Sending Up an Idea Balloon: Anyone Interested in an Image Thread for Serious Photographers/Photography Only?

[Darmok N Jalad]

My iPhone 12 Pro does indeed support HEIC as does the iPhone 11 Pro but I don't like to use HEIC because it is not recognized by a lot of systems yet and if I'm sending an email or text to a friend and want to include an image I've captured with the iPhone, I'd just as soon they be able to see that image -- and while my friends and family with Macs can, some others cannot. Now that I have the iPhone 12 Pro I've experimented a little with shooting in RAW with that and then working on the resulting image(s) in my regular programs but haven't done all that much with it yet. Easier to just keep the phone set to JPG and fire off images and if I want to do anything else with them or simply send them off unedited, SOOC, I can do so, no problem.

I agree. If you like to offload iPhone photos into other libraries, HEIC can be a pain. I don’t take enough iPhone photos to worry about the space issues. Besides, it’s the videos that take up the space. I’m not much of a video person, but I do like to use slow mo sometimes. Those files can get pretty big!

 

[Clix Pix]

Not sure what you mean by "offload(ing) iPhone photos into other libraries." I don't use Photos and I also don't use any of the Adobe products, either, so no "other libraries" here. Also, no video collection features in my image files, either, and I can count on the fingers of both hands the number of still images I shoot with my iPhone -- sometimes they're just something interesting I spotted while out-and-about or sometimes they're something which would be of particular interest to a family member or a friend, and in those cases I just stick the image into the text or email I'm sending and that's it. Space isn't a consideration for me as I don't keep a lot of files on my MBP's internal SSD; most of my images live on external drives, either as part of the current year's group on my backup/current external drives after being processed or if they're older, they're tucked away on the archival HDD drives.

That said, periodically I do clean off my iPhone files and get rid of the experimental not-so-great ideas and shots, the one-offs which mean nothing to anyone and not even me after a period of time, etc., etc. My iPhones are both 256 GB in capacity so there's plenty of room on them even if I were not to clean them up now and then.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I mean, take photos you've taken with your iPhone and copying them into your photo library, whatever it may be. I don't use my iPhone camera much these days, but I have taken some really good/memorable photos with smartphones that I'd like to preserve. There were several years where my smartphone was my only camera, and many photos and videos were taken of the kids. JPGs transfer easily, HEIC does not.

 

[Clix Pix]

Ah, gotcha! Exactly what I do, put the valuable photos into my regular Pictures folder in an appropriate folder so that they don't get lost along the way. Recently a friend emailed me that after the last iOS update a lot of her older photos had disappeared from her iPhone -- she was using iCloud -- and of course she was very upset. She hadn't thought to also save them in her computer for posterity, too. The good news about this is that FINALLY, after years of my nagging her she has gotten around to backing up all of her important files in the computer now, on a separate external drive that she'd bought a while ago but then hadn't actually used. Her computer is getting up there in age, has slowed down considerably and I really was concerned that she'd lose everything on it before she had a chance to run a backup, so now I'm greatly relieved.

 

[robgendreau]

In the old days the motto was "get it right in the camera in the first place, right from the beginning," but now in the digital era it seems that for many people the motto is "well, if I make a mistake or two, no problem, I can fix it in Photoshop or in my iPhone editing apps." Others don't even think about the process at all, they just mash the shutter button and grab a shot of whatever momentarily caught their attention and move on. That said, of course sometimes shots are captured on the fly when a situation suddenly comes up and there's no time to think, just capture the action as it is unfolding. Still others give careful consideration to what they are going to shoot before they even leave the house or pick up the camera in the first place, and arrive at the location with specific concepts and ideas in mind, then spend an hour or more "working the subject" from all angles and different perspectives as they explore the creative possibilities. Some develop a vision in their head and work to bring it to life via time spent shooting with the camera followed by a session where the focus is in working with software editing tools.

My old days experience was very different.

I took my first photography courses in the old film days (50 years ago this year, in fact).

My instructors were very into Ansel Adams, and used his books. And while exposure, composition, and bracketing were important, that didn't get it right yet, since that was merely half the process. The rest was the darkroom, with variables in developing, printing, choices of papers, more exposure choices, manipulating parts of the image, and on and on. The idea that you could snap a shot and that was it was drummed out of us.

Since you couldn't chimp then you had no idea if you got it right or not when you took a shot.

