iPhone

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iPhone Photography using Neutral Density Filters ... Why ???

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With the rise in popularity of mobile photography, a new industry has developed producing add-ons such as grips to make using your iPhone more like using a regular camera along with bluetooth shutter buttons, lenses, filters and more.

I’ll cover lenses in future posts and videos but for now I just wanted to concentrate on filters … in particular ND (Neutral Density) filters.

I’m writing this on Day 1 of the KelbyOne iPhone Photography Conference for which I’m presenting 2 classes, namely … …

  • Capturing Pro Quality Portraits

  • Essential Gear for the Modern iPhone Photographer

It was in the preapration for both of these sessions that I did A LOT of testing and research and in the process learned a lot more, or rather uncovered a lot more about the iPhone.

UnderStanding Neutral Density Filters

First, let's grasp the concept of neutral density filters. These accessories are essentially pieces of glass that reduce the amount of light entering the camera lens without affecting the color or hue of the image. They are commonly used in photography to achieve effects such as blurring motion in bright conditions or using wide apertures in daylight.

I’ve used them in the past many times with my main camera, my Sony A7RIV when venturing out taking seascape images such as this one here at Trevose Head in Cornwall.

Using Neutral Density Filters made it possible for me to correctly expose the image with a 2 second exposure to give motion and blur to the waves as they crash against the rocks …

I’ve also used them with my Sony to capture this 30 second exposure of Teignmouth Pier in Devon …

long exposure seascapes with my iphone

Over the past year or so I’ve been capturing seascapes more and more with my iPhone thanks to apps like ReeXpose that make all of this possible by instead of the need for Neutral Density Filter, computatiopnally blending a series of images together to create the long exposure effect … and doing so incredibly quickly.

The app works incredibly well and allows the user to capture exposures from ½ second all the way to Bulb Mode, and using it I’ve taken what I consider my best seascape images to date …

Lyme Regis

Blend of ½ Second and 1 Minute Exposures in Photoshop taken with ReeXpose Long Exposure App

Lyme Regis

1 Minute Long Exposure using the ReeXpose Long Exposure App

Prince of Wales / Severn Bridge over the Bristol Channel

1 Minute Long Exposure using the ReeXpose Long Exposure App

The ReeXpose app produces Raw files, but like every other long exposure app available at the moment, those are limited to 12MP Bayer Raw files, which despite not sounding much by todays standards, are very acceptable and workable. Digitalab even printed one of my iPhone long exposure 12MP Bayer Raw File images at 72” on the longest edge, and it came out looking great …

However, despite being 12MP and me being VERY happy with the results I wish there was a way to produce 48MP long exposure files from my iPhone using these kind of apps but that’s just not possible at the moment.

So when I got hold of the new range of Neutral Density Filters from ReeFlex for use with my iPhone it got me thinking …

Would it be possible to use the Neutral Density Filters with one of the Pro Camera Apps that are available so that I could use them to shoot at 48MP in Apple ProRaw AND slow the shutter down … basically capture a long exposure the traditional way? I mean why else would there be Neutral Density filters available for the iPhone?

close but no cigar

So can it be done?

Well, the short answer is NO.

You see first of all when using the iPhone along with one of the Pro Camera Apps available like ReeFlex, Moment, CameraPixels and so on, if you set them to shoot at 48MP in Apple ProRaw and then adjust the exposure using the Shutter Speed or ISO, the file instantly drops to 12MP.

The only adjustment you can make and keep in 48MP is using the EV (Exposure Vlaue) slider which is basically the equivalent of dragging your finger on the screen to brighten or darken image as you would in the native Apple iPhone camera app, so no good for long exposure.

If you leave the settings alone though and then just add on the Neutral Density filters, sure enough you can slow the shutter down … but don’t get too excited, because no matter how many Neutral Density filters you stack on top of each other, the shutter speed will NOT go slower than 1/15 sec

Even with all the ND Filters I have stacked on front of my iPhone … 1/15 sec is all that’s possbile in ProRaw at 48MP.

Oh and by the way that’s 29 Stops of Neutral Density right there 😳

ReeFlex Pro Camera App
48MP ProRaw in AUTO

If you make ANY changes to the Shutter Speed or ISO then the file drops to 12MP …

ReeFlex Pro Camera App
12MP ProRaw

So looking at this, with the way the current iOS works, what is the point of Neutral Density FIlters for Photography with the iPhone?

