If you haven’t already discovered iPhoneographer Paul Cahill’s blog, #iPhoneography & Observations: How To Be an iPhoneographer, it’s an outstanding blog full of his iPhone photography, app reviews, and excellent iPhoneography tutorials. He’s been blogging and sharing his iPhoneography for since September 2010. Paul’s blog has been a regular read of mine for a while now.
He’s very graciously allowing Life In LoFi to repost selections from his blog. If you haven’t discovered Paul’s blog yet, I encourage you to visit and explore. I’m very happy to be sharing this great content with LoFi readers.
His first post on LoFi is from July 2012, but it’s still very relevant today. Keep reading for the 3 Common Mistakes iPhoneographers Make. >>>
All iPhoneographers have done it — at least those iPhoneographers who look in the mirror honestly (the iPhone mirror app is an acceptable substitute as well). We picked our favorite camera app. Snapped the shot. Edited in our favorite iPhoneography editing app. Hesitated a bit because the result was not quite what we had in mind but it wasn’t that far off, right? We throw the final image onto our social media platform of choice and went on our merry way.
But the next day we are looking back at your photo stream, admiring our iPhoneography prowess, and realize the image was really, well, let’s settle for not great. There are three common mistakes iPhoneographers make and, thankfully, three pretty simple solutions to avoid them.
Three common mistakes:
1. Over-processing images
Certain iPhoneographers asthetic is to process photos heavily and they are very good at it. Rubicon is one such iPhoneographer. I over process images when I know how I want the image to look but I just can’t quite get it. So I just keep layering it on. Bad idea. The iPhoneographer must know when to say when.
Almost all editing apps provides the ability to determine the intensity a given effect has. I highly recommend taking the intensity of most effects down from the maximum level. This will help maintain the photographic integrity of the image.
2. Take too few photos
There is not a limit on the number of shots you can take. Click away. I often find myself rushed and I take one or two shots and move on. When I am looking back at the shots I realize there is a branch in the way or my finger is hovering annoyingly in the corner of the shot. So click away and give yourself an inventory of potential images.
3. Just because you took the photo doesn’t mean you should post it
An iPhoneographer may have the most stunning visual view but for any of a number of reasons your shot just does not capture it. If the image just doesn’t capture “it” then don’t be afraid to take another shot or, dare I say, just tweet how great your current view is and paint the picture with words. If an iPhoneographer puts garbage out folks lose interest pretty quickly. I know, it may be hard to admit our shortcoming but I am sure even Ansel Adams failed from time to time. We just don’t see his failures published and I am sure that was his intention.
“3 Common Mistakes iPhoneographers Make” was originally posted on PaulCahill.net and is reposted here in its entirety by permission. I’ve disabled comments here, but please feel free to follow the link and comment over on Pauls blog.
Story intro by =M=
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