I guess when one starts off by spending as much time in the darkroom as in shooting that continuing to spend as much time digitally post processing seems a natural progression. But it does seem a lot easier to get a nice shot by just hitting the button than it ever did before.

 

[r.harris1]

I have used snapbridge as a remote on my phone. I think they did a big update within the past few months that makes snapbrige a lot more useable than it used to be. I only used it once though, and don't think it showed up on my watch, so not sure it would work quite like Darmok's setup. Still, if it was just for a normal remote for your camera, I think snapbridge will do what you want. 🙂

On my cameras the phone actually shows the view from the lens like the viewfinder, but not sure if that's only because it's mirrorless and if that works the same on your dSLR. But then the DSLR has live view, so it should be able to mirror that.

Yes, snapbridge does indeed mirror live view on at least the d850. Presumably on the d750 too. It’s gotten tons better over the last year or so.

 

[Steven-iphone]

I did not read through 81 posts.

My question is: why interchangeable lens cameras. There are mirrorless cameras that are used professionally - the iconic Ricoh GR series (street photogs fav) or my choice, the Fujifilm X100 series. These are compact cameras that produce excellent results with a proper skill set.

I would like to offer a fine tuning of your idea. Show only photos that are publish quality - ie, high end magazine, Architectural Digest, National Geographic, as quality examples.

 

[Steven-iphone]

Would you qualify this as a professional image. Fujifilm X100T - 23mm fixed lens (35mm equivalent) - LightRoom

[removed the picture from the wall]

 

[Steven-iphone]

However, if I used a Fujifilm X-E4 (interchangeable lenses) and a 23mm lens - that would fit your criteria? This combo is the same as the Fujifilm X100T that I use now.

Not an argument, just an example of similarities.

 

[Slartibart]

My iPhone 12 Pro does indeed support HEIC as does the iPhone 11 Pro but I don't like to use HEIC because it is not recognized by a lot of systems yet and if I'm sending an email or text to a friend and want to include an image I've captured with the iPhone, I'd just as soon they be able to see that image -- and while my friends and family with Macs can, some others cannot. Now that I have the iPhone 12 Pro I've experimented a little with shooting in RAW with that and then working on the resulting image(s) in my regular programs but haven't done all that much with it yet. Easier to just keep the phone set to JPG and fire off images and if I want to do anything else with them or simply send them off unedited, SOOC, I can do so, no problem.

If you use the „Share“-menu to attach HEIC images to a mail on iOS/iPadOS- as well as when resizing it in „Attachment“-dialogue for example to „Actual size“- it will be automatically converted to JPG. Additionally Microsoft offers a free HEIC extension for Windows 10.

 

[kenoh]

The browser they are viewing your images on will also play a part. But yes calibrated monitors is the right way to go (says the bloke who sells them for a living!).

Also, Windows, Mac, Android all render colours differently. I used to administer the website for my sister in laws business and one of the colours in her branding was that muted grey brown donkeys butt colour. At the time the Mac made it look the colour I wanted (because i developed it on that) but then seeing it rendered on Windows and android was annoying as android made it look pink ish - not a disaster as the website sold baby gifts so a pink tinge wasn’t the end of the world, but windows just made it look too brown.

As for raw vs jpeg, I like black and white - you may have noticed.... lol... but I like deep texture rich shadows and the jpeg compression algorithm is awesome for stripping out that detail for me.... When you shoot with beautiful cameras with limited dynamic range then jpeg is a nightmare for munging details together (yes technical term... )

Editing in different lights is a pain. As a tip, I change the background of my editing window in LR and PS - on laptop of course to white for BnW editing as it seems to help stop me making my images too dark. When editing on a black background they look brighter than they typically appear once exported.

Whilst I would never trust him with a camera recommendation, @Apple fanboy is the man for colour science... and display acuity.

 

[kallisti]

I did not read through 81 posts.

My question is: why interchangeable lens cameras. There are mirrorless cameras that are used professionally - the iconic Ricoh GR series (street photogs fav) or my choice, the Fujifilm X100 series. These are compact cameras that produce excellent results with a proper skill set.

I would like to offer a fine tuning of your idea. Show only photos that are publish quality - ie, high end magazine, Architectural Digest, National Geographic, as quality examples.

