Mt. Washington has been rated one of the most beautiful vistas in America by USA Weekend, it’s home to two of the worlds oldest continuous inclines, and it’s where a countless number of Pittsburgh skyline photographs have been taken. It’s fairly safe to say that this is the most popular location to photograph the beautiful city of Pittsburgh.
The images you see here were taken and processed solely on an iPhone SE. The camera used was the stock iPhone camera and the images were processed with Snapseed (thanks for the recommendation Helen and Ben) and VSCO.
I use Snapseed to lay the post processing foundation so to speak… Things like highlight and shadow adjustments, dodging and burning, etc.. Once I have the photograph foundation in place I pull the image into VSCO and put the finishing touches on it.
I don’t care if you use an iPhone, the D810, or draw what you see with a Crayola, composition is everything. Post processing is the second most important ingredient to a successful photograph. If the composition in these images sucked, no amount of post processing in any number of apps would turn them into great photographs.
The most difficult part of shooting with an iPhone is leaving the professional camera bodies behind. I’ll often visit a place with nothing but my iPhone first in order to scout it out for my professional projects. If I find really interesting composition that I feel I could use in a project I will revisit with a professional DSLR.
Why bother with a professional camera? The fact is, a lot of my professional work involves creating images larger than 30″ for installation in various places. If you are a professional, or aspire to be one, I would suggest using a camera that creates file sizes that are versatile for future use. Aside from that, I can’t really get as creative as I’d like with the iPhone just yet… Think neutral density filters, creative depth of field, etc.. Perhaps in a future iPhone.
Good post John. I was out in Manchester last night and was amazed at how easily iPhone coped with night-time scenes of lights on the water etc. Also has x100s set at 6400 (no tripod) but results not nearly as good as phone pix. Again v impressed with iPhone .
Wow, I’m very surprised! Very cool!
Good to hear that Snapseed is useful to you John. Here’s another app that I have on my iPhone that is so good for nighttime/low light shots and that’s Cortex Cam. It strings together multiple images on the iPhone into a 16-24 megapixel result and reduces low light noise. I think Helen may find this useful too on her iPhone as I think she enjoys low light photography,
Thanks for your latest post John, I’m getting addicted to it :))
Thanks! I’ve downloaded the app but have not put it through the paces yet. Appreciate the feedback as always, hope all is well!