I've been having great fun shooting panos with the iPhone lately. Took this on my walk yesterday. I walk up Welker Hill most days for exercise. It was cold up there yesterday bro—32°F/0°C with a hard wind. The wind was coming straight out of the West when I walked back down the hill, and I was coming straight out of the East. As I pushed on, it pushed back. I had on two hats, a fake down vest and my Winter coat. I passed Dave coming in from his barn and all he was wearing was a pullover and a billed cap. But he's a lot tougher than I am.
Sometimes I think any camera can be a teacher and show you how to do something new. I've never shot panoramics with anything—no judgment, I was just never drawn to that way of seeing (although I've greatly admired several panoramic shooters over the years, most notably Aaron Hobson and Pentti Sammallahti. And my favorite photographer, Josef Koudelka, has published many panoramics—including, I think, a whole book of them). Of course, I did do my "one" pano, because I like to try everything once (um, photographically speaking), but that's not the same as working that way.
I've been (finally? Belatedly) trying to take the iPhone more seriously as a camera. Not for any ideological reason, just because I find I shoot a lot with it now.
I still do have problems considering it a serious image-maker...
Oops! Crop from the above
That would take some Photoshop skills to fix. The wind was stiff enough that the occasional gust was knocking me around, and it was difficult to hold the phone very still. Here's a single shot:
It was late in the day. Such a pretty day. Those clouds were moving. Did I mention it was brisk?
I'm not very good at panos yet. I have a tendency to shoot things too close to me, such that I get that loopy swooping perspective anomaly that some people hate and some people play with. All things considered I'd rather shoot with a large single-shot panaoramic camera—only then I wouldn't be be doing panos at all.
The other thing the iPhone is teaching me is how to shoot square. Speaking of Aaron Hobson, his father Mark, who reads TOP, is a very experienced professional who's been shooting personal projects with his iPhone in recent years, and he shoots square. I think Mark processes his pictures with Snapseed or something like that. Square seems like the ready-made solution for anyone who complains about not being able to hold their iPhone while shooting. Shooting square means you can hold the phone vertically and get the same aspect ratio in the pictures.
Shooting square is fun. It's easy and somehow also challenging at the same time. I can't be more clear than that because I don't really understand it. But maybe you know what I mean.
Do any of those medium-format digitals shoot square? Such that you see square in the viewfinder I mean.
Curiously, the one time in my life that I shot extensively with a square-format camera—well, there were two times, the first being a Kodak Instamatic when I was a kid—was with the Exakta 66 in the '80s, and as a matter of course I always cropped to the vertical with that camera. I don't know why; it's just how I saw with it.
I'd rather there weren't a camera in the phone. But since there is, might as well have fun.
Incidentally, play is the solution for any photographer's block—the doldrums, boredom, lack of inspiration, a rut—just find some way to play. Fool around and have fun. Be goofy. Be free. It'll shake your tree and get you going where you're going again.
Mike
Book o' the Week:
ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History by Jennifer Dasal (Penguin, 2020. Adapted from the popular podcast.)
This link is a portal to Amazon, through which most anything you purchase will be credited to TOP. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Original contents copyright 2021 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Jeff in Rhode Island: "SQUARE: This is one of the advantages that I really love about working with mirrorless digital or phone cameras. We have the ability to previsualize different aspect ratios. I often have my Fuji X-H1 or X-E2 set up to a 1:1 aspect ratio with B&W as my rendering intent. This is something I could have only dreamed of in terms of previsualization and flexibility in the analog days."
DavidB: "The mis-matched power lines might be a result of the strong winds causing the lines to move as the multiple frames were captured."
John Y: "I grew up using 35mm films. When transitioning to digital, any aspect ratio not 3:2 completely turned me off. Now I’ve unlearned that stupid bias and come to appreciate different compositions/subjects call for different aspect ratios, and vice versa."
Mark Hobson: "Hey Mike—thanks for the mention. FYI, I shot with rotating lens pano cameras as part of my pro shooting repertoire. One of those pictures—see them here—one of 50 all made with Widelux cameras for the Allegheny Hospital: Portrait of an Urban Hospital book, was Aaron's inspiration for all of his work."
Bruce: "For those jagged power lines, there’s a great app, Touch Retouch, which makes correcting those incredible easy on the iPhone. As well as having a decent clone stamp and healing brush. Definitely worth the $2 to try."
John Shriver: "Koudelka created The Black Triangle, a book of panoramic photographs of coal mining devastation. Josef Sudek created two panoramic books, Prague Panaorama and the posthumous Sad Landscapes, also of coal mining devastation. Sudek used a Kodak Panorama No. 4, hand loading it with 4x12 sheet film, since 103 size roll film was already unavailable."
