iPhonification of Street Photography

I follow Arnold Daniel's work and believe he has a good eye. He shoots plenty of film, perhaps more after the notoriety he received by way of his iPhone work.

I embrace good photos from iPhones or otherwise.
 
Great article.
This begs the question-Is instagram street photography a subculture or is it The current culture of the genre. if so is the photographic print or book now obsolete?
 
It is very convinient for confidence of taking, easines to edit on device and sharing. Instant at its best.
Prime lens is great as well. If you like to be with crowd a.k.a. Instagram it is good for it.
As long as you are looking at it on mobile device.
Hopefully some from this crowd will grow to same on film as iTunes crowd on LPs :)
 
My vote goes with accept.

Try it, and if you're like me enjoy it. I don't Instagram but I am addicted to my silly iPhone.

B2
 
I have read several articles as of late on this...
I think it's a trend that will stay around a while.

one thing it will do, you won't be harassed as much with a phone camera.
I mean, you must see dozen's over a few hour period in the streets.
nobody cares, makes you more invisible right?

I just got a 16mp Galaxy S5 (16mp is in 16:9), and, at ISO 100,
the quality is quite good for the web, and small prints... 8x10.. maybe 11x14..

I, for one, will give it a try.... why not? though I may not use instagram though as SP gallery
 
It's a tool, and a pretty good one for the genre. You can choose to use it or not. I love my M6 with B&W film, never going to give that up BUT I also love using my iPhone with Hipstamatic...different tools that give unique results.
Mastering both (or other) tools gives you an idea of what the end result is, and IMO it's that end result that matters...let the artist decide.
 
segedi said:
Embrace or disgrace?
Click to expand...

embrace!

Sure not ideal for big print and low light but hey, a camera 'that' small with a 30mm equiv. fixed lens hidden in a device 'that' common, totally accepted, pretty much nobody feels threatened or disturbed by it, on the contrary, it even 'still' has that coolness factor. A street photographers dream come true, much better than one could have imagined.
..

personally I do not have a smartphone, well I do, but an old model with a camera that sucks and don't have an instagram account, clicking on your link was the first time I viewed it. But I noticed that in some circumstances a handphone camera simply is unrivaled: If you go out at night, a party, a club, in many places around Asia if you take out an iphone ( a Samsung or any other handphone that is recognized as being an expensive model ;) ) everybody will happily pose, half go crazy doing it. If you take out a 'normal' camera you won't get a reaction even remotely as positive, if at all, taking photos won't be nearly as much fun and photos taken most likely won't be nearly as interesting. Going 'pro', as if you were taking photos for a amgazine with big and expensive gear, possibly with a helper for flash asf. does the trick too ;)
 
I don't buy it. yes Instagram is among popular apps for this purpose, but its really smartphones that have made the real impact.

this article makes a big point one app being something revolutionary: "Before Instagram, the street photography community was a small one."
 
Street photography community wasn't small it was just segragated, prior to online communities the only way to see street shots were through books, magazines, exhibition and local prints.

With the explosion of sites like Flickr in the mid 2000s, it got easier to see and share street shots to the rest of the world but after 2010 with the popularity and availability of smarth phones, most people were checking pictures on their phones and unfortunately Flickr doesn't run nicely on smart phones.
Instagram works great on any phones and allows you to view your peers work and share your work all in one app, anywhere you are, plus it allows you to share your works which isn't necessarily taken with the phone.

I have a buddy that joined Instagram years after me and has earned thousands of followers compared to my 200s, how? he was marketing himself out, posting at least once a day and using as many hashtags as he could get, something that I don't really want to nor have any interest in.
I tend to use Instragram mostly as a journal/album.

But yes, I follow some RFF members, some street photographers including some Magnum photographers on Instagram as I find it inspirational and also nice to see others work.

Regarding camera phones, IMO they are actually great street cameras, really small, silent and inconspicuous (since everyone have camera phones now a days) and I'm not afraid to use it to take some shots, whether street or landscape since it will only be shared to the web and/or printed no bigger than 8x10.
 
Are phone cameras really that bad, Quality-wise? I recently saw a couple "Shot on iPhone 6" billboards in downtown Dallas here. They look fantastic to me.
 
I have been taking some test photos with my Galaxy S5, at 16mp and 12mp, and though there is plenty of detail...
there is still a bit of color smearing with some things.. like grass at ISO 40.

To use it as a Street Alternative... just be aware that Film or regular sized digital cameras will still offer better images. (but, we all know this anyway..)
But, I still want a minimum IQ for street...And some of current high end cell cameras offer just enough IQ with most street..

If, I keep subjects close (4-15 feet), it should be "Okay", but, it is still a novelty, with limited enlargement (5x7 I'd think)

I have seen some great cell phone street galleries.. but, at 100%, it is obvious that high density of pixels starts to take it's toll on Image Quality..

A 16mp Cell phone sensor compared to an 16mp APS-C

......................Galaxy S4/5.............Fuji Pro I
Sensor size: 6.17×4.55, .......... 23.60×15.60

So the Fuji (APS-C) would need what, about 4x more pixels...16x4 = 64mp... that is Medium Format territory density now on a much larger sensor.
FF 35mm even higher !!!!

So yeah, but, shoot close!! :p
 
I think iPhone images fall apart once you start getting to enlargement size, but as viewed on another digital device (including larger-screen tablets), they look good. To add to that thought, I think 99.9% of these images will never see a piece of photographic or printer paper anyway.

My only quibble with the iPhone as a compact camera--still--is shutter lag. If there was a way to lock exposure, focus, and have it available instantly (when I raise the phone or pull it out of my pocket) it would be a very capable tool, IMO. Some of the built-in image editing software does things I'd do to my digital images anyway.

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^I was thinking about that too.
someone should create or Apple add it on their camera App the Ricoh's Snap mode.
pre-focus it to 1.5m or 2m and I would be set.
 
I made a 3 foot wide print of a panoramic shot I made on my iPhone 5s.

Took just a very minor bit of tweaking in PS to get rid of a tiny bit of noise in the shadows, and it held up just fine.

I don't think it's terribly great in low light, but if your lens is clean and you're shooting in half-decent light...it's not too bad.
 
Where's the fun, challenge, intelligence, sense of accomplishment etc. in pressing a button? It's not there. When one shoots film, learns to know the correct exposure, conquers the variables of processing, scanning/printing and adjusting along the way, well that's something. If it comes too easy, what's the point? With "conventional" photography one is always learning and developing, and when one ups their game to a certain level, it becomes something special -- like learning to play an instrument. Digital photography, especially cellphones is like playing Guitar Hero or air guitar. That's really where it's at. Reminds me of the story of the rich guy who hires his butler to exercise for him.
 
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