How Much do use your Smartphone for photography?

Photos taken with my iPhone 11 account for a small percentage of what I do, but I try to take those photos with the same care I might use when shooting with my Sony cameras, and I import them into my photo archives, same like any other. I love the effectiveness of the image stabilization, and ease with which I get idealized (usually brighter, color-corrected, auto-HDR, and more vivid) versions of reality, at least when using the primary lens. Raw images are available by using 3rd party camera app, but minus the Deep Fusion magic, they look about as I'd expect from a decent, small-sensor camera, so I mostly use Apple's Camera app.

And speaking of apps, I get extra value of of the camera via a color meter app, and another which offers high-speed video. I use the latter when servicing film camera shutters, as it allows me to observe if a shutter curtain is bouncing or capping.
 
Never, because I have never owned a smartphone or cellphone or mobile-phone. I still shoot photos with my Kiev 4.
 
that's the spirit. learn it, try/use it, see what works. the 15 has a remarkable camera system that can be used in many ways.

i'm just learning mine; my partner gave me a 15 for my holiday gift.
i've only used it trivially thus far but it has lots of great capabilities.

G
 
I have my phone in my pocket-just in case I need a stealth shot that most people on the street ignore. I use whichever camera I happend to be carrying that moment. It is a tool. Not more.
 
It's seems most (as expected in the forum) aren't liking the use of or at least use it as the last resort in taking a snapshot. The ubiquity of the phone has relegated it as a essential tool to function in our day to day rather than a item for pleasure/leisure in the act of photography.

Most of the newer phones ive seen are still over sharpened / noisy. The pixel 2 is the only phone that has given me barely reasonable results.

There was the gimmick one inch sensor Leica/Chinese brand phone with the ability to attach a Leica lens I would of liked to see the sooc files of though.
 
Quite often. Usually for social media snapshots (FB,Instagram),quick records or geotagging. Often I feel I'm making a bit of a mockery of the other cameras I am lucky enough to have, especially when I'm carrying one as well as the phone.
However, the computational photography of modern phones is impressive in its own right and I'm quite happy to use them.
 
Well, I use my iPhone quite often for photography. It is a tool that is capable of taking astonishingly good photos.
I am not quite fond of its ergonomics. But it is a useful tool. A tool, that is nearly always with me. It has its "quirks", but I try to use them artistically. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

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Maybe relevant to this conversation. I’m in charge of organizing the “Juried Photo Exhibit” for the Arts Council in my small town. Last year, I decided to include a smartphone-only pic category in addition to traditional photography (meaning hard-print on the wall). We broke records last year (number of entries), because of the cellphone category. Most everybody has a cellphone today, and that’s what they use to take pictures (especially the younger crowd). And, to my eyes, the quality of the photography was often better than photos taken with traditional cameras. There’s no doubt in my mind that the smartphone is changing photography.

Jim B.
 
Mackinaw said:
Maybe relevant to this conversation. I’m in charge of organizing the “Juried Photo Exhibit” for the Arts Council in my small town. Last year, I decided to include a smartphone-only pic category in addition to traditional photography (meaning hard-print on the wall). We broke records last year (number of entries), because of the cellphone category. Most everybody has a cellphone today, and that’s what they use to take pictures (especially the younger crowd). And, to my eyes, the quality of the photography was often better than photos taken with traditional cameras. There’s no doubt in my mind that the smartphone is changing photography.

Jim B.
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Right, smartphones are certainly changing photography. They're practically putting the camera business out of business (point and shoots, especially). I rarely see anyone else with a camera of any kind anymore. Cell phone cameras are adequate for some I suppose, but if you try to extract any detail from an image, or crop, - forget about it. The image simply begins to fall apart.
 
Bill Blackwell said:
Right, smartphones are certainly changing photography. They're practically putting the camera business out of business (point and shoots, especially). I rarely see anyone else with a camera of any kind anymore. Cell phone cameras are adequate for some I suppose, but if you try to extract any detail from an image, or crop, - forget about it. The image simply begins to fall apart.
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What we did was to show all of the smartphone pics on several monitors scattered about the Gallery (in a slide show). Image quality of these images on our monitors was quite good. At our reception, it was quite the sight to see people gathered around the monitors watching the slide show, and ignoring the hard prints on the wall.

Having a cellphone category also lowered the age of those who entered this juried contest. Like most Art Galleries in small towns, we struggle to bring in the younger demographic. This was not a problem last year. College/High School-aged people only use smartphones to take pictures.

I’m in the planning stages right now for the 2024 Juried Photo Show. I have no doubt the smartphone category will be our dominant category.

Jim B.
 
I enjoy photographing with my iPhone tremendously - especially when traveling.

Look forward to exploring this option more when I upgrade to the 15 Pro. I also use Snapseed to post-process when I feel the need.

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Snobbery Towards Mobile Phone Photography Is Just Gatekeeping the Industry

One of photography's most weathered tropes is "the best camera is the one you have with you," and yet, online courses, tutorials, and articles on mobile phone photography are met with a barrage of abuse. The dismissal of using camera phones as "not real photography" is just gatekeeping in our...
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I used my (dated) iPhone XR very recently on a trip to Barcelona, in addition to the M10 with two lenses. I don't see any probelms with doing so. My M10 does not take videos, but my XR does. The XR lets me send to some friends some snapshots from the streets very quickly as long as I have access to WiFi. My M10 does not.
 
raid said:
I used my (dated) iPhone XR very recently on a trip to Barcelona, in addition to the M10 with two lenses. I don't see any probelms with doing so. My M10 does not take videos, but my XR does. The XR lets me send to some friends some snapshots from the streets very quickly as long as I have access to WiFi. My M10 does not.
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If you download and set up the Leica Fotos app, you will be able to share photos taken with the M10. Still no video, of course.
 
Exclusively.

From the iPhone 10 (likely earlier) the images were good enough to print at 8x10 in most lights. I won a local photo club competition with an image from an iPhone 6 which set me rolling. I sold my last camera a year or two ago, and don’t miss it. I now have the iPhone 15 Pro and it is an excellent camera. It is even more phenomenal when you consider the size and that it’s so much more than a camera.

Sure, it doesn’t have the ergonomics of a camera (you can set a button for the shutter, or even use your watch as a remote), but most of the time taking photos is spent not actually taking photos but just looking, and the smartphone gets out of the way 100%, where a camera is a pain to carry in comparison.
 
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