Thoughts on cameras in the age of excellent cell phone photos

Re:Thoughts on cameras in the age of excellent cell phone ph... by gen220 on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @09:20AM (#23403015)

In 2012, I took a photography class led by a professional photographer, and she actively encouraged students to use their phones if they couldn’t get access to a DSLR, and her reasoning was exactly what you describe. To her, composition, color, contrast, textures, lines, framing, and pose was everything. That’s what she was trying to teach us, because that’s the hardest part. Mastering your camera’s settings just takes a lot of time and trial & error.

And this was in 2012, when mobile phones had terrible cameras, mind you!

Of course, resolution and noise are distracting when you print big, but she was trying to judge us for our eyes and hands, rather than for our cameras and mastery over their settings. They’re orthogonal if the observer wants them to be.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Thoughts on cameras in the age of excellent cell phone ph... by mnw21cam on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @10:06AM (#23403451)

There's also the factor of "The best camera is the one you actually have with you". If you have a fantastic camera sitting at home when a photo opportunity arises, it isn't much use. A mobile phone camera is often the best camera because of this.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Thoughts on cameras in the age of excellent cell phone ph... by frosted-flakes on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @09:50AM (#23403313)

I took a photography class in college, and the professor had us down-scale our photos to a super low resolution before submitting them. Both to keep file sizes down, and because he was judging us on our composition skills, not the quality of our cameras.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Thoughts on cameras in the age of excellent cell phone ph... by sukilot on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @10:03AM (#23403423)

Resolution only matters for super duper digital zoom for super large prints. An 18MP phone cam is worse than a 2MP DSLR. Resolution is useless if the lens can't put the right light on each pixel.

For a bad photographer, a good camera makes a huge difference. It has focal length/bokeh, dynamic range, shutter speed, and more to "get" a good shot that a phonecam can't.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Thoughts on cameras in the age of excellent cell phone ph... by TheRealPomax on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @12:18PM (#23405136)

That's basically the same lesson we've been getting before phones, too, only it used to be a polaroid, or even disposable cameras, as it's important to first learn the basics, and the tech does not matter at that level.

Once you've learned the basics, though, the tech starts to matter a lot and the limitations of that phone, or that disposable camera or polaroid, starts to interfere with the things you know you want to capture and how you want it to look, but simply can't.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Thoughts on cameras in the age of excellent cell phone ph... by Mediterraneo10 on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @01:58PM (#23406492)

Altering depth of field is a huge part of giving a photo a unique composition. In 2012, you simply could not achieve those effects on a phone. So, this teacher was probably well aware of how hobbled her students with only phones were creatively, even if she wouldn't say it out loud for the sake of ensuring enrollment in her course.

[ Parent | on HN ]