Scott Reither: "I find the wider the pano format, the more challenging it is to compose well, and the closer to square I get, the easier it gets. For my eye, anyways! For years, I used Linhof 617 and 612 panoramic cameras, and found the formats very challenging. It did not come naturally at all. One thing I love about the Fuji GFX cameras is, they have seven image ratios that you can set, and it blacks out the area so you see that actual selected format. I had been wanting for that in a camera for years—it seems so obvious. With the raw, you can always change your mind later and undo the crop, if you want.
"You’re going to love the 50R when you get to use that!"
I find I can't hold the iPhone (Xr in my case) as still as I can with my regular camera, a Lumix GX7. I wonder if Apple will ever build in stabilization.
Posted by: Dan D | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 12:02 PM
Shooting square? Now that sounds interesting. I guess I'll give it a try.
And I think you'll find the Fuji MF digital cameras can all be set to shoot square and show the crop in the finder or rear screen. If you are a Jpeg shooter the crop is baked in. If you shoot raw you'll get the whole width of the sensor and, depending on the post processing application, you can proceed with the square of you might have to re-crop. If you shoot Raw+Jpeg you'll always have a ready guide for raw cropping.
Interestingly enough, you can also shoot squares, and see the images as squares on the screens, in most other modern digital cameras as well.
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 12:25 PM
Nice panorama, nice clouds. You must have noticed the little dog-cloud in the last image...?
Posted by: Jim Henry | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 12:29 PM
Panorama made with Russian Горизонт camera-
Posted by: Herman krieger | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 12:39 PM
I mainly shoot 4:3 portrait (vertical). A perfect fit for magazine or catalog photos, that I shot in a former life. It also works well for viewing on a phone. In my neck of the woods, the phone has replaced 4x6 prints for viewing photos.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vImv-B2NgD4/Xae_SnYENfI/AAAAAAAAE38/F-0TGwb4FqQywSktBJUV56YJDzYRX5IpQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_0042-425.png
I've done a few panoramas, but they are not how I see the world. If I need wide I just crop to 16:9. Or simply do a triptych of 4:3 shots (6x8 inch).
I'm glad that you are having fun!
Posted by: c.d.embrey | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 12:41 PM
"Shooting square is fun."
Your Fujifilm cameras allow for square images that show as such in the finder. I play with this at times. The good thing is no contorting to rotate the camera for vertical orientations. If your LCD flips out, then it's as good as a waist level finder.
When I was using twin lens Rolleis back in the day, I had etched lines in the ground glass finder corresponding to both horizontal and vertical aspect ratios for 8X10, so I could compose while taking the photos. I don't think I have ever printed a square photo.
Posted by: Albert Smith | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 01:26 PM
When panos work, they REALLY work (for me, anyway). One of my favourite examples of this is the book Isla, by Ernesto Bazan.
Posted by: Mike | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 02:14 PM
The ability to see and shoot square is one of THE primary advantages of digital, far as I'm concerned. Shooting in square format is perhaps 'easier' because it's a more democratic use of space- there's less real estate to balance on either side when one composes. It's either centered or not (so much).
Panoramics are even more of a different mind set; often, they're hard to previsualize- unless you're specifically thinking them in advance. Sometimes, I've come back and kicked myself for not having thought of it- again, with digital, that too has now become more doable, w/o a panoramic specific camera.
Posted by: Stan B. | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 02:27 PM
I've certainly have had fun in the past year with a newer iPhone and its two lenses. Glad it's got a camera for more than just to photograph! In some ways it's like having my old Rollieflex along for the ride with the bonus that's it's also a Rolliewide!
BTW, an inexpensive and easy solution to temporarily disable the camera that isn't/wasn't wanted on your phone is to just place a small strip of duct tape across the lens. Problem solved! ;-p
Posted by: Larry Angier | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 02:31 PM
Wait to shoot with the 50r!
Yes, a square monochrome view is easy.
and you are right to love saquares
Posted by: Sandy Rothberg | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 02:33 PM
Here's a little info I recently put together, just out of interest:
Sensor Sizes (mm)
Sensor Dimensions Area Diagonal
1/2.5 5.8 x 4.3 25 7.2 iPhone XS/12 Pro (Wide + Tele)
1/1.8 7.2 x 5.3 38 8.9. iPhone 12 Pro Max (Wide + Tele)
1/1.7 7.3 x 5.6 43 9.4 Leica C (Wife's camera)
4/3 17 x 13 225 22
APS-C 23.6 x 15.7 370 28
35mm 36 x 24 864 43 'Full Frame'
iPhone camera sensors are getting close. The iPhone Tele's are really what we would call 'portrait' lenses but a not too distant zoom is rumored. Note the iPhone 12 Pro Max has image stabilization as well.
May have to format this post Mike, if of interest!
