. This is when I went to India and maybe it was a, it was iPhone five.
Mark Hemmings: 37:26 I went to India and I came back with some iPhone pictures. And my client wanted me to use the picture to blow up to like, what was it like 12 foot high by 18 foot wide for, for a a restaurant it's a big, I said, no, that will never work. It's an iPhone four S or it's an iPhone five and it's six megapixels, but you know what? It looks stunning really. And it's in, it's in the restaurant, in my hometown in st. John new Brunswick [inaudible] Indian restaurant. And I was amazed. So you don't need to buy the 11. You don't need to buy the pixel four or the [inaudible], whatever you have right now is probably more than enough. And if you feel that it isn't, why don't you try just learning a little bit about Lightroom editing using the Lightroom mobile app, just to, to clean up any issues that you might find. One of the things that's super important is a lot of people give up on their phones, their Android, or their iPhone, because the pictures aren't sharp, but I almost guarantee you that 80% of those people simply have fingerprints on their lenses.
Raymond Hatfield: 38:41 Yeah, I I'm sorry. Can you give me just one second? The kids are out there. Yeah. They're they're not, they're not happy right now. Hold on. I don't want that to, to show up. Hold on just one.
Mark Hemmings: 38:51 Yep.
Raymond Hatfield: 38:56 I am a I'm so sorry about that. They Parker took down one of Charlie's chargers in the on the wall right there.
Mark Hemmings: 39:04 Oh, I have two daughters. I understand.
Raymond Hatfield: 39:06 Yeah. Not, not, not happy about it. Not happy if for some reason, like into the world right there. So okay. Who we were just talking about the the iPhone eight and how, how it will last as a camera and how we can do good things with with maybe older technology. So it sounds to me like everything that we've been talking about today has, has been a lot about the strengths of an iPhone, but surely we haven't really talked a lot about the challenges of shooting on an iPhone, you know, about its weakness. Well, we did talk about the smaller sensor sizes and whatnot, but maybe let's talk about a situation in which we would not want to use an iPhone. When would that be?
Mark Hemmings: 39:52 Yes. So there's, there's a technical term. It's a very funny, nah, actually it's a non tech term. It's called the, the jello effect. And that happens when ever we take our foam and we shake it or move it and take a picture. And what happens is everything becomes skewed in one direction or the other. And it's actually quite fun. You should try that. And all of the listeners and this is a result of how sensors camera sensors read or record information. And so if we are physically, like, let's just say, we're in a car and we saw, see this great scene, but we are moving around like this. Cause it's really bumpy. Our photos are not going to be what we call true straight lines. They're going to be warped. And this is a, this is normal. This is a, you know, this has been a problem since the age of since digital recording has happened.
Mark Hemmings: 40:56 Now, why doesn't this happen on a DSLR or a mirrorless? Well, DSLR muralist has the advantage of a physical shutter and I phone, or an Android does not have a physical opening. And closing shutter has what's called an electronic shutter. So that's why sports, photography and any fast moving photography is usually not the best for a mobile device. That's why I would, I would always switch to, like, I have a Nikon D seven 80, I have a Fujifilm X, T four, and I cycle through camera cameras quite a bit. And that's where definitely I would be using a bigger camera. So that is, you know, that's, that's one area where you would definitely want to make sure that you are using a bigger camera with a physical shutter.
Raymond Hatfield: 41:47 Okay. That makes sense. So anything pretty much fast moving, anything that yeah, that's it really fast moving, fast moving subjects. Okay, cool. It's funny that you said that. Cause now I'm thinking back to a photo last year, I went to the Indy 500 and obviously these kids are going like 300 miles an hour. And I remember sitting in the stands and taking a photo. And just the effect was that the car, you know, if you, if you were to measure it on the track had to have been like several hundred feet long, just cause it was going so fast and it was so stretched. Alright. So note to self don't don't maybe I could shoot a wedding on an iPhone, but don't, don't try to shoot the Indy 500 on an iPhone. Okay. So let's go ahead and move on to the next step, which is after the capture, right? The edit, there is a lot of editing apps. I know that you talked about Lightroom there. Is that pretty much the end all be all? And what else, what should we be doing with with our photos after their editor to edit them?
