Riding the November breeze on the alkali plain. Wendover, Utah 2011. Some new black and white work. So excited to finally get this one out there!

Prints are available here: http://shop.colerise.com

The potential for "focus-later" photography is very exciting - Photoshop can only go so far to correct unintentionally blurry shots, and the idea of letting anyone re-focus your image after-the-fact opens up a new door to get spatially creative. So, when my 8GB Lytro finally arrived, i was jumping at the bit to take it up a mountain to see how it performed. Here's what i learned...

 

Focus: Pretty easy. 
Lytro, much like an iPhone, lets you tap to focus on the view screen. Yep, there is some focusing involved, but let's call it "weighted focus." You tap to tell it where you want most of the focus to be, and it handles the rest. It's certainly not precise in any way, but it's pretty straight-forward to use without having to read the manual.

 

Macro: Impressive. 
Getting up close is not a problem, and the depth of field is super shallow. Sweet. Macro seems to provide the better example for the "focus-later" feature.

 

Image control: Limited.
Lytro doesn't have shutter or aperture control. It seems to rely on a best guess depending on lighting conditions, which is awesome for some, but limiting for serious photographers. 

 

Zoom: Awesome, but hard to find / use.
Lytro has one heck of a range, from 45mm all the way in to 300mm, or 8x optical, which lets you get in real close without actually being close. This works really well when you're trying not to scare deer. The act of physically zooming, however, is slow, taking multiple swipes of the finger across the top of the viewfinder. Not so great when you need to zoom in quick before the deer runs off. Note: I had to read the manual to figure out how to zoom, only after overhearing someone say it had a zoom feature.

 

Low-light performance: Not so much. 
Even with it's F2.0 aperture, the photos are pretty noisy in low-light conditions. The ISO automatically adjusts for you, as expected. The photo above is taken at ISO 3200.

 

Resolution: Sooo small... 
This puppy outputs photos at 1080x1080, or about 1.2 megapixels. Quality-wise they're not to sharp either, but I wasn't expecting much from a camera defining a whole new category of consumer photography. I'm sure it'll improve with the next version.

 

View screen: Low resolution, super hard to see in daylight.
Oh dear, this thing's hard to see outside. It's like trying to take photos with first generation iPod Nano, and that's probably generous. After a couple hours of use, switching back to the iPhone's retina display was shockingly refreshing, like jumping into a cold pool after the hot tub.

 

In short...
Cool new toy! It's pretty, simple to use, easy to hold, the technology works, and it's easy to share. If you're looking for quality, wait for the next verison. I want this on my iPhone.

You'll have to literally save this one for a rainy day. This little trick requires one of my favorite iPhone apps, Slow Shutter Cam (iTunes link), and an evening rain shower.

Make sure you set the camera to capture in "Light Trail" mode, set the Sensitivity (shutter speed) to 1 or 1/2 a second, and turn your LED flash on.

Oh and be smart... bring something to dry yourself and your phone off. Both you and it are going to get soaked.

the feeling on the mountain reminded me of the beach as a kid... my head on the blanket, studying the sand. shot with a detached lens.

I have to say, sunsets are harsh. High-contrast yellows, oranges, reds... for someone who tends to shoot natural light in storms or fog, it's not something i'm entirely comfortable shooting or editing. Throw in a raging brush fire? Alright, we'll adapt.

Racing the sun, we parked and sprinted up this rather steep hill with about 30 lbs of equipment. To get everything in focus and to compensate for the incredible amount of light hitting the sensor, i promptly stopped all the way down to F10. An aperture that small blows your depth of field wide open so you're sure to get some detail in both the foreground & background. It also creates a lovely star burst when you're pointed directly at the sun, which Siskel and Ebert give two thumbs up.

Additionally, with most of the light coming from behind the model, I had to use a flash fill to expose her face and the forground. Otherwise, we're just seeing a pretty silhouette.

aaaaand... CLICK.

(Fun Fact: I destroyed a brand new an air mattress and tore a foot long rip in my pant leg in the 15 minutes we were on the hill. The air mattress was used for some earlier falling shots. Did i mention it was raining burning embers?)

In post, it took a while to find the right colors and treatment for this shot. Turns out the trick was to desaturate the colors a bit, compensate for the high-contrast with some milkier tones, and fight the fiery reds with subtle blues and magentas.

Above is the end result.

Model: the amazing Kayla Varley

Here's an easy trick - just hold your sunglasses at an angle in front of your iPhone lens so that they catch the reflection of your surroundings. Not only will your iPhone look and feel stylish, it'll take an interesting photo or two.

Here are two examples using the reflections of the forest canopy above to fill in the shadows and compensate for the high-contrast sunlight breaking through the trees. The photos were then put through the Cross Process app. Easy peasy.

the result of a shoot in front of a raging brush fire, sparked by a plane crash that claimed two lives. twelve houses were destroyed as tens of thousands of acres burned over three days.

model: kayla varley (http://www.flickr.com/photos/photokayla/)

 

wouldn't mind this as a backyard...

It's true, tiny pocket robots are becoming more powerful.

You'll need three things:

1. The right app - I'm currently using the Slow Shutter Cam app for iPhone. Sure there are other apps, but as of right now, this one's by far the best. Easy to use. Great design.
2. A steady phone - Highly recommend the Glif tripod mount. You can also try balancing your phone on something solid, but it might limit your ability to frame the photo, let alone tap the screen without moving it.
3. Patience - Rocks excel at this. Girlfriends being attacked by gnats do not. Though, as you'll see, she did a top notch job standing still considering the circumstances.

It may also take a bit of pride-swallowing while your dinky phone sits atop a huge tripod. But the result's probably worth it:

Now compare those to this behind-the-scenes shot, taken at normal exposure with your standard point-n-shoot...