Posted by: Rick in CO | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 02:39 PM
Lately I've really taken to square format and it has nothing to do with Instagram. Maybe because it is pretty new to me, it is priming my creative juices. I've been shooting with a Rolleiflex 3.5f and a Mamiya 6 with film. I think that most if not all digital cameras can shoot square format as a choice in settings. I know my Fujifilm and Sony cameras do. If you have an LCD that can be flipped into horizontal plane facing up, it's like shooting square with a waist level finder.
Posted by: Steve Rosenblum | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 02:42 PM
I’ve never been a pano fan. Too gimmicky I think. Like a lot of these in camera special effects, they sometimes ruin a good picture. In my humble opinion!
This picture of yours Mike, is not so obvious a panoramic photo, perhaps because it has as it’s beginnings the I phone held vertically. I think?
I zoomed in on the shadow of yourself and the utility pole, and that made a nice composition. The rest, not so much!😁
Fred
Posted by: Fred Haynes | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 03:00 PM
I think most modern digital cameras have the option to shoot square format, and many of them preserve the entire raw file as well, so you can "undo" your choice later, if you like. The Fuji GFX works that way.
Posted by: Ken Bennett | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 03:12 PM
Shooting something close with a pano is not a bad thing! For how I do it, it's usually pretty necessary, but yeah the iPhone's autostitching can mess things up.
I don't shoot especially wide panos digitally (I have a Widelux F7 and Noblex 150 for that), but I'm fond of horizontal widescreen-ish frames of at least 2:1. The key for me is to break up the frame with vertical elements, somewhat akin to a comic strip with its 3 frames, so it can be organized more easily and be more readable.
Being close to a subject is a great way to place a vertical dividing element in the frame: the round hay bale placed close to the camera is probably the foreground rock of panoramic landscape photos!
Posted by: Andre Y | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 03:28 PM
Square is definitely OK. Don't get me started about all the stupid vertical phone videos out there. A menace. End of the world as we know it. Etc.
Posted by: Dennis | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 04:15 PM
Why not take a small camera with a good sensor and do Panoramics with it rather than the phone?
As for Square digital - Hasselblad completely trashed their legacy by going to 645 rectangles for digital.
Posted by: Daniel | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 04:20 PM
Mike, your X-t4 will shoot square if you want, or 16:9,but for some reason not 4x5 or 6x7. What is the matter with these firmware designers?
Posted by: Bob Johnston | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 04:29 PM
Sorry, it's the X-H1 you have isn't it? I believe it will do the same though.
Posted by: Bob Johnston | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 04:30 PM
The Hasselblad X1D cameras and all Fuji GFX series cameras you can set to different aspect ratios. As it is with the XF series cameras, you probably need set it to allow at least some kind of JPEG capture in order to do this (RAW+JPEG should do if you want to keep your RAW files). And you can set the JPEG profile to one of the monochrome or Acros profiles so you can use the EVF to see the world in black and white squares!
Posted by: Pierre | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 04:46 PM
"Shooting square is fun" goes right up my alley. The square format TLRs and Roleiflexes were fun to use - no need to worry over portrait or landscape mode.
A square resembles a circle and a circle resembles a square.
My favourite is now shooting in B&W square format and that has now become my signature style. All my digital cameras have one preset mode to shoot in square format.
Posted by: Dan Khong | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 04:54 PM
My own favorite panoramic photographer is Josef Sudek, who used a rebuilt Kodak swivel lens camera to produce images of Prague and its environs that are simply magical.
Posted by: John | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 05:50 PM
That Fuji GFX 50R that you've been promising to review shoots a nice square. It's square in the viewfinder, and square in the JPEG (cooked and cropped as you requested). If you shoot RAW, it comes into Lightroom "auto-cropped" to square (but the rest of what the whole sensor saw is there waiting for you if you undo the crop).
Posted by: Rob de Loe | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 09:43 PM
Even when shooting squares with 126 film, I was a non-conformist..
www.longviewers.one/jimages/smallHood1970.jpg
Posted by: longviewer | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 10:20 PM
Nice light.
Mike, didn't you also shoot with a Mamiya 6 at some point?
[Yes, I forgot that, but thinking back, I cropped almost all of the pictures I took with that one too. --Mike]
Posted by: DB | Monday, 15 March 2021 at 11:15 PM
"I'd rather shoot with a large single-shot panoramic camera—only then I wouldn't be be doing panos at all."
Question of definition? I think of panorama in terms of the format of the result, in some sort of combination with horizontal angle of view, not by the technique that ended up there. And of pano as simply short for panorama or panoramic
So sure, I've made lots of panoramic photos by stitching, and many have turned out well. OTOH, the projections used by all purpose apps, such as LR, PS and Affinity, are often inaccurate, vertically bulgy in the center and/or with strange bends in straight lines.