Mark Hemmings: 42:47 Well, I love talking about the photographer's workflow because I use this every day. So I'll just quickly tell you what I do is I'll take a photo either in my DSLR, my mirrorless or my iPhone, and within my iPhone, it's either the native camera or the light room camera, but all of those pictures, regardless of how I captured them, get into the light room app. Now the Lightroom app, I can actually access like if I shoot with my Fuji or my Nikon, I just have a little adapter. So SD card adapter goes straight into my iPhone and they get loaded into light room. Those images go straight up to the cloud, but they're also within my iPhone in this, in the form of what we call a thumbnail or a, an editable copy, that's lower resolution, but still fully editable. Now in light room, I'll do all my adjusting because I feel in all my experience that Lightroom CC has the best amount of editing capacity.
Mark Hemmings: 43:50 Now it doesn't have all the fun gimmicks, but it has the foundational elements that the professionals need. Now, when I get the picture of the way I like to in Lightroom mobile app on my iPhone, then I export it to a third party app. If I need to. Let's just say, for example, people like Snapseed, let's just say that there's a Snapseed filter that I can't get on my light room. So I just export it to snap seed, do my adjustments and then send it back to Lightroom as a copy. This is extremely useful, but there's something even better, all Adobe apps. And that would be Adobe fix Adobe mix, Adobe Photoshop. I think it's called express. They really easily interact with Lightroom where you seamlessly go from one app to the other and then back into light room. So that's my workflow.
Mark Hemmings: 44:44 I every like 90% of the time, I just stay within Lightroom. But when I need that extra, you know special, fun filter or something, I'll go out of Lightroom. And one more thing before I it's really important because people get frustrated Lightroom because it's raw, it's dealing with non-destructive rock capabilities. It's not so good for erasing power lines or spot removal or healing brush, but that's okay because there's an app called Adobe Photoshop, fix F I X that works seamlessly with my Lightroom app and they send each other back and forth. And that's how I get rid of the power lines or, you know, the anything that I want to remove from a photo.
Raymond Hatfield: 45:33 I have never heard of a Photoshop fix. So there'll be Photoshop fix. I'm going to check that out for sure. Right after this, because one thing I did this year was I tried to, with the I started off the year with a [inaudible] which I love to death and I thought, you know what, I'm really gonna try to make a push towards mobile editing with with my iPad here. And I loved it. But as you said, I mean, there was just a few things that I found were much easier to remove maybe in light room on the computer than they were on mobile, but it sounds like maybe there's just a slight work around to get those things to work. And I just got to do a little bit more research to to do that. So I'm going to download that right away. Cause that sounds fantastic. So earlier you said that Lightroom is, is, is great, but maybe it doesn't have all the cool gimmicky features I believe was the exact technical term there. Can you maybe talk to me about what, what that means? Like what, what does light room CC not do?
Mark Hemmings: 46:35 Yes, Lightroom CC is the it avoids usually popular, popular gimmicky meme ish type filters, because it needs to make sure that it doesn't I think it's called software bloat where there's just way too much stuff within a software software app, but that's okay because Adobe cleverly comes up with these extra apps. For example, one's called Photoshop camera. Now Photoshop camera has all of the cool filters and effects that, for example, my teenage daughters love and it works in tandem and it's the interoperability with Lightroom app is quite stunning. So for example, if I want to get this crazy colors with words coming out of my head, you know, at four for Instagram or even a tic talk, if it was for promotion and all of these things, they're all available in Photoshop camera or Photoshop L Photoshop express, or, you know, all these other Adobe apps. And it's very simple. So you do your base work in Lightroom and then the fancy fun stuff for social media, you can export and work within those apps and then bring that picture back into light room.
Raymond Hatfield: 48:01 Okay. So, so the, the basic edits in light room are just simply exposure, saturation and contrast just getting the overall look of the image, right? We bring them into another Adobe app play with a little, a little more, maybe do something a little bit more creative, and then we bring it back into light room too, as a form of storage or as a form of, of, of finishing it up
Mark Hemmings: 48:22 A form of storage.
Raymond Hatfield: 48:24 Got it. Okay. Okay. So now that we have shot our masterpiece, now that we have edited it to be even better, what's next? What, what do we do with all these mobile photos that we take?
Mark Hemmings: 48:37 Yeah. So for, for what I do is I, now this is we're talking COVID times right now, but let's just say that we're talking pre COVID. What I would do is all my photos live in Lightroom and then I, I export a small JPEG for upload to social media. So for example, my last trip was Mexico. I spend each winter in Mexico and if you look on my Instagram, probably there hasn't been much uploading at least not internationally, but I have a very scheduled way where I export all the images that I want to upload to social media as a small. So in Lightroom, you have three options. You export as small as large. Now that would be a large JPEG at really good quality, or what's called original plus edits. Now this would usually be a raw file if you shot it in raw.
