My Thoughts: Phoneography, Part II

PART II:  Hardware

     I can do my best to keep this one brief.  After the guilt passed on my joining the ranks of amateur photographers taking thousands of photos with my iPhone (not to mention the extreme guilt for downloading and occasionally using Hipstamatic) I realized that I still wanted to explore more options for turning my iPhone into a camera I felt good about using.  There is only so much that can be done with apps before you are able to notice digital edits for certain effects, so I started looking at hardware - lenses and such.  The unfortunate thing about hardware is that it generally has to be made for only one model of phone, so i can really only write about stuff that fits the iPhone 4 or 4S.  Many of the items I have looked at or used can work with varying degrees of success on older iPhones or other smartphones.

     The popularity of the iPhone as a camera has inspired some very creative and high-quality accessories.  There are many more that are currently in the works (more about that later) that are even more exciting.  My first order was to procure some interchangeable lenses to allow for some more control over the images.  Luckily for me, a single birthday was all it took to get some.  I will first write about the Olloclip:

     The Olloclip ("ollo" meaning "eye" in Galician and other languages) is a sort of multi-lens attachment that fits over the corner of the iPhone 4 or 4S.  This device is not compatible with any other camera or phone (and their website makes no mention of the iPhone 5, so I can't say what the deal will be there).  The Olloclip has a fisheye lens on one side, and on the other a wide angle lens.  Unscrew the wide angle lens and there is a macro lens under that. The lenses are all made of high quality materials - glass and aluminum lenses with a sturdy plastic body.  There is a plastic cover for each end when not in use, and the Olloclip comes in a small pouch that doubles as a lens cloth.

(Photo via olloclip.com)

     The best thing to me about the Olloclip is how portable it is.  Of course all lenses for the iphone are (relatively) small, so they're all quite portable, but it's super easy to switch between the three lens options quickly without worrying about dropping parts, etc.  I'm often switching with one hand, so it's nice to have that option.  I don't really have anything bad to say about the Olloclip at all, except for the annoying trend I see on Instagram where owners take "ollograms".  I certainly can't blame this on the Olloclip folks, but it bothers me that people are buying these lenses and only using them for this sole purpose.  For those of you who haven't seen it, an "ollogram" is where somebody unscrews the wide angle lens the lens between the thumb and forefinger and takes a picture of the hand holding the lens.  I don't want to post anybody's "ollogram" on my blog for fear of hurting feelings, but you can see for yourself here.

     Here are a couple of my favorite Olloclip photos:

Beetle in Bottle
Taken with iPhone through Olloclip macro lens

Pinnacle Lake
Taken with iPhone through Olloclip wide angle lens

   
     Ok, so in addition to the Olloclip I also received 4 more lenses for my birthday.  I have mentioned on this blog several times how much I like the blog and store at photojojo.com, and they have quite the selection of lenses including a package deal that I am now an owner of.  Photojojo has many, many accessories for the iPhone and for android phones, including these three high-quality lenses and this telephoto lens.  They also have a bundle package where you can get all of those together in a fancy blue wallet.  Needless to say, this is what I have.  The three lenses mentioned above include a fisheye lens, a wide angle lens, and a 2x telephoto lens.  Like the Olloclip, the wide angle lens unscrews and becomes a macro lens.  These lenses are not attached to each other, which makes it pretty easy to stuff into pockets or onto keychains, and they have a handy magnetic attachment system.  Each lens comes with several metal rings with an adhesive side.  The metal rings are stuck to your phone and you are now able to switch lenses quickly with a satisfying snap.  In case you were wondering, the adhesive is just enough to stick to your phone, but not enough to cause any grief when you want to take it off and it leaves no marks or residue.  These lenses seem to me to be even higher quality than the Olloclip lenses, and also made with glass and aluminum.  They have a metal back to cover the phone side of the lens when not in use (which also attach with magnets) and the covers have a loop for attaching to keychains, etc.  There are also plastic covers for the front of the lenses.