If you want the scene darker or brighter then you could just use the EV slider and that would remain in Apple ProRaw at 48MP, but you can’t take the shutter speed slower than 1/15sec and remain in 48MP. Period!

are all 12mp files the same?

Now if we just accept the whole 48MP and 12MP thing how about this …

Raw Long Exposure Apps for the iPhone do so by computationally blending a series of shots to create the final long exposure image as a 12MP Bayer Raw File.

You can see this really clearly when you set a ½ second exposure time.

Look at the image below and notice the overlapping of files. You don’t notice this at longer exposure times but with fewer images taken at a faster long exposure (if that makes sense) it makes it harder to blend together … because there’s less files to overlap.

You do need to really look to see it but once you do, you can’t un-see it as shown in the zoomed in image below …

So here then is my thinking, which I hasten to add I am popping out tomorrow morning to test …

Accepting that if I use manual controls the file will drop to 12MP, what if I use the Neutral Density Filters to get a correct exposure with a shutter speed of ½ second or the maximum of 1 second?

Thinking of this in really basic terms … as that’s not being used to blend images together, it should in theory produce a single shot long exposure right? When I’m sat in my office with the phone in those manual settings and move it around the image is blurry so that should work for moving objects like the sea right?

I’ll keep you posted with the testing once I’ve been out tomorrow.

Just to add though … the slowest shutter speed you can set is 1/1 sec so for anything longer than that it calls for one of the long exposure apps that does the computational blending thing.

Apple Proraw isn’t really raw

Whatever the technical reason / limitations there are for this I really do hope in the near future this is overcome, otherwise Apple continually calling the camera system “Pro” could start to get a little bit "Boy who cried Wolf” if you know what I mean.

That said though, because of how Apple ProRaw works, there may well be times you wouldn’t want to use it anyway because of the processing it applies to the files i.e. Noise Reduction and Smart HDR.

I’m going to be covering that very soon in another article and video.

ND FILTERS WITH iPHONE FOR VIDEO ???

This is a definite YES though and I’ll be covering that in a post and video VERY soon.

Right, I’ll go charge my filming kit for tomorrow and keep you posted once I’m done with the testing 👍🏻

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The MOST ANNOYING thing about the iPhone

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The more people I mention this to, the more I’m aware that it’s not common knowledge or at least its something that hasn’t been noticed, but Apple promoting the 48MP sensor of the iPhone is not all its made out to be.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a BIG advocate of mobile photography. I’m loving getting out and capturing seascapes. I love the convenience of it and I’m loving the results and ease of doing so. Of course it calls for the usual skills such as understanding light and composition and anyone that says it’s the phone doing that essential part for you is well, quite frankly, missing the point.

My best landscape / seascape images I’ve taken with my iPhone however when it comes to portraiture it is limited. We can capture natural light and I’m experimenting more and more with constant LED light and glad to say, having a level of success. ProFoto even have a strobe on the market that the iPhone is capable of triggering; if you’ve never seen examples of this then I’d highly recommend you check out Russell Brown on Instagram and / or Facebook. I also am very aware that a certain lighting company is also working on their own strobe and app capable of being triggered by the iPhone, so there’s lots of exciting things on the nearing horizon.

However, certainly at the time of writing this there is, in my opinion a HUGELY annoying and disappointing aspect of iPhone photography, and that’s how Apple have the camera system set up.

Let me explain …

By default when we open the camera app on our iPhones, the system defaults to the 1x lens, and this is the lens that gives us the ability to take photographs at 48MP; any other lens we use 2x, 5x etc and we drop down to 12MP.

Now this isn’t anything out of the ordinary as I know from friends with other brands of phone cameras, that similar happens for them too, but with the iPhone 48MP Pro Raw is only available using the 1x lens AND when using AUTO settings!

This means if you change ANY setting that takes it out of AUTO, then you drop down to 12MP.

So if you’re using the Apple Camera App and tap and drag on the screen to lock or alter exposure, you drop from 48MP to 12MP.

If you use ANY of the Pro Camera Apps out there with their fancy all Bells and Whistles interfaces where you can alter White Balance, Shutter Speed, ISO and so on … the moment you alter ANY of them, you drop from 48MP to 12MP.

