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iPhone Photography Again
Mar. 16th, 2011 12:24 amIt's been a year since last I griped about this, so I have some hopes that I'll have a smattering of novelty with this post.
I'm currently mostly taking photos with my iPhone. I'm at something of a local maximum with my photography. The iPhone may not be a great camera, but I benefit from the automatic geotagging, and more importantly, I have it with me all the time.
But I'd like my photos to be better.
I've thought of buying a better camera, but I suspect the fault may be in me more than my camera, and I can't cheaply get the geotagging.
I've thought of taking a community college class. But I haven't convinced myself that a class would work well with the iPhone.
Recently, I've been trying relatively cheap ways of improving my iPhone photography, on the theory that it's at least no great investment to do so. I tried an iPhoto workshop at the local Apple store. I learned a bit, but I didn't learn how to redeem my bad photos with iPhoto as I had hoped.
I then tried buying a book on iPhone photography: Create Great iPhone Photos: Apps, Tips, Tricks, and Effects. I was very disappointed by this. I had hoped for detailed advice that addressed the problems I'm having, or maybe a series of exercises I could do to make my photos match my imagination. It has only a bare minimum of advice; mostly it's a big catalog of apps for applying funky effects. I don't feel that I want to apply funky effects much... mostly I want to create photos that look as good as I thought they would when I took the photo.
These are the sorts of questions that are occupying my attention right now:
For some pictures, especially with incandescent light, I get a pronounced yellow tinge. For example:
How do I fix this, either at the time of taking pictures or through retouching? (All my efforts to fix this in iPhoto end up making things look unappetizingly green.)
Many of the photos I take are just dull and washed out. For example:
I've tried randomly frobbing most of the controls in iPhoto with no great improvement, so I suspect that I should have done something different when I took the photo. But I don't know what I should have done.
I'm currently mostly taking photos with my iPhone. I'm at something of a local maximum with my photography. The iPhone may not be a great camera, but I benefit from the automatic geotagging, and more importantly, I have it with me all the time.
But I'd like my photos to be better.
I've thought of buying a better camera, but I suspect the fault may be in me more than my camera, and I can't cheaply get the geotagging.
I've thought of taking a community college class. But I haven't convinced myself that a class would work well with the iPhone.
Recently, I've been trying relatively cheap ways of improving my iPhone photography, on the theory that it's at least no great investment to do so. I tried an iPhoto workshop at the local Apple store. I learned a bit, but I didn't learn how to redeem my bad photos with iPhoto as I had hoped.
I then tried buying a book on iPhone photography: Create Great iPhone Photos: Apps, Tips, Tricks, and Effects. I was very disappointed by this. I had hoped for detailed advice that addressed the problems I'm having, or maybe a series of exercises I could do to make my photos match my imagination. It has only a bare minimum of advice; mostly it's a big catalog of apps for applying funky effects. I don't feel that I want to apply funky effects much... mostly I want to create photos that look as good as I thought they would when I took the photo.
These are the sorts of questions that are occupying my attention right now:
For some pictures, especially with incandescent light, I get a pronounced yellow tinge. For example:
How do I fix this, either at the time of taking pictures or through retouching? (All my efforts to fix this in iPhoto end up making things look unappetizingly green.)
Many of the photos I take are just dull and washed out. For example:
I've tried randomly frobbing most of the controls in iPhoto with no great improvement, so I suspect that I should have done something different when I took the photo. But I don't know what I should have done.