It's also easy to make them using Super/Ultra/Hyper WA lenses and cropping. These may easily be much wider than the XPan with 30 mm lens or 6x17 cm on 220 film with 90 mm lens, the old ideas of panoramic to which you refer.
With the right subject, it's also possible to use a fish-eye lens and correct to rectilinear with pleasing results.
How the sausage was made is of interest to sausage makers. Taste, texture, etc. are what matter the the one eating them. \;~)>
Posted by: Moose | Tuesday, 16 March 2021 at 01:07 AM
In recent weeks, I, too, have been using my iPhone as my sole camera— as an exercise in self-discipline; to make myself learn to use it well.
Shooting square does get rid of one of the ergonomic problems, but does not get rid of the major drawback of the iPhone (or any smartphone) as a serious primary camera.
To hearken back to the superb post Mike put up on the topic of viewfinders, the principal problem I have with the iPhone is indeed the viewfinder.
If I hold the phone up to compose, at a distance from my face where my eyes can focus on the LCD screen (the viewfinder), the image on the LCD covers only a tiny portion of my field of view. Compared to a hold-up-to-the-eye camera viewfinder, I'd say the viewfinder is about .10 to .15 magnification at the most, by my reckoning.
It may be my elderly eyesight, but I find that it is quite hard to compose precisely, anticipate a moment well, or even line up verticals properly on the dinky little LCD.
It is odd, though. I never used to experience the same problem with a tiny waist-level TLR viewfinder. Come to think of it, perhaps it is because, in a TLR, I used to glance at the viewfinder at waist-level only to reassure myself that the framing and focus were correct, but otherwise looked directly at the scene when assessing it and taking the picture.
But, with a smartphone, it is impossible to do that, with my arms and the phone itself blocking a good part of my view of the scene—ergonomically speaking, I am forced to used the LCD viewfinder to get an unobstructed view. It makes for an unsatisfactory experience in picture taking.
Posted by: Mani Sitaraman | Tuesday, 16 March 2021 at 01:46 AM
Are you still using the iPhone 7 plus? I checked the TOP archive but was not entirely sure.
Don't want to get you overspending, but getting last year's iPhone model is relatively good value. I got the iPhone 11 Pro around Christmas this year to play around with the ultra wide 13mm lens. The 11 or 12 Pro have a really great lens combo (13mm, 26mm, 52mm in 35eqv) and are a bit more pocket friendly than the Plus models.
Posted by: Richard T | Tuesday, 16 March 2021 at 07:36 AM
Shooting in square IS fun AND a challenge, just as you say. The enforced square was something I loved about Instagram when it first appeared (I've been on IG since almost the very start). Unfortunately the very simple app for sharing fun, creative photography is now...well, it's been Facebookized.
But, there are a bunch of digital cameras that will shoot directly to the square. I think they are mostly the compact type. The very first "high rez" digital camera I used was a Leaf DCB and it was natively a square sensor. But for regular folk-style cameras, the first one I had was a Lumix LX-3 and I loved setting it for square AND black and white. That camera lasted for years but finally gave and I bought a Canon G7X MkIII which I can do the same thing with. Great stuff and both cameras were/are wonderfully capable.
A few examples:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/64012599@N00/6908907306/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/64012599@N00/5547997757
https://www.flickr.com/photos/64012599@N00/4842704582/
Posted by: Gregory Wostrel | Tuesday, 16 March 2021 at 09:01 AM
Dan D wonders “ if Apple will ever build in stabilization” but they have done since iPhone 11.
Posted by: Richard Parkin | Wednesday, 17 March 2021 at 04:11 AM
On the iPhone 11 one can also shoot square videos but only by using the “dragging shutter button” shortcut as far as I know.
Posted by: Richard Parkin | Wednesday, 17 March 2021 at 04:14 AM
I love shooting square with my Fuji cameras. There is something about being "restricted" that make me more creative. Here is my favourite one to date. Feel free to post it if you like.
https://flic.kr/p/2hVNRW4
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hVNRW4][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49179318243_8dd40a04ec_k.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2hVNRW4]Oak">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49179318243_8dd40a04ec_k.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2hVNRW4]Oak">https://flic.kr/p/2hVNRW4][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49179318243_8dd40a04ec_k.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2hVNRW4]Oak Bluffs, Marthas Vineyard, MA[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/10025089@N05/]Zack Schindler[/url], on Flickr
Posted by: Zack Schindler | Wednesday, 17 March 2021 at 11:55 AM
My first camera, gifted to me by my parents when I was under 10, was a Kodak Instamatic 126 Electric Eye.
It shot 126 film. 26mm x 26mm.
I thought nothing of it at the time, but my first exposure to taking photos was all square format.
Thanks to Mike for reminding me!
Cheers
Arg
Posted by: Arg | Friday, 19 March 2021 at 10:26 PM