Now don’t get me wrong, the 12MP Bayer Raw files my then iPhone 14 Pro Max captured were great as are the ones from my iPhone 15 Pro Max; not the quality of my Sony Mirrorless, but still great and VERY useable. Infact I even had a 72” print done of one of my seascapes by Digitalab and the quality was very impressive, BUT I couldn’t help think at the time what it would have been like at 48MP … especially when editing.

Of course I’m going to continue taking photographs with my iPhone because I really do see this as becoming BIG in the near future and I thoroughly enjoy doing it, but unless / until Apple make it so that we can maintain 48MP out of Auto, then calling it Pro is pushing the truth somewhat. 12MP Raw is good but 48MP Raw is better!

There’s more I want to cover about this and will do so very soon because I’ve discovered something about using ND filters with the iPhone that I think will very much come as a surprise, so I’ll keep you posted when I share that.

Oh and finally, if you’re reading this and you use another brand of phone camera, I’d be intrigued to hear if you do in fact have the same thing happen when adjusting settings as I’ve mentioned, so please do share any comments / thoughts below.

Cheers,
Glyn

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ReeFlex iPhone G Series Lenses, Filters and Cases

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There’s just 6 days remaining with the Kickstarter campaign that ReeFlex are running for their new G Series lenses, filters and cases.

The Kickstarter has already been a resounding success having been fully funded within 8 minutes of launch, and pledges for lenses and filters still continuing.

Those that have placed pledges for the G Series are expected to start taking delivery this coming January and having had time with the ‘near finished’ product I just know that everyone that gets them is going to be super happy!

Here’s a short video I put together from my experience with the lenses …

With just 6 days remaining from the day I post this article, there’s still time to make a pledge and grab some of the new kit by visiting the official Kickstarter Page …

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North Wales ( iPhone Only ) Photo Road Trip

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Two weeks ago, along with a couple of friends (Anthony Crothers and Brian Dukes) I headed off on an iPhone Only Photo Road-Trip in North Wales … specifically Anglesey.

Leaving on the Thursday and due to head back on the Sunday, we’d sorted out a couple of ‘must go’ locations on Anglesey, namely South Stack Lighthouse and Penmon Lighthouse and then on the return leg as we were staying in Bala, we’d be heading to the nearby white water rafting area to see what we could capture.

DAY 1

On Day 1, Brian drove to my house where he left his car, and we headed off to Anthony’s but first of all to Portishead to photograph the Black Nore Lighhouse and get the first photographs ‘in the bag’.

To be honest I didn’t really get anytihng worth shouting about but hey … being there with Brian was a lot of fun. Getting a decent photograph would have just been a bonus 😃

Then it was a quick stop in Bristol on the way through for Brian to drop into WeX and swap out his new Sony A7RV for one that didn’t have a faulty display, and then it was on to Anthony’s and up to Bangor and The Slate where we were staying for the first 2 nights.

We didn’t arrive until gone 8pm so once we’d checked in and dumped our bags, we headed into Bangor to find somewhere to grab a bite to eat.

A decent curry was the plan but where we ended up, each of us was just glad to have woken the following morning with no issues … if you know what I mean.

DAY 2

With stomachs intact we headed across to Anglesey towards Penmon Lighhouse, however the weather was a touch wet and windy …

“You can’t see anything” said the guy on the toll leading to Penmon Lighthouse, due to the sea mist, so we took his advice and said we’d plan to head back there the following day when the weather was expected to ease off a little … this was a decision we’d all regret!

So we turned back to Beaumaris (fabulous place) and grabbed a coffee and a spot to dry out a little at the Pier House Café which we stumbled upon purely by accident … but what a great find!

After a short pit stop we headed across the island to South Stack Lighhtouse having decided that due to the weather, we’d use the day to check out the locations that we’d revist the next day.

South Stack did not disappoint!

iPhone 15 Pro Max
0.5x lens
3 second long exposure using the ReeHeld (Hand-Held Long Expsoure App)

With the weather as it was and sea mist so thick you couldn’t make out the horizon or indeed see much past the lighthouse, it was such an incredible sight as the sea crashed against the rocks below.

It was almost overwhelming to see the lighhouse in such conditions as it sounded its horn to warn vessels out at sea.

With the horn sounding like a whale call, the scene we were in felt so powerful but almost haunting … if that makes sense.

Anthony no-where near the edge … honestly Elaine 🤔

Anyway, having recce’d a few possible compositions we headed back to Beaumaris and the Pier House Café for bit of lunch (which was delicious) … and yes I had 2 😋

I’m sat here giggling now as I post the picture below which is actually a frame from a video captured with my iPhone …

Anthony and myself were stood in front of the RNLI base shielded from the high winds but Brian ventured out.