     Here are some of my favorites with these lenses:

Faithful Ruslan
Taken with iPhone through fisheye lens

Black Cardamom
Taken with iPhone through macro lens

     The other lens that came in the handsome blue wallet mentioned above is an adjustable 8x telephoto lens.  This is the most powerful telephoto lens I have seen for the iPhone yet (unless you attach your DSLR lens to your iPhone...with this) and requires a little stabilization if possible.  Luckily it comes with a mini tripod.  The tiniest tripod I have ever seen, actually.  The tripod attaches to a clip that holds the iPhone snugly in place.  The lens itself attaches to a plastic cover, which looks quite a bit like a normal iPhone case.  All set up, it looks like this:

(Photo via Photojojo)

     The lens itself is made of plastic with glass lenses.  It's easy to use too, as you just attach it to the case, attach the case to the phone, and adjust the lens by turning the focus ring on the end as you would any manual focus lens.

     Here's a photo taken with the telephoto lens pictured above:

Street Construction Runes
Taken with iPhone through 8x telephoto lens

     That covers the portion on lenses I currently own.  I am happy to have all of these lenses as they have provided me with a way of getting some of the photos I want at the time that I take them rather than trying to edit them to be how I want.  Now for a quick write-up of some of the other items that are available, and one that will soon be available.

The Camalapse:  The purpose of this device is to get smooth pans for time lapse videos.  Seems like it'd be fun to play with without having to keep an eye on it at all.

The iPhone Swivl:  This is an interesting one.  Seems very high-tech to me.  You fit your phone into the base and attach the sensor to yourself somewhere, and the swiveling base follows the sensor.  This would allow you to film yourself and move about without having any help.  Could also be fun to play with.

The Kogeto Dot:  This is a 360 degree panoramic lens that works only with videos.  The interesting thing with this is that after taking the video you're able to watch the video and pan around in circles (if you want) so you an see everything going on.  You can watch a circle of idiots doing backflips, swearing, and sometimes showing you more than you were hoping to see here.

     Due to the popularity of phoneography, there are a LOT more products out there that allow you to be more creative or lazier, so I have just mentioned three that I would personally like to test out.  And speaking of testing out, there is one product that I am VERY interested in that will be coming out in the future.  I present the Impossible Instant Lab.  At the time that I'm writing this, the Kickstarter page has helped raise almost twice as much as the Impossible Project was hoping for, so this product will definitely be on the market before too long.  After the Impossible Project devised a film processing unit they attached a collapsible unit with an iPhone holder to the top, allowing you to turn your iPhone photos into instant, analog prints.  For those of us who are sick of digitizing our film, now the chance to analogize our digital photos!  I definitely hope to pick one of these up if funds allow.  More info on the Impossible Film Processing Unit here.

(gif via Impossible Project)

     A huge thanks to anybody who actually read this.  I really needed to write some of this down to help me process my thoughts.

My Thoughts: Phoneography, Part I

PART I:  Philosophy and Software

     I have been really slow to adopt digital technology in my photography.  My focus has always been on finding cameras that have been unused and unwanted for years, decades even, and reemploying them, so digital photography never really entered my radar.  I do, however, now own an iPhone.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited about the built-in camera, as that was a major selling point for me.  After owning this device for about a year now my thoughts have really shifted on this topic, though not in the direction I expected.

     I had thought when I first got my phone that it would be great that I now had a point-and-shoot camera in my pocket at all times, and that I'd use it constantly just to document my life for personal purposes - not that I really feel a need to go back and see visual evidence of what I've eaten for lunch or what craziness I saw in the streets on my way to and from work.  It seemed like it would be something completely separate from what I normally consider "photography" since it didn't feel to me like it was at all artistic, and I was fine with that.  Excited even.  I didn't know the first thing about "apps" or "filters" yet, or about all the crazy photo editing programs people have created, and I had definitely told myself I wasn't interested.  Here is where my original thoughts were proven wrong.

     I will keep the chronological stuff short from here on out.

