Let’s play a game, here below we have 10 photos.  5 of them are taken by iPhone and 5 of them are taken by DSLR camera.  Can you guess which one is which? (The answer is at the end of this post)

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

If your answers are 100% right, then you are a robot that can read the pixel in the sense of resolution, saturation and all the metadata created by the camera. You may have a prime chance to guess them wrong. Are you wondering how the iPhone can make all the magic? Yes, the answer is computational photography. It is basically just a bunch of digital image capture and processing techniques. Before the iPhone 12 pro max launched, I never ever thought that a smartphone’s camera would be powerful enough to compete with a high-end DSLR. Maybe you still have the obsession that the more complicated the machine, the higher technology it is.  The professional look of a bulky DSLR may delude you. Behind the smartphone, there is a massive technology of software that can manage the immense collection of 460 metadata embedded into the photo digital file. If I posted an iPhone photo and said that Canon EOS took it. I think most people wouldn’t argue with me if it was taken by iPhone. The software compensation of smartphones can get a similar-looking depth of field or even more dynamic range than a DSLR. The evolution of smartphones from generation to generation is forever improving. The overall colour and resolution is looking really high quality. You can also make your photos even better with many amazing apps. Because the iPhone saves all the metadata inside of the photo, you can actually use an app like FOCOS to refocus your image. You can change the focus to the background or the foreground. If you made a mistake, you can refocus it literally anywhere you want and you can change the look of the bokeh to your expectations. The app is only the tip of an iceberg and I will let you know more amazing apps in my later posts. 

ANSWER

Use DSLR are A,D,E,G,J

Use Iphone are B,C,F,H,I

Written by Matthew Chan @remotes.works St Albans