LESSON 64
Phone photography
Small sensors, big computers, RAW options.
IN THIS LESSON
- Why phones look so good
- Computational photography
- RAW on a phone
- In practice: getting more from it
- In practice: knowing the limits
Why phones look so good
The first commercial phone with a colour camera, the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, went on sale in Japan in May 1999. Cameras are now standard on smartphones, and by 2019 they had become a main point of competition between models; rising phone sales made compact camera sales peak around 2010 and fall after. Phones are thin, so there is little depth for a sensor and lens. Makers have answered in two ways. One is several cameras, each suited to a purpose, such as wide angle or telephoto, often housed in a bump on the back. The other is software. Many new phone camera features rely on computational photography and multiple lenses rather than larger sensors, precisely because space is so tight. Familiar results include HDR, a bokeh mode that blurs backgrounds, and multi-frame night modes.
Computational photography
Computational photography means capture and processing methods that use computing in place of optics. Examples in the source include panoramas made in the camera, high dynamic range images merged from several exposures, and light-field cameras that let focus be changed after the shot. When you press the button on a modern phone, it has often already taken several frames and will combine them, reducing noise, extending range or simulating shallow depth of field. The source notes that, as of 2019, this let amateurs make pictures rivalling professional ones, without outperforming professional equipment.
RAW on a phone
Phones normally save JPEG files, but some high-end phones have offered RAW since the mid-2010s. Android 5.0 Lollipop, from late 2014, allowed phones to save 10-bit and 16-bit raw images, and 12-bit RAW arrived with Android 6.0. Apple's iPhone 12 Pro models of 2020 introduced ProRAW. The source explains that two raw options exist there, a traditional Bayer RAW and ProRAW, both as 12-bit DNG files. ProRAW is already demosaiced and partly processed, so it can be combined with HDR and night modes, which plain Bayer RAW cannot. DNG is Adobe's open raw format. Lesson 21 covers a RAW workflow.
In practice: getting more from it
This section is working practice. Clean the lens; a smudge is the most common cause of soft, hazy phone pictures. Tap to focus and slide to adjust exposure before you shoot, rather than fixing it later. Use the main camera when you can, because it usually has the best sensor; the extra lenses are often smaller. Move closer instead of using digital zoom. Turn on the grid for level horizons. In hard light, look for shade; in dim light, brace the phone and let night mode work. Shoot RAW when you plan to edit and the light is difficult, and JPEG or HEIC when you need to share quickly.
In practice: knowing the limits
Also practice. Phones struggle with fast action in dim light, very long focal lengths, and scenes where the software guesses wrong, such as a portrait mode that blurs a glass or hair. They also apply their own taste: brightening shadows, smoothing skin, warming sunsets. Look at your pictures at full size and turn off features you do not want. For pictures that matter, check the result before you leave the place. A dedicated camera still helps with long lenses, fast sport, flash off the camera and large prints. The best camera for many moments, though, is the one already in your hand, so learn its settings as well as you would learn any other.
Try it today
- 01Clean your phone's lens and take the same picture before and after.
- 02Find which of your phone's lenses is the main camera and use only it for a day.
- 03Turn on RAW or ProRAW if your phone offers it, and shoot one hard scene both ways.
- 04Edit both versions and compare how far you can push the shadows.
- 05Try portrait mode on a subject with fine hair or glass, and look for errors at full size.