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Chris Amberg's avatar

People swearing they can “always” tell the difference between a phone pic and a “pro camera” image amuse me. I remember when light beer first became popular - and dedicated beer snobs swore they could always tell the difference. I had my roommate do a blind taste test. He utterly failed.

Jerred Z's avatar

Love it! I am going to use that analogy!!

Tina Wittmore's avatar

Great Post! I used to have a photography business which helped pay for lens upgrades and new camera bodies. After a few years of UNuse I discovered that the batteries have all gone kaput and replacements are hard to find, expensive or low quality. Or all three! I really wanted to get back into photography for myself so I decided to ‘use what I’ve got’.

Since then I’ve been very satisfied with my iPhone 16 Pro Max or Max Pro? I’ve been on several photo journeys and am always pleased with my results.

I’ve been using the Photos editing software, which has markably improved over the last few versions. I do find the auto edits can feel over processed but it’s fairly easy to dirty it up.

I have loved Lightroom since day one but abhor the subscription model.

I think a lot of editing styles become personal preference and are also subject the current trends in society. Neither is better or worse; wrong or right. For me it’s about trying new settings or new tools that can help me add to my repertoire of editing styles.

Thanks for sharing and I’m going to try Mood to see what develops 😉

Jerred Z's avatar

Tina! This is all awesome!!! I seriously love my iphone for photos now... Mood is totally cool, fun, unpredictable, etc., - it takes me a bit out of my comfort zone. And trends are always here, right? Natural, beautiful, straight shots will always be there - so why not experiment with the trends sometimes to see how they feel? Lol. I just stopped caring about what I "should" be doing and now go with my heart. Let me know if you have a place to share - I'd love to see what you do as you keep moving forward!!!!!

Shawn Kelly's avatar

Jerred your spot on with your analysis. For me the iPhone was a gateway back into photography. After nearly three decades of rarely making photos, I’m back at it. I’ll use my iPhone for convenience and then turn to my Fujifilm XT5 for day long photo excursions. The jpeg film recipes straight out of camera are perfect for me. I’m not that interested in sitting in front of a computer screen tweaking images.

Jerred Z's avatar

Absolutely Shawn! It’s a lot of fun to let some in-camera magic happen. Fuji is great at that… and so is the Mood app!!! (I do miss the X-T5 and 33mm 1.4 combo. Wow. If I ever got another Fuji, it would be the 33 and x-E5!)

Alicia Paley's avatar

These are really great! I especially love the concert photos. Hard to believe they were shot with an iPhone. - I love the Mood app. I discovered it a few years ago and love using it. These days I leave it set on a customized Noir sim. - I need to experiment with long exposures.

Jerred Z's avatar

Thanks, Alicia - lots of fun, right? I need to do more with the Mood app - it’s just the start for me!