Mark Hemmings: 49:38 And there's actually a fourth option called custom where you can actually set the exact pixels, both length and width and your pixel resolution. And that's really useful. Not many people would need that to be honest, but those are the three export options that you would be doing after all of your editing is finished and you want to get stuff up to social media. And a lot of people will say, Mark, are you sure that small is okay for upload the Facebook? And I say yes, because the small export from Lightroom is actually 21, sorry, 2,140 pixels in the, the longest dimension, which is actually a little bit more than what's even necessary for Facebook or, or any social media platform.
Raymond Hatfield: 50:23 Oh, that's good. That's good to know. So obviously we're going to be our photos. I got one last question here. I know that we're going a little long and that the kids were kind of crazy there. So lastly is that I know that we can keep all of these photos in the cloud. But what about those who maybe don't want to don't want to do that? And they would like to keep their photos maybe on a hard drive or something, is that even a possibility with with the iPhone photos?
Mark Hemmings: 50:52 Yep. So the possibility exists with the paid version. Now this light room app that we've been talking about the whole time, it's free with a limited amount of cloud storage space. However, if you upgrade to their normal monthly program, which I believe is $9 and 99 cents, U S then you automatically have late room, the same light room, but the desktop version for your laptop, and you would just connect an external hard drive to your computer. And that will in the background, just churn through, it'll send everything straight into your external hard drive. And I do that as well. So I have three points of backup. I have the cloud, I also have the external hard drive, which sits on my desk and it continually keeps getting fed automatically from, you know, the cloud into the external hard drive. And I have a duplicate hard drive that I sent to my office. And that w that covers me essentially.
Raymond Hatfield: 51:54 So are you, this is my last question here. Are you like going through and rating all the phones? Are you manually choosing the photos that you want to go on that hard drive to be backed up? Or is it every photo?
Mark Hemmings: 52:04 No, it's every photo, every photo. Okay. Every single photo that gets out. Let's see. Let me give you a really quick scenario. Let's just say right now, I take a picture of you. I can see you on the screen, and then that photo goes straight to the cloud, but not only that, it goes down from the cloud into my computer, which is only about 10 feet away inside rate it right over there, and then directly into my external hard drive. Now this is incredibly easy and useful. I don't need to do a thing. And it gives me that assurance that we have both cloud backup and physical hard drive backup. And then I would say once a month, I will, or soon, maybe every two weeks, I'll take my physical hard drive and duplicate it at my office.
Raymond Hatfield: 52:57 Okay. So that's just another reason to maybe slow down and be more intentional with your photos so that you don't have a thousand photos of your steak sandwich from the hard drive.
Mark Hemmings: 53:09 Yes. And one thing I, sorry, I just have to throw this in. It's really important for people to know that if they're concerned with that steak sandwich and those ridiculous fun snapshots, I only use my Lightroom camera and I only, these are artistic photos. If they're just silly pictures or like business receipts, or, you know, maybe a phone number of someone those reside within my normal camera photos app, I don't put them into light room. So I just want to make sure that everyone understands that a light room for me at least is reserved for my artistic or my clients or photos that are that have that, that level of value.
Raymond Hatfield: 53:54 Okay. So again, the difference between a more digital photos and just snapshots when you would differentiate those. Perfect. Perfect. Well Mark I got to say, thank you obviously so much for coming on and sharing everything that you did about iPhone photography today. You, before I let you go, you let the listener know about your new book, which honestly I'm going to be picking up and I'm excited to learn more about,
Mark Hemmings: 54:20 Yeah, so the, for dummies series, which is published by Wiley publishing and in the United States, they cover so many different genres and they asked me to do iPhone photography for dummies and it's out now, and you can buy it on amazon.com or amazon.ca for Canadians like myself or around the world, any Amazon shop. And it's a, I'm really proud of the book and it will help you if you have any version of iPhone to get better at iPhone photography. And I, I have a whole bunch of the nice thing about this book is that it has sort of my favorite pictures from around the world. It's doubled as a, my portfolio in the sense of international iPhone pictures and words and instructions and lessons and genres inside this book. So I hope you all get it. I hope you enjoy it. And I really hope that my proposals for doing it, you know, an Android smartphone, photography for dummies is accepted because I would love to serve the other side of the mobile photography world.