I turned my iPhone to him and suggested I video him as he jumps but film it in slow motion, and … well … yeah you got me Brian 🤣

Having seen what we wanted and made plans for Day 3, we headed back to The Slate to freshen up, grab some dinner and relax.

DAY 3

The food was so good at the Pier House Café in Beaumaris that we decided to head there for breakfast (yes I had two) having checked out of The Slate, and as the weather had improved a little it gave some opportunities to take some photographs.

Of course being a portrait guy I couldn’t resist …

This shot I took of Anthony I captured using the ReeFlex Pro Camera App and the Ultra Wide (0.5x) lens …

iPhone 15 Pro Max
0.5x lens
ReeFlex Pro Camera App

This shot I took again using the ReeFlex Pro Camera App, but with the telephoto lens which on my iPhone 15 Pro Max is the 5x … 120mm

iPhone 15 Pro Max
5x lens
ReeFlex Pro Camera App

This was the first proper chance I’d had to use the 120mm lens on my iPhone and yeah I’m really impressed with the quality.

The downside though is that using this lens doesn’t use the 48MP sensor which is why I’m REALLY looking forward to the time I have the G Series lenses from ReeFlex as a permanent part of my kit.

That said, the files from the 5x lens are perfectly useable despite them being lesser MP: I mean heck, I had a 72” print done of a 12MP file taken with my iPhone 14 Pro Max and that was incredible!

Anyway, having grabbed some shots around Beaumaris it was then the short drive to Penmon and the moment we regretted listening to “Toll Guy” the day before 🤷‍♂️

Penmom was a complete surprise.

We’d expected it to be further from the shoreline when in fact it was surprisingly close with a great rocky area to explore and find all manner of compositions.

Don’t get me wrong we were all REALLY happy but couldn’t help thinking how incredible it would have been to photograph it during the weather and conditions the previous day.

iPhone 15 Pro Max
1x lens
ReeXpose Long Exposure App

The photograph above was captured using the ReeXpose long exposure app (using the wide 1x lens) and is a blend of several images each taken at 0.5 seconds in length.

The photograph below was taken a little further back, again uing the ReeXPose long exposure app but using the 0.5x ultra wide lens on my iPhone …

iPhone 15 Pro Max
0.5x lens
ReeXpose Long Exposure App

For this one it would have been great to have the new Circular Polariser from ReeFlex to reduce reflections on the water surface in the rock pools. For now though during editing, a mixture of Dehaze and Texture in Lightroom reduced it quite a bit, and hey if anything, this is a great excuse to head back at some point.

So that pretty much was Day 3, so then it was on to Bala for our final night and then Day 4

DAY 4

Chatting over breakfast we were all saying how happy we were with what we had managed to capture at Penmon, and if that was all there was, it had definitely been a successful trip; I mean it had anyway with us all getting the chance to hang out, but it definitely was photography wise.

The weather had totally changed from the past few days and this morning there was bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky.

I’ll admit that I was thinking conditions weren’t the best for landscape but Brian had suggested we take a look at a local white water rafting area and maybe visit Bala lake … because ‘you never know’ … and I’m so glad he did, becuase talk about lucky …

iPhone 15 Pro Max
5x lens
ReeFlex Pro Camera App

The lake was like glass and with mist gently brushing across the surface, and hardly a sound. It was simply stunning!

We were like excited children when we pulled up in the car “HOLY SH&T! LOOK AT THAT!” followed by all 3 of us bomb-bursting out of the car and hot footing it, to start taking photographs.

iPhone 15 Pro Max
0.5x lens
ReeFlex Pro Camera App

… and then 30 seconds away from. a different angle …

iPhone 15 Pro Max
5x lens
ReeFlex Pro Camera App

iPhone 15 Pro Max
0.5x lens
ReeFlex Pro Camera App

And then in the blink of an eye that was 4 days done and time to head home but with lots of photographs and lots of great memories and quality time with quality people!

Plans for the next Road-Trip are already underway.

It will again be iPhone-Only but we’re going to wait until we all have the new G-Series ReeFlex lenses as part of our full-time kit, and then we’ll be sticking closer to home and popping over the border into Cornwall.

