Ok, so this isn’t about having the latest bit of technology; it’s about carrying less, setting up faster and removing one more thing that can get between me and making pictures.
Every bit of kit has a cost, and I don’t just mean the price; it has to be charged, packed, carried, set up and remembered.
My iPad Pro has earned its place in my camera bag, but the iPhone Duo is about to replace it.
When I go out to photograph portraits, I nearly always shoot tethered into the iPad; it’s a big part of the way I work. Being able to see the pictures come through on a decent-sized screen makes the whole process so much easier, and Capture One Mobile has been absolutely rock solid for it.
But it’s still another device to carry. It isn’t enormous, obviously, but once it’s in the camera bag it adds a considerable amount of weight. None of that sounds like much on its own, but every extra bit of kit adds another small point of friction, but very soon, I’m going to be able to remove that one.
The iPad is going
Apple has now announced the new iPhone Duo, with preorders opening on Friday 16th October and availability beginning on Friday 23rd October.
My plan is to trade my iPad Pro in to Apple for a gift card, then order the 1TB iPhone Duo as soon as preorders open.
The important bit for me is the folding 7.6-inch inner display. It isn’t as large as the iPad Pro, but it gives me a much bigger working area than a normal phone while still being something that lives in my pocket, and that changes things.
Instead of taking my phone and remembering to pack the iPad, I’ll just take my phone; the one thing I’m going to have with me anyway becomes the screen I use for tethering as well.
One device. Less weight. Less to think about.
Capture One Mobile will stay at the centre of it
I already have Capture One Mobile on both my iPad and my iPhone, and it works so, so well for tethering.
It’s quick to set up, it’s dependable and it does exactly what I need it to do. Moving that same setup onto the larger screen of the iPhone Duo should give me the balance I’ve been looking for: enough screen space to see what I’m doing, without carrying a separate device.
In an ideal world, I’d be doing all of this inside Lightroom Mobile, but tethered capture on the iPad and iPhone has been requested for years, but it still isn’t there and there’s no release date for it.
I know Adobe have it on their radar, but as for when we actually have it, well … I’m not holding my breath.
So, if and until that happens, I’ll continue paying for a separate Capture One Mobile subscription because it solves the problem now, and it solves it extremely well.
The workflow keeps getting smaller
This is really another part of a bigger change in the way I work on location.
I’ve changed camera systems with the return to Canon for my main work camera, and I now have the Westcott Photography Wagon for moving the lighting, stands and everything else from the car, so a workflow that was already portable is becoming even more so, and that matters to me because portability isn’t only about how much something weighs. It’s also about how many decisions I have to make before I can start taking pictures.
Did I pack it? Is it charged? Where does it go in the bag? How long will it take to set up?
Every one of those questions takes up a little bit of space in your head. Remove enough of them and you’re left with the things that actually matter: the person in front of the camera, the light and the picture.
This isn’t about having the latest thing
Of course, new technology is nice. I’m as interested in it as anybody else, but this isn’t a case of buying the latest and greatest simply because it’s new … it’s about using new technology when it can make my working life easier.
When the kit is portable, the setup is simple and I can trust everything to do what it’s supposed to do, I’m free to get on with the job, and that makes me more creative because I’m thinking about the portrait, not the equipment.
Friction does the opposite. Even a small problem can interrupt the flow of a shoot and pull my attention away from where it needs to be, and that’s why this feels like such an obvious upgrade for me.
The iPhone Duo won’t just be replacing my current phone, it’ll be replacing the iPad in my camera bag as well, and making an already portable setup even easier to take anywhere.
I’m really looking forward to trying it. Once it arrives and I’ve used it on a proper portrait shoot, I’ll let you know how it goes and ofcourse will get a video put together.