Of phones and photographs

Was a time I considered myself a photographer. Two Pentax manual SLR bodies, four lenses, lens hood, filters, tripod, camera bag, rolls of Kodachrome, Fujichrome, Ilford monochrome. A keen eye and a willingness to try out new things.

Like most amateur photographers I lacked any kind of formal training. I read Amateur Photographer (UK) magazine and kept the back copies for years after but this was when I was a young boy and long before I ever owned a decent camera. This came later, and later still I learnt darkroom skills by making use of the facilities of a nearby art school. I didn't do a bad job either and still have many of my prints from that time.

These days I don't have any kind of camera equipment other than my cell phone, which is many years out of date, not the latest model. I use it a lot to take snapshots when I am out and about and some of these snaps illustrate my vocal stories, articles and fiction. Why not? If David Hockney can use an I-phone to paint pictures for an exhibition, why can't I use one to illustrate my Vocal stories?

As a 35mm photographer for so many years, I yearned for the time when digital photography would be good enough to use alongside film photography. That era has of course now been and gone. Do digital photographers need the same skillset as film photographers? More to the point, can a person use a phone to produce good quality work?

The answer to that final question is a resounding 'YES', assuming the quality of the equipment matches the required quality of the end product, and assuming the photographer has sufficient skill to get the right shot. What skills does a photographer need? Well, I said I lacked formal training in photography so I can't answer that. Instead, I asked my AI buddy.

This is the answer it generated:

This is how I use ChatGPT: AI: Your new writing buddy?

Taking these points one by one I would say:

• Technical skills: How hard is it to point and shoot a phone? I know there are fancy new modern phones with lots of bells and whistles but mine isn't one of them. It is the I-phone equivalent of the Kodak Instamatic. I point it, I frame the shot, I take a few variations. I download and edit when needed.
• Interpersonal skills: I like to think I have those. I am 63 years old, have worked in business, finance, publishing, arti, public service and (not least) a prison. That's what it says on my resumé. And you don't need interpersonal skills to take a picture of a landscape.
• Creativity and vision: Hope so, at least enough to create a vision of a decent photograph. You be the judge, though, please see below.
• Attention to detail: Again, I think so.
• Flexibility: Gotta be one of my main attributes.

How to take good I-phone photos

What's the secret of a good I-phone photo? I would say that, assuming a basic phone camera, you need to consider the following:

• Don't use zoom, unless it is a really fancy, optical zoom setup. If not, when you zoom your picture, the camera crops into a small portion of the digital image to make the subject look larger. This result in a loss of resolution and therefore photo quality. You also increase the chances of blurring the image, as you would with any telephoto or zoom lens. This is caused by the exaggerated movement if you are focusing on a small and distant area for your shot. If you can't get as close to your subject as you need to, snap the picture anyway then and crop it later, at your leisure.
• Look at the whole picture you are going to take, holding the screen away from you, so that you can see all the detail. What's in the foreground, what's in the background and what's in the middle ground?
• For a static shot, try different points of view. A landscape, for instance, often benefits from features like tree branches to help provide a frame for the photo. On the other hand, overuse can look very clichéd.
• For an action shot, point then click several times, so that you can choose from multiple frames.

How true is any of the the above? You be the judge. Please consider the featured image of each of the following Vocal stories in the context of their use: each a featured image to illustrate one of my Vocal stories. Please let me know if you think they are, or are not, fit for that purpose:

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Looking at these photographs, I would suggest there is good attention to detail, good composition and, more to the point, good cropping of the resulting image.

This is the key when trying to take photos with a phone. It's all down to the way that you crop the final image.

Thanks for reading

Ray