I would encourage you to read through all the posts in this thread. The conversation has shifted over time from the OP .

 

[Steven-iphone]

I scanned and now I think I need a Dramamine.

 

[baypharm]

Would you qualify this as a professional image. Fujifilm X100T - 23mm fixed lens (35mm equivalent) - LightRoom

[removed the picture from the wall]

The Fuji x100t and v models would be excluded from the bright idea posed by the OP.

 

[kallisti]

The Fuji x100t and v models would be excluded from the bright idea posed by the OP.

The conversation about “gear requirements” has been discussed in depth in earlier posts in this thread and the question was settled. The OP (@Clix Pix) has stated that “gear requirements” probably don’t make sense, in part based on the replies posted in the thread. It was a “settled” issue fairly early on.

There has also been a larger discussion about whether the type of thread envisioned by the OP would be helpful or not helpful. The consensus from the replies is that this type of thread would not be helpful.

The conversation then went in other directions.

Forgive me if I am reading too much into your reply, but I sense a little bit of snark. I don’t feel it’s justified. I applaud @Clix Pix for starting this thread and offering an idea to the community. The community responded in a very civil way with a conversation where members expressed their opinions. @Clix Pix responded to the replies in a civil and appropriate manner, acknowledging member input and incorporating it into subsequent replies.

I’ve enjoyed reading this thread. It’s been good to hear from the community. The civil nature of the discussion has been a huge plus. While the idea from the original post doesn’t seem to be something the community favors, the conversation has been interesting and fruitful. More importantly, it’s how conversations should ideally happen in this forum (and on the internet in general). Kudos to @Clix Pix and to the vast majority of members who responded to this thread in a civil and constructive manner.

Your post is somewhat late to the party, commenting on something that has already been settled much earlier in the thread. And the perceived snark in your reply (which may not have been intentional) isn’t really appropriate in my humble opinion.

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you, Kallisti! I've been having some eye issues recently so have been jumping around here-and-there and apparently missed Baypharm's post earlier..... I appreciate your thoughtful and spot-on response to this post and also to an earlier one as well. Yes, I think we've all moved on from what I realize was not a well-thought-out suggestion at all and the ensuing discussion has been really fruitful and interesting overall.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

As monitors get bigger and their resolution increases, I think we will see more thoughts along these lines. Truth is images taken with tiny CMOS sensors hold up quite well viewed at 1080x1920, but they won't go a lot bigger. Anyone using a big high end monitor will see that inherent weakness all too plainly. That said I would still limit posted image resolution as perhaps the best way to avoid copyright infringement.

I mentioned those slide presentations from ~50 years ago. Today's equivalent is the smart phone images. Your good friend hands you their smart phone with literally hundreds of images which should probably have been trashed at birth and you have to go through ever so many of them to arrive at the image(s) they want to share. That said they are still good friends!

I too in the "no" side. Take for example some of the most famous images taken years ago with pinhole cameras. Some of these images can be seen in the link below, but can be found in the Internet. Lots of street photographers became famous years ago because of the photos they took with point & shoot cameras. In reality the camera used, regardless of kind, is not what makes a person "a serious photographer."

A few photos taken with pinhole cameras:

Pinhole camera photos

Discover jamesolivershaul's collection, Pinhole camera photos

www.pinterest.com

These images were taken by a very serous photographer using other very old cameras:

Edward steichen

Discover curatereynolda's collection, Edward steichen

www.pinterest.com

 

[Steven-iphone]

I too in the "no" side. Take for example some of the most famous images taken years ago with pinhole cameras. Some of these images can be seen in the link below, but can be found in the Internet. Lots of street photographers became famous years ago because of the photos they took with point & shoot cameras. In reality the camera used, regardless of kind, is not what makes a person "a serious photographer."

A few photos taken with pinhole cameras:

Pinhole camera photos

Discover jamesolivershaul's collection, Pinhole camera photos

www.pinterest.com

These images were taken by a very serous photographer using other very old cameras:

Edward steichen

Discover curatereynolda's collection, Edward steichen

www.pinterest.com

When looking at a photographer like Steichen, it is not the camera, it is the subject matter and composition.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

When looking at a photographer like Steichen, it is not the camera, it is the subject matter and composition.

Exactly! It is not the camera or lens that "creates" a photo that instill emotions. Well, there are lucky shots, but the best photos tell their own stories.