iPhone

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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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Photographing the Severn Bridge with my iPhone 15 Pro Max

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So last weekend, having been there almost exactly 12 months ago and done the same, along with my mate Anthony Crothers I headed back Bristol to photograph the Severn Bridge (aka the Prince of Wales Bridge) …

Weather conditions this time were definitely warmer and less breezy although the tide height looked to be pretty much the same. From what I’d checked I had expected it to be a little higher than it actually was, but this worked in our favor to be honest with it revealing foreground interest in the mud / silt.

kit

Since the last visit, some of the kit I used this time had changed.

Of course as there had been an upgrade I was now using my iPhone 15 Pro Max, but to mount it onto my Benro Tripod I was using the Ulanzi ST-27 Phone Tripod Mount.

This thing is small, incredibly well built and robust and rock solid. Love it!

iphone photography app

There were some great clouds in the sky but due to there being very little breeze, they were moving incredibly slowly.

So, to create some motion blur and also smooth the water surface, I opted for a 60 second exposure and to do this I used the Raw long exposure app called ReeXpose App from ReeFlex …

Not wanting to go for an identical composition as the last time we were there, I opted to photograph the bridge from the lower right hand side which would include the bridge as it meandered off into the distance, so this is what I ended up with …

Edited in Lightroom and with a couple of tweaks in Photoshop, I couldn’t resist running a print off the Epson SC-P900, and with it being printed on an a3 sheet of Baryta 310 from Permajet, I couldn’t be happier 😃

As for the last time we were there 12 months ago, this below is the picture I made, however we do plan to head back in March when the the Severn Bore appears; not neccesarily to photograph the bore but to take advantage of the much higher water level.

As for the bore itself … I will most definitely be taking my drone along to capture some footage, so … watch this space 😉

Photographing Storm Henk at West Bay with my iPhone

It’s fair to say the weather during the tail-end of 2023 has been pretty dire with what seems like storm after storm , bringing high winds and heavy rainfall , and being perfectly honest I’ve found myself getting more than a little fed up with it.

New Years Eve was no exception with Storm Henk making an appearance , but I had to end the year on a positive , so despite the weather and featureless grey skies I decided to head out with minimal kit ( iPhone and Tripod ) to see what I could capture. 

Living in the South West of the UK and a short drive from the coast , I decided to head down to West Bay, Dorset which is about a 40 minute drive , and I’m so glad that I did because when I arrived , there was blue sky, still plenty of moody clouds , high winds , but … no rain.

Parking up on the Quayside I could immediately hear the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach , and this combined with the sun making an appearance and throwing patches of light onto the sea as it peered between the clouds, conditions could not have been better !

To capture these images I used the Pro Camera App from Moment ; a great app that in addition to giving manual control over shutter speed and iso, also lets you separate focus and exposure lock, does exposure bracketing and so much more including Burst Mode when pressing the shutter; and that’s exactly what I used to capture the movement in the waves.

The images were edited in Lightroom on my iPad and then in Lightroom Classic, with a final finishing touch in Photoshop to give a ‘painterly’ look.

So yes … very happy I decided to venture out on the last day of the year.

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Photographing Storm Agnes with my iPhone 15 Pro Max

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So although in the South West we didn’t get the full force of Storm Agness last week (unlike Ireland and parts of Wales) , what we did get still caused some pretty impressive scenes.

Timing couldn’t have been better on Thursday last week as the tail-end of the storm also coincided with a high tide of 4.5 metres at Lyme Regis Sea Front.

This was also to be my first time out ‘in anger’ with my new iPhone 15 Pro Max which I used to photograph the storm along with the ReeXpose App from ReeFlex.

I only had a few mintes to capture whatever I could before the heavens opened and heavy rain joined the party, but here’s the results …

Both results are a blend of several long exposures ( 0.5 seconds and 1 seconds ) taken with my new iPhone 15 Pro Max and the ReeXpose App from ReeFlex and edited in Lightroom Mobile / Cloud and Photoshop.

One of the BEST pieces of advice I was given when starting out as a Portrait Photographer was to move around ... don't take photographs from one spot ... look how the light changes as you take a step to the left or a step to the right.

Since the Covid Pandemic when I first ventured out into landscape and seascape photography as a means of keeping active and keeping creative, one of the most important things I've learned is ... when you find a composition make sure to LOOK BEHIND YOU

This is how the 2nd results came about with the tail-end of Storm Agnes and was what was happening behind me whilst I captured the first.

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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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Photographing a Storm with my iPhone

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One of the results I captured yesterday with my iPhone during the storm down at Lyme Regis.

I love how photographs instantly transport you back to the where, when, what and who.

Taken with my iPhone 14 Pro Max

This one will always remind me of the two of us laughing like excited children as the waves from the incoming tide pounded against The Cobb wall and then towered above us and crashed down. Yes we got soaked (one of us more than the other) but it was so much fun.

Dedication … right there! Strong winds, big waves on the incoming tide and this one was giggling like a good ‘un as a BIGGIE came crashing over The Cobb and swallowed her up … and all to help me take some photographs 😍

*Taken with my iPhone 14 Pro Max using the ReeXpose App by REEFLEX set to a 0.5 second exposure.

Edited in Lightroom Mobile and Photoshop Beta.

*If you’re interested, I have the kit I use (which in this case addition to my iPhone was a tripod and the BEST Mobile Phone Grip I’ve ever used) over on my GEAR / KIT PAGE

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My NEW Favourite Phone Holder for my Tripod

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Found my new favourite phone holder for mounting on my tripod … the ULANZI ST-27

Not exactly cheap but well worth it. VERY well made ( metal construction ). Slots straight into the ARCA mount on my tripod. Locks phone in place and separate turn knob to lock in vertical or horizontal.

Lately we’ve had few spells of high winds on the coast and I found that although the SmallRig I have been using is pretty stable on the tripod, the support for the phone itself I’ve never trusted 100%

This new holder though is rock steady on the tripod and the hold it has on the phone is VERY secure with a turn of the red metal dial The inner black metal dial you turn to lock the orientation of the phone ( vertical / horizontal )

. The fact that it is so small too is definitely a bonus!

Check it out on Amazon using the *link below …

*affiliate link

© Glyn Dewis 2025