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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Mint-on-sunday/  Photography in the age of smartphones and Instagram
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Photography in the age of smartphones and Instagram

Thanks to the ubiquitous smartphone camera and always-on social media, photography has never been so popular. But at what cost?

Photo: APPremium
Photo: AP

It’s a sign of things to come when the professional uses the tool of an amateur. For Sephi Bergerson, a professional photographer from Israel, now settled in Goa, it seemed only natural to shoot a wedding on his iPhone. He saw no “signs" in this, just a job.

It was an experiment that served its purpose. Now, Bergerson is not sure if he would do it again, but that does not mean the trial failed. The three-day shoot using an iPhone 6S Plus in Udaipur in November 2015 was different because it allowed him eye contact with the subjects (because you don’t need to stick your eye into the viewfinder like with a camera), was more personal, less intimidating (the camera-flash-tripod triumvirate makes most people freeze with a petrified smile) and let him edit and upload pictures the way he wanted.

But was it better than shooting with a regular camera? To the untrained eye, the pictures were as good, but that’s not the complete answer.

The debate over the phone camera and the DSLR (digital single-lens reflex camera) is neither new, nor completely untenable. A DSLR, with its changeable lenses, aperture, ISO values and shutter speed control, and the ability to click multiple frames per second, can do so much more than the phone camera.

But in a digital age, where sharing is a fervently practised behaviour, the phone camera seems to be able to match up to the DSLR for the simple stuff—it’s a perfect gizmo for lazy photography.

Over the years, photography has become more than a passion or a profession; it’s a habit. The quality of pictures from phones and their ease of use are changing the very nature of photography and ensuring that you don’t need a specialized camera even if you take yourself seriously as a hobbyist.

“When people ask me what camera they should buy, I tell them to buy a phone," says Bergerson, while talking about a frequently asked amateur question.

Apple has been for some time running an entire advertising campaign on the iPhone’s camera features, with large hoardings and television commercials of beautiful pictures that say “Shot on iPhone 6". The Samsung Galaxy S7’s latest television commercial calls it “the smartphone camera that’s not afraid of the dark". The Oppo F1 Plus is named a “selfie expert". These are just a few examples.

None of these particularly advertise their sound quality or touchscreens or any other faculty normally associated with a mobile phone, either because that technology in phones has plateaued or has reached its highest level of sophistication or because buyers are more interested in the cameras.

The camera is a deal-breaker or deal-maker for a customer, says Gaurav Nigam, product head at smartphone manufacturer Lava International Ltd. He rates customer priorities in order of screen size, camera and RAM. With the camera, he says, the sequence of events during the buying process is to rotate the camera, click a picture and inspect the image. “Others take the handset to click an image in natural light because they are so particular about the cameras they want," Nigam adds.

Gadgets whose function is only to shoot pictures are fighting back as well. The two most popular DSLR brands, Nikon and Canon, have upped the ante in targeting trigger-happy sharers of images. Nikon’s D5300, launched in 2013, and Canon’s EOS 1300D, which is being heavily marketed now, both come with Wi-Fi, with the single purpose of users being able to upload pictures instantly, an advantage earlier exclusive to mobile phones.

Nikon announced earlier this year that its SnapBridge feature—it lets the camera connect to smartphones and other devices using Bluetooth—will be a part of almost every Nikon camera from this year.

“We share a lot of images these days, even for official purposes. We are clicking much more too. The DSLR has to stand out," explains Sajjan Kumar, senior vice-president, corporate sales and strategy, Nikon India.

Today’s youth is “our prized inspiration", says Kazutada Kobayashi, president and chief executive officer of Canon India, so the “strategy is inevitable considering the present times of clicking and connecting on the move".

***

Phone cameras are taking forward the revolution that digitalization brought about to photography. Old-timers recall the days of the film roll—the prohibitive costs of the film, developing the negative and printing the image meant each frame was shot after much deliberation on composition and exposure.

“Limitation allowed for creativity to flourish," says Aashish Vilekar, a teacher at the photography department of JJ School of Arts, Mumbai.

But that practice has clearly changed, with hundreds of frames being shot before deciding which ones can be kept, because removing a bad picture is just a swipe away. The stockpile of photos has increased manifold in our daily access; thousands of images are uploaded on various digital platforms, of all kinds, quality and importance.

The phones’ ease of use and carry makes photography so handy. Bergerson writes in his blog that this phone camera is as big as or even bigger than the invention of the digital camera.

“In the pocket of your shirt or in the zipper of your bag lurks no less than the most inspiring and innovative imaging system in the history of photography. For the first time we have a camera, a darkroom and an online research directory in one small device," he writes.

But quantity invariably reflects on quality. It is photography’s growth as an art form that has divided opinions. Have skills diminished because of the comfort of trial and error that digital cameras provide?

“Photography has never been so popular, but it’s getting destroyed. There have never been so many photographs taken, but photography is dying," Antonio Olmos, a London-based Mexican photographer, was quoted as saying in a Guardian article titled “The death of photography: Are camera phones destroying an art form?"

But others disagree. “Ever since cell phones came with cameras, appreciation of photography has increased tremendously," says Iqbal Mohamed, founder of Light and Life Academy in Ooty, Tamil Nadu. “The professional has to do much better photography because people’s expectations have increased. Other than techniques, aesthetics too have developed in the last five years."