To be continued …

Oh and if you want to know more about the iPhone Photography Apps being used, I’ve got more details over on my MOBILE Page ( LINK )

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HOW I EDIT theseiPhone Photographs in Lightroom

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This is a recorsing of a LIVE Stream that I hosted on YouTube and Facebook on Sunday 29th October 2023 …

Join me for this LIVE stream as I go through the editing step sin Lightroom of some iPhone Portrait and Seascape photographs taken during a recent North Wales Road Trip …

***NOTE: The LIVE Feed cut off moments before the end of the broadcast however all relevant content was covered and all mentioned links are in the video description

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IT DOESN'T GET EASIER THAN THIS 🥹 Mobile Photography and COMPLETE Editing Workflow

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Here's the recording of last nights YouTube LIVE where I went through the capture and edit of a recent seascape long exposure using my iPhone 14 Pro Max, ReeXpose, Lightroom and Photoshop.

Also covered some of my 'wishes' for the iPhone 15 Pro Max ... or whatever it will be called 😃 and how the change (I hope) to USB-C will make a HUGE difference to the mobile workflow, especially when travelling and away from good internet speeds.

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iPHONE Photography and LIGHTROOM Masking Tip YOU (PROBABLY) DIDN'T KNOW !!!

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Changing the Depth of Field (DOF) Before AND After taking a photograph PLUS Masking in Lightroom using Depth Information ... Now THAT is Brilliant!

🎬 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎


00:00 - Introduction
00:23 - DOF Before Taking Photograph
01:28 - DOF After Taking Photograph
02:37 - Depth Range Masks in Lightroom

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iPhone Photography: A Misty Morning at Lyme Regis in Dorset

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The misty conditions last Wednesday were nothing short of perfect for some minimalist photography, so I popped out early morning and took the short drive to meet up with my friend Steve Healy down at my favourite of all places, Lyme Regis.

True to the weather apps, the conditions were as predicted; a wonderful misty morning, an incoming tide with the surface of the sea as flat as a sheet of glass, hardly a breeze in the air and looking out across the sea, at times it was almost impossible to see the distant horizon line.

Absolutely Perfect!

I should have sent a memo about dress code 🤣

Taking along minimal kit as I did when photographing the Prince of Wales Bridge a couple of weeks back, I stuck with using my iPhone 14 Pro Max, but this time made use of my new JOBY MagSafe Mount ( LINK )

This worked an absolute treat holding my iPhone rock steady and was so incredibly quick and easy to adjust and rotate from portrait orientation to landscape orientation …

Long Exposure Photography was definitely order of the day to enhance the calm, relaxing feeling of the light and the mist, and of course smooth out the water surface even more.

I’ve a few long exposure apps installed on my iPhone at the moment that I’m testing out to see which I prefer, but on this morning I opted again to use EvenLonger …

For the image above, I used a 60 second long exposure.

We then moved along to The Cobb, which looked incredible amongst the mist and surrounded by a glass flat high tide …

The tide was particularly high this morning, meaning the groin at the far end of The Cobb was much less visible.

In this image and the one above, you can really see how the mist made the horizon barely visible, which when combined with a long exposure worked, I feel, so incredibly well …

In each of these images you will have spotted that there were Gulls flying. To include these, once I had taken the long exposure, I then jumped back to the regular camera on my iPhone and waited for the moment when Gulls flew through the frame.

When they did I pressed the shutter a number of times using a Bluetooth Shutter Release which works a treat and only cost £3.99 off Amazon ( LINK )

99% of these images I edited in Lightroom Mobile and Photoshop on my iPad, but to add the Gulls I used Photoshop CC on my desktop as I needed to use a filter and (at the moment) that filter isn’t available in the mobile version of Photoshop.

That said though, the process was so incredibly easy editing on my iPad, and then because everything I do syncs automatically with every device I have Lightroom installed, I could then finish off on my desktop without having to export anything or import from memory cards.

Everything I do on any device be it my iPhone, iPad or Desktop, syncs across each other making it instantly available everywhere.

Oh and the text and graphics were added using Adobe Express …

So another incredibly relaxing morning out taking photographs with my iPhone.

Minimal kit. No swapping out lenses. No attaching filters. No cables.

All of this for me makes for such a wonderful experience, enabling me to relax and just enjoy being where I am and absorb the sights and sounds.

The experience of taking photographs just doesn’t get better!

© Glyn Dewis 2024