Question: What is iPhoneography?
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 5:57AM | Glyn Evans I have seen some heated debates recently about iPhoneography, and have been asked many times, what is iPhoneography?
As the longest running blog dedicated to iPhoneography, I think I may just be qualified to answer this question. Simply put, “iPhoneography is the art of taking photos with Apple’s iPhone”, and therefore doesn't matter how you post edit those photos, although some purists would argue against this, insisting that the photos are manipulated on the iPhone, and never touching a computer.
Whilst I agree with my statement that “iPhoneography is the art of taking photos with Apple’s iPhone”, and therefore doesn't matter how you post edit, it is the latter that I currently choose to do, editing all of my iPhone photos exclusively on my iPhone and never touching a PC, however I can see myself in the future using the larger screen of the iPad to edit with more accuracy some but not all of my iPhone photographs.
There are also some iPhoneographers who choose to edit their photos with desktop apps like Adobe's Photoshop, or Apple's iPhoto, or even online services like Google's Picnik, which some may say goes against what iPhoneography is all about, however I disagree with this, and revert back to my statement “iPhoneography is the art of taking photos with Apple’s iPhone”.
For me it doesn't matter how you produce your final image, whether it is on your iPhone, iPad or PC, but as iPhoneographers, what do you think? Do you agree with my statement? Do you use photo apps other than those on your iPhone?
iPhoneography in Discussion
Reader Comments (73)
thanks a lot for the information...
nice to visit yuor blog...
see you..
For me personally if the photo is taken with an iPhone, edited on an iPhone (and I'll include an iPad too) it's iPhoneography. If it's been edited after on your Mac or PC it's NOT iPhoneography it's just another edited photo... That you happened to capture with an iPhone. I myself have edited a very few photo combining my iPhone & Mac desktop & know it's not (as a purist) true iPhoneography & I make that part known. I also know of others who almost always edit after on a desktop computer & no matter how you slice it... In my mind this is not iPhoneography.
This is just my personal opinion.
I'm with SCW. As soon as it hits photoshop or your computer for editing, I think it's no longer iPhoneography.
Yes... for it's called "iPhoneography" not "iPhonePCography" or "iPhoneAdobeShopDesktopography" so as for myself I stay on the side of keeping it in it's purest form. Anyone can take a photo with any iPhone etc & work magic on a desktop computer & make an amazing photography edit. But this is not iPhoneography. If it is considered iPhoneography then I would have to say that everyone who owns a DSLR camera is a Pro Photographer... and they are NOT.
Again this is only my opinion from what I will call the purist side of this debate.
SCW
@SCW you can't include the iPad and then exclude a desktop. Take CameraBag and TiltShift Generator for example, two iPhone apps that have found themselves ported to the desktop. If I take a photo with my iPhone, upload it to my Mac and the edit with CameraBag for desktop, is this not iPhoneography?
Whilst I personally would NEVER use Photoshop to edit any of my iPhoneography, nor would I want to showcase any photos that had only ever been edited with an app like Photoshop, it doesn't mean this is wrong, as it is the image captured through the lens of an iPhone that for me makes it iPhoneography.
I include the iPad for it has the same inner guts as the iPhone (excluding the iPhone 4 which is more powerful). The only difference in an iphone & an iPad is the screens size & lack of camera. It isn't a desktop with tons of RAM, a fast processor, ability to apply & do endless edits, layers etc... It's a bloated iPhone (iPad).
No if you use desktop versions of popular iPhone apps that have later been developed not ported for the Mac & PC. They are not iPhoneography & also note that the desktop versions can & do more feature wise than the iPhone/iPad editions.
No it's not wrong to edit an iPhone photo with a desktop app at all... it's just not called iPhoneography, that is called an edited photo for which everything after is just... Photography.
So no... stay true & pure to what it is or just call it Photography not iPhoneography.
SCW
@SCW. So I take a photo with my DSLR, upload it to my iPad, edit it with CameraBag for iPad, and this becomes iPhoneography?
Pretty good point here, on one side I would say everything edited with a device running iOS is iPhoneography, but iPad apps are becoming increasingly powerful though nearly leveling up to their computer variants but so do iPhone apps of course especially with the coming of the new processing power in the iPhone 4.