The primary thing in photography is vision, he says. “Normally, most people talk about photographing a good-looking subject. There is no such concept. You can shoot anything and make it look good."

Mohamed says irrespective of the gadget used, a good photograph mainly comes from the right composition and use of light. “People are so caught up with the subject that they don’t pay attention to foreground and background," he says.

It’s perhaps the reason why some institutes have a specialized course in taking pictures with a mobile phone. At the Indian Institute of Photography in Noida, a few hundred students have enrolled since 2011 for a month-long online photography course—“Learn. Shoot. Share."—which the institute’s founder, Rajesh Goyal, claims is the first interactive course in the country, and teaches students how to “visualize, plan a shoot and fully use all the features of the phone".

Besides decision-making in taking pictures, which he says has been affected, purist and teacher Vilekar is quite open to mobile phones. In one of the campus buildings of the more-than-150-year-old JJ School of Arts, Vilekar runs his photography classes with students influenced mostly by fashion, but trying to find their niche and exploring career options.

He says just understanding a camera and what it is capable of doing can take months. Vilekar is clear that pictures from phones achieve the purpose of entertainment, but they cannot compare to a well-designed shoot with a camera. While, ultimately, understanding how to use light, frame the picture and seizing the moment define great photography, the tool in your hand does set certain physical limits.

“Taking photographs has become an easier skill, not a lesser one," says Kobayashi.

***

Most photographers agree that specialized cameras will remain irreplaceable for uses in fashion, commercial, industrial photography, and so on, but to shoot the cat in a T-shirt that gets shared on Facebook, any smartphone would do.

“With smartphones, the number of ‘clicks’ have increased considerably," says Kobayashi. “The differentiating factor becomes the quality of the images and this is where a DSLR camera scores heavily. DSLRs surely have an edge over smartphones."

But, he adds in the email, “Mobile phones and standalone cameras can definitely co-exist."

The fact is, the number of digital cameras being sold has also seen a spike in the past few years. The figures are a reflection of both buying power and interest. Canon India is aiming to achieve 50% of the market share this year, while Nikon has seen annual growth of 15-20%.

“We started in May 2007 and initially we had a market share of DSLRs at 29% and compacts 7%," says Nikon’s Kumar. “Today, we are 45% for compact and 55% in DSLR. Some years ago, it was only professional and serious hobbyists (using SLRs). Now, amateurs contribute more than 50% of the market for DSLRs."

One of the reasons could be cost. On retail websites, the cheapest iPhone 6 starts from around Rs36,000 while the Samsung Galaxy S7 starts at over Rs48,000. The Oppo F1 or the “selfie expert" costs even less, at under Rs16,000. Compare this with the Canon 1300D that comes for Rs26,000 including an 18-55mm lens (though it is pertinent to remember that a phone can also do much more).

Both Kobayashi and Kumar also credit affordability and ease of use to the increase in sales. “I think its perspective," says the Canon India CEO. “There are so many photographers who love to sport their DSLRs around their necks, as a prized possession. A DSLR photographer/user is somewhat more mature and ahead of any smartphone photographer with requisite skills so I don’t see it as a disadvantage at all (in carrying a camera which is bulkier than a phone). In fact, I see it as an attraction that has great appeal."

Camera companies say they are also making their equipment easier to use (though many would argue that they are still intimidating with their many settings and buttons), holding photography workshops to educate people and constantly making innovations that encourage buying. Canon’s Kobayashi says online sharing, ease of access, portability, light weight and downloadable apps are improvisations that have been made in cognizance with what today’s consumer wants.

Going forward, Nikon and Canon speak about 4K videos (with a resolution four times that of “full HD" videos), 360-degree image capture and touchscreen LCDs as some of the embellishments that will drive the industry.

Phone companies will match steps: Lava, for example, wants to improve on the speed of focusing so that a user can take more pictures in the space of seconds. Samsung is already focusing heavily on selfies, having added selfie flash, motion photo, beauty mode and more features for “clicking perfect selfies", says Manu

Sharma, director of mobile business, Samsung India Electronics. The low aperture (f/1.7) with a wider lens helps you take brighter and better selfies and the spotlight selfie feature provides consumers a studio-like environment with virtual light source, he adds.

“Cell phones can probably never match DSLRs," says Mohamed, “but each will continue doing research and taking their technology further and higher."

For those who don’t understand what the big deal is, there is a social significance to this picture obsession. As Ananda Banerjee found out in “The ugly side of wildlife photography", people with cameras can be a nuisance in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

There are stalkers outside changing rooms, as Union minister Smriti Irani alleged in Goa last April.

Movie stars are struggling to deal with the literally in-your-face intrusion, like Salman Khan, who snatched a fan’s phone as it poked too close to him a few years ago.

Selfies have proved to be vain and dangerous.

A recent incident puts various phenomena—cell phones, narcissism, photography and social media—into perspective.

On a tram journey in Hong Kong, a young woman used a selfie stick to take pictures with a background of mountains, the sea and tall buildings. She struck the kind of pose and expressions that seems to be in fashion these days while taking a self-image: you look like you have sucked in your breath, took a shot of botox and frozen your face.

She explained that she needed to click several pictures and would check later which one or ones had the right blend of expression, light and background.

She did not lower her selfie stick once during the 10-minute journey. She did not look at the mountains in front of the tram or the sea behind it.

She almost justified what Vilekar says—with a phone, “all images are accidents".

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Published: 21 May 2016, 11:27 PM IST
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