The Curse of the Phone Camera

In my previous post, I talked about how I put down my DSLR for a few years and what few photos I was actually taking were just taken using my mobile phone camera. Now you would think that if I was intent on taking good photos, why just use my mobile phone camera and not take my DSLR as well, because surely that would produce better images. But that’s definitely not the case. Apart from the obvious issue, that I have my mobile on my all the time and it’s lightweight and convenient compared to heavy DSLR, the image quality you can now get out of mobile phone cameras is terrifyingly good. And I don’t just mean it is getting close to the quality of a standard DSLR, but in many ways it surpasses it.

A Brief Journey to the Now Banal DSLR v Mobie Camera Debate

Now obviously this is dependant on the quality of the individual cameras. But in my case, which is probably the same for many people, I have a relatively new mobile phone and a slightly older mid-range DSLR with mid range lenses. Now, I don’t want this post to be all about mobile / DSLR comparisons, so I will keep this section to a minimum.

The top 3 photos are taken on a DSLR, the 3 below are the same shot taken on my mobile camera. The botton left is a zoomed detail from a DSLR, and a similar zoomed detail on my mobile to it’s right. No post-processing on any of the images. How do you think they compare?

My opinion is that the mobile images have better colour, better dynamic range, better contrast, and overall more depth to the images. However, in the zoomed images, the DSLR pictures are sharper and with less artifacts.

And therein lies the issue. Mobile cameras give great instant results and these are perfect for uploading to something like Instagram or Facebook which uses lower resolution images. However, the captures from the DSLR are higher resolution and sharper, so they are better for printing out or higher resolution uploads such as Flickr. However, they do require more post-processing work to get that same colour depth and dynamic range seen on mobile photos. And just to reiterate, my mobile is quite high spec but my DSLR is only mid range, the resolution and sharpeness will only get even better with a high-end DSLR and lenses.

So, in summary, DSLRs will give better quality images but it requires that dreaded thing: WORK! But is it worth the time and effort taking and processing these DSLR images? To be honest, I would say that there is less and less need as mobile cameras get better, but if you do put in the work you will get better images. And therein lies the curse of the mobile phone camera. They produce great quality images from little effort but I believe there is a sacrifice, and it’s not just in potential image quality. What is sacrified is creativity, flexibility and learning.

Creativity and Flexibility

The reason mobile cameras produce such good results is because they do post processing after you take the image and this produces what you see as the captured photo. You have little or no control over the processing done but the complex algorithms produce very good results, usually. And because these results are good, people just use the images as is. But this is effectively railroading you into having the image as the algorithm wants it. You can still obviously do more changes and post processing to these images but I would imagine most people do very little as there isn’t much really needed to get a good image.

And because the image has already undergone this post processing it can then be harder to process the image in a different artistic direction. Whereas, when you have the basic image captured from the camera’s sensor, you often need to do some level of processing to this and this can take you down many different directions depending on your artistic preferences. e.g. I find my mobile camera tries to expand the dynamic range especially between foreground and sky. Although the result is usually good, sometimes this can give results that I don’t find that visually pleasing. I find trying to alter this very tricky and usually not worth the effort. I find it much better to start with an unprocessed image.

So I believe that taking photos on your mobile, by virtue of the extensive image processing they do to each photo, can hamper your flexibility and creativity with your photos.

Learning

As I have said, when most of the post-processing is automated and outwith your control before you even see the captured image, you are effectively being railroaded into how the algorithm thinks the image should be. As these results are often very good you often need to do much, if any, post-processing. The algorithm has done all the work for you. As such, there is little need to learn how to post-process an image over and above the basics. Moreover, because the image is already processed, I believe it stifles creative learning. You don’t have to learn as much about dynamic range, contrast, colour balance etc when the processing is done for you, and often done well.

And because of that, when you do want to do more extensive post-processing to an image and express your own artistic preferences in it, you don’t have the knowledge to do so. On the contrary, when you have a more basic, raw image that requires some work, you will have to learn these things if you want to produce an image to your artistic vision.

Is the Mobile Camera really a Curse?

Modern mobile phone cameras are amazing pieces of kit. With one click they take stunning photographs. You barely have to think about it, just literally point and shoot. And this doesn’t even consider such other amazing features such as AI integration that can generate new parts of an image, the very advanced removal and bokeh tools etc. All of these require so little effort and produce stunning results. In addition, many people have quite high spec mobile phones already and they are lightweight, portable and they carry them with them at all times. They are great for the modern generation who seem to demand good, quick results with minimum effort. But there is a cost, I feel, and that is what I have discussed above. They make you lazy because you don’t have to work at making good images and the price you pay is creativity and learning in my opinion.

Don’t get me wrong, they are great for most people who don’t have much of an interest in photography as they can get amazing captures of moments and memories easily. Moreover, it does make photography more accessible to many more people. But for me, the mobile camera has been more of a curse. I have used it more and more and neglected to use my DSLR. I have all but given up on learning new things about photography and bothered very little putting in any time and effort with post-processing. Of course, some of that may have been to do with my waning interest in photography, but my mobile phone camera certainly hasn’t helped and has fostered perhaps a laziness within me. And also, I would say I may have deveoped a slight overdependency on my phone camera because of it’s convenience and high quality results, albeit at the expense of my learning and creativity.

Breaking the Curse

However, I now want to start getting more use out of my DSLR again. I want to put more time and effort into capturing and processing the images, and try to use that to express my creative vision more. I will still use my mobile phone camera alongside this as it is handy for snapshots and a good way of cataloguing when and where I took my photos. However, I want to get back to a situation where my DSLR is my main camera and my primary goal is taking high quality images crafted to my artistic vision.

I fell foul of the Curse of the Mobile Camera, will you too?

Thanks for Reading, Neil