     I started using my phone as I thought - for snapshots.  I have never been on board with social networking sites, really, but I decided to give Instagram a try since I so enjoyed seeing the feeds of people my other iPhone user friends followed.  My feed consisted, and still consists, mostly of shots taken on my various walks, trips, etc. and of various objects I consider important to me - my plants, my home decorations, and the fruit I pick up at markets.  Not very exciting or original, I know.  I never used to use any of the built-in filters in Instagram because I found it annoying how little control I had over them and their intensity - they are either on or off, and on isn't very subtle.  I realized that I did like the thought of some post-production kind of work on the photos to add a level I was completely unfamiliar with - a bit of a challenge!  So I started by researching apps that would allow me to edit with more control and ended up finding combinations of things that I liked and that allowed me to create something of a cohesive look for some "series" I had been working on.  This post-production work ended up adding the amount of personal touch and control that I apparently had been needing to consider what I was doing to be mine, and to be art.  While I still don't take it as seriously as I do my film photography, it has become something I have a huge amount of respect for and I have made it a goal to learn as much as I can and to grow in this new and completely legitimate discipline.  Speaking of legitimate shots, check out this series on the current war taken by a couple of professional photographers using the Hipstamatic app.

     Here are some apps I like for editing:

Snapseed:  This app is by far my favorite, and though I use it less now than I did when I first discovered it I would consider it extremely helpful for a couple features.  First, it gives you complete control over the intensity of your edits and provides an easy way to compare pre- and post-effect before applying.  It does have several filter-type things that I almost never use, but they can be fun to play with if you are into that kind of thing.  The number one tool in this app that I use, though, is the Details tool.  I don't know enough about photo editing to know what this might be called by the pros, but it sharpens lines and makes the detail stand out clearly.  It's awesome for architectural shots or for showing detail in small things.  It can definitely be overdone, but is pretty great when you get the right balance.  Costs $4.99, making it the most expensive app I own, but I have seen it go for free a few times (that's how I got it) so keep watching it and maybe you can get lucky.

PhotoForge2:  This one's pretty good for making more "professional" edits, like messing with color balance and whatnot.  It has a lot of things I'd never use, but again can be fun just for playing with.  I really find this one most useful for making changes to bring out textures in photos, or emphasizing a certain color.  The cost here is $1.99.

PictureShow:  I'd probably say this one is the best if you're looking for a quick filter to add where you don't really want to mess with any settings and still want it to turn out ok.  PictureShow essentially provides you with a long list of filters with easy-to-imagine names.  You an scroll through by swiping the photo to see them one at a time or you can see them all as thumbnails in case you already have an idea of what you're looking for.  There are several awful ones, but really this list is pretty solid.  This is another $1.99 app.

Cross Process:  A technique familiar to many film enthusiasts, this app attempts to emulate the look of cross processed film, and it doesn't do a bad job.  There isn't much control over what happens here.  You have the option to enable or disable the 5 different styles of cross processing (basic, blue, red, green, and extreme) which is a little funny considering the appeal of cross processing is that you never really know what you'll get.  The biggest downfall to this app is that you have no control over the intensity, and they are really too strong for almost any application.  I did learn a trick from a fellow blogger, though, for countering this:  You can save the photo after "cross processing" and use another image blending app to blend it with the original and control how much of the effected photo you want to show through.  For this I use the "app-ly" named Image Blender ($2.99).  Sorry.  I couldn't help myself.  Cross Process is $1.99.

VSCO CAM:  Here's an interesting one.  I'm not even sure how much I like this one, but I'm including it on my list because there have been a few photos that I have been very pleased with after using this app to edit it.  The deal with VSCO CAM is that it seems to be a very hipster-friendly app made by a very hipster-friendly company.  The thing I'll give them credit for is that they created an app that doesn't really allow you to make your photos too crazy or gaudy or overdone.  It provides a small list of color filters that are simply numbered (instead of being given goofy names) and I could see all of these filters being useful in one situation or another.  On top of this, there are more specific edits you can make to change the saturation level, the washed-out-edness, even one to simulate grain, and a few others that you just have to play with to see the appeal.  I totally get it with this one, as it is really easy to use and can make your photos look pretty good.  I just don't really understand why everybody was talking about it when it first came out.  On a positive note, it is only $0.99.

Diptic is good for making collages.  I don't really get the obsession with collages.  $0.99.

Ok, I didn't realize this would be so long.  If you're still interested, stay tuned for the next part, which I will write about hardware...