Shooting a Model with a Compact / iPhone?
A while ago, I did a one-on-one workshop with Michael, a fantastic photographer from Australia / Hong Kong. I only had my small Canon digicam and my iPhone with me when we went into the fields for an exercice under the dramatic storm clouds. When I don’t forget it, I usually snap some behind-the-scenes pics.
While I looked at the LCD of the compact, I remembered I once had the plan to try to do a model shoot with just a compact cam. I couldn’t do a full shoot but could easily snap a pic here and there when Ine was posing for Michael.
I’ve said it before (and will do it again): working with limitations makes you a better photographer. Al that expensive gear certainly has a use, otherwise I wouldn’t spend so much on it. But you should never let yourself be held back because you don’t have this or that gizmo.
Sure it’s not that sharp, it lacks detail and your options are way more limited than with a booth full of lenses and light equipment. But that’s not what it’s all about. It’s about the emotions in your picture. When the thunderstorm came really close we got a very dramatic sky while Ine was still standing in direct sunlight. Just before we got a shower, I took a quick snap with the pretty poor iPhone (3G) camera. Thanks to the camerabag application (see the app store), I didn’t even have to postprocess the image on my computer.
I really should start planning that full shoot with just the compact camera.
It was so great to read your post this morning, kind of surprised me because I had just started a conversation in our office (three wedding photographers) this morning about this exact idea. I was thinking how interesting it would be to bring along a professional photographer as a second shooter, then surprise them last minute by giving them a point-and-shoot or an iPhone and asking them to photograph the entire event as best they could with such a simple tool.
So much of making an image really shouldn’t be modified by the equipment limitation, posing, cropping, background selection, etc should all remain the same. Off camera lighting options obviously are severely limited… and of course image size and lens quality are out of your hands entirely. But if we’re talking images for screen or blogging, they should still be able to get some beautiful shots indeed.
I find my photography mindset changes entirely depending on the equipment I have. When holding a Hasselblad I take a lot of time composing each shot, verifying lighting with a meter. With a DSLR I shoot a lot quickly, moving around, taking more “risk” with the shot getting various options, etc. With a point and shoot, well, I point and shoot… I don’t take much time to consider the shot. I need to break that habit and possibly treat them all closer to the same no matter the equipment in my hand.
Yeah, this is something I’ve really been learning. I decided to start a one-iPhone-picture-a-day blog to keep me looking for those photographable moments; to always be looking for the art in life.
Some days have been pretty sad, others I am truly proud of. My creativity does flourish within my limitations.
Thanks for this post.
(Oh, and for those with some Photoshop-type editing skills, the app Photogene is a great tool for adjusting levels, WB, and several other things.)
Great post and I love that last photo. I wholeheartedly agree with what you say about it not being so much about the equipment and more about capturing the emotions in the photos.
When I left my staff job many years ago, I tried to prove the same point by shooting every single assignment on a Yashica compact film camera.
It all went well, and nobody noticed until I got to the last job-it was a rugby match!
sorry, but i get bored about all this “i-don’t-need-good-cameras” talking !
i am working professional with a professional camera and i love to work with that camera with all that different lenses in my camera bag ! i still believe that better cameras deliver a higher quality. and i still think that what we should try to get the highest possible quality.
(please don’t get me wrong. i do not have the most expensive camera, but if i could afford it it would get one. … at the end you want a reliable camera that delivers the result, that you want. so i really do think that the camera is important. but that is all. not more !
but all this “i-can-shoot-great-pictures-with-my-iphone” is just a self-praising how cool and creative you are … i think that it is not cool going for extra low quality and it is not very creative to use cheap cameras like anybody else ! … and i don’t think that those pictures are great. sorry. ( just look what guys like Avedon, Cartier-Bresson, Newton, etc. did allready … years ago ! that is great ! )
so please become a bit more serious and put more energy into your pictures instead of thinking about what camera is cool to use !
don’t you have other more interesting things to write about ?
[...] Shooting a Model with a Compact / iPhone? « Confessions of a Photographer Nice photos with just a compact/iPhone. Of course a lot of the magic these days happens in the digital dark (Light)room. (tags: photography model compact) [...]
Frank-I don’t agree at all, and I think you are missing the whole point.
It’s definitely NOT all about quality. The photographers you mentioned all took great photos because their work showed emotion. Wouldn’t matter what camera they had taken them on.
Bert didn’t say anything about it being ‘cool’ to use a phonecamera, just that you shouldn’t let a lack of equipment put you off trying to take great photos. I happen to agree with him. I’d still go out and take photos if all I could afford was a secondhand compact camera.
You don’t like Bert’s pics? I do. Photography is a subjective thing.
As for finding more interesting things to write about-if you don’t like reading it then look elsewhere. There are plenty of us who DO find Bert’s blog interesting. Lots of choice on the internet. So go find another photographer whose work YOU find interesting.
Hey John,
hi everybody reading this.
i nearly agree with most you wrote. but i think i have to make some things / my opinion a bit more clear.
1. i like bert’s blog and work for the fresh ideas !
(even i don’t think that all of the photos he took during that bounce squad session are great, i still think the IDEA behind it ist very good and a good inspiration to freshen up everybodys work.)
2.i do NOT think that Avedon was not stupid because using the much heavier and more complicated-to-use 4×5″ camera instead of a point and shoot.
3. i don’t think that we can NOT say a lot about quality when we just look at 600×800pixel pictures
4. i like the narrow depth of field on Bert’s 5d II fullframe-pictures much better than the ones above. (for example just have a look at the wedding pictures Bert took of Daphne and Katrien – BIG difference i think – you can even tell that from that small 600×800px-sized pictures !)
5. do you really use a phone-camera when you are on a job ?
6. can you really control the depth of field with an iphone ?
… what about setting the exposure time ? … changing lenses ?
is this all less important now ?
7. i completely agree that the quality from the compact is getting better every year, but so does the quality you get from the SLR and bigger ones.
8. no rules without exceptions
9. this is just my opinion … don’t take that too serious
all the best
frank
btw. nice portrait work on your website, john.
I have to disagree with Frank aswell.
Sure that a pro camera with 60 mega pixels, iso 12800 noiseless, 20 frames per second and a batery life of 10000 pictures would be nice, I would use one if i could (and if they exist…), but in the end, if you don’t have a good eye for light, composition and capture emotions (the main ingredients of a good photography), all that you end up is with a 60 mega-pixel BAD and UNINTERESTING picture…
shooting with a compact / automatic camera is a good exercise to practice your photographic vision.
It’s as simple as that.
I
Forget to say: love your work Bert, you are truly an inspiration.
love yours and Pieter podcast aswell.
Thx all
@Frank: I appreciate your view on this subject. If you don’t like the pics, that’s fine. Photography will always be a subjective thing and I do appreciate people who dare to say they don’t like my images. My expensive pro gear is much better than a compact or an iPhone and I’m happy I can take good equipment on the job. But that’s not what this post is all about. And neither it’s about self-praise. It’s about encouraging people to go out and take pictures with whatever equipment they have instead of doing nothing but wishing they could afford better gear. From many comments and e-mails I know that these kind of posts encourage people to get the most out of their equipment.
But again, I completely agree that as a pro I want the best equipment I can afford.
Hi Bert, I like the pics very much! I’m not going to write a whole tekst like they did above.
My favorite is the second one. The pic that’s been taken with your iPhone isn’t bad at all!! 
Greets Julie