So I would say that for the time being the iPad can still be included since the editing apps are still pretty much the same and can tap into the same frameworks set up by Apple and are dependent on the same restrictions Apple sets up. So I would guess that's why we can call everything shot and/or edited with an iOS device iPhoneography.
So iPhoneography:
shot with iPhone + edited on iPhone
shot with iPhone + edited on iPod Touch
shot with iPhone + edited on iPad
shot with iPhone + unedited
Not iPhoneography:
shot with normal camera/DSLR + edited on iPhone
shot with normal camera/DSLR + edited on iPod Touch
shot with normal camera/DSLR + edited on iPad
shot with normal camera/DSLR + edited on Mac/PC
shot with iPhone + edited on Mac/PC
shot with iPhone + edited on anything else
No Glyn as you can see the Photo has to be taken with an iPhone (period) and either edited on an iPhone or an iPad to be in my own opinion iPhoneography.
If you use any other camera, photo or desktop before or after it is not iPhoneography it is simply called photo editing & that all in all is Photography.
SCW
@ Renzo ........ YES
I'm with SCW -- "iPhoneography" is limited to photos taken, edited and published with the iPhone (the exception being printing, which can be done outside of the iPhone). Since the iPad doesn't have a camera but shares the same OS (and can technically use the iPhone camera through connection via apps), I'm also inclined to include any iPhone-tograph (photo taken on the iPhone) that's been edited on the iPad within the iPhoneography genre. Certainly the experience, tools, and methodology of editing photos on the iPad vs. the iPhone are almost identical.
The converse, however, isn't true -- a photo taken with another camera and processed using either iPhone or iPad apps is NOT iPhoneography. The image has to originate from the iPhone's camera. I also feel pretty strongly that the image has to originate from and stay within the iOS platform to be considered "iPhoneography"
Hello everybody, what do you think of only transforming you iPhone photo's with Aperture to Black & White? I think of myself as an iPhoneographer because the hart of my work is the iPhone and converting them to the best possible B&W is done with my digital darkroom Aperture. What's wrong with that? So photographers wouldn't consider me a photographer because I made all my photo's with the iPhone and iPhoneographers wouldn't consider me a iPhoneographer because my B&W is done with Aperture... What kind of photographer can I call my self then?
What if you you use a desktop app to create a photo montage from several photos taken and edited exclusively on the iPhone, is there not such a place in iPhoneography for this?
@Yves - there are tons and tons of ways to create amazing B/W iPhoneography without using Aperture. I have several different 'sauces' depending on the b/w look I want to go with. You're at liberty to consider yourself whatever you want to call yourself, but iPhoneography as I've always understood it is contained w/in the iOS environment. If and when Aperture comes out as an iOS app, fantaaaastic!
@ Glyn:
Then I would consider the pictures used iPhoneography, but is making a photo montage even photography? If you hang pictures in gallery is the hanging of the pictures themselves photography. I see the montage a bit like this. It would still be montage of iPhoneography like a montage of other pictures would be a montage of photography.
@Glyn - Like printing, that's kind of a grey area for me. Since, technically, publishing and printing of iPhoneography has to be done using desktop computers (well, servers actually), I'd tend to include building a montage/slideshow/video of iPhoneography images within the same realm.
The word Iphone is the main part of iPhoneography thats as simple as i can put it never touches anythings esle unless the photo is complete.
Lot's of great points here. As far as iPhoneography is concerned, I might avoid the word "purist"...the constant leaps this medium is taking is opening too many new avenues of creativity.
Semantics aside, I do agree with Renzo's post: initially the shot is taken with the iPhone. And personally I create and edit solely on the iPhone. Not the iPad, not the iPod Touch. But if we want, let's coin "iPodography" to include the whole gamut of portable Apple devices.
My point is, the iPhone is a one-stop photo center. Your imagination and ability are concentrated into that one device. That's the original allure of iPhoneography, I feel.
It doesn't make me a "purist"...just a person that couldn't afford even a desktop editor.
Also don't forget, in the days before apps and the AppStore iPhonegraphers had no other option but to resort to desktop apps like iPhoto to manipulate their photos.
Hi Glyn! Created solely on an iPhone = iPhoneography; anything else = hybrid(ography). Anything goes, it's the final image that matters, but personally, when creating images with my iPhone, I'll only use my Mac to check the look of it on a larger screen. I regard working with an iPhone and Mac as completely different processes and mediums; as different as pencil and paint.