iOS 17 is getting two big new photography upgrades

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

iPHONE 15: What you need to know

Two of Apple’s new photography options are coming to more than just the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, thanks to an iOS 17 update that will be available very soon.

Announced at the iPhone event this week, Apple now boasts two new photography options. There’s a new 12MP ProRAW option and a new HEIF Max 48MP option for taking photos.

The former lets you access the added editing power of RAW images without the massive size of those big 48MP images. RAW files have greater bit depth, allowing for more colors, which in turn leads to better variation in color and smoother gradients. Basically, the photos look better. The latter will let users take HEIF (high-efficiency image file format) photos in 48MP format, allowing users to capture larger and more detailed images without the huge storage drain. You’re average 48MP ProRAW image takes up 75MB of storage, a HEIF file only uses 5MB.

More flexibility

These are two welcome new additions to iOS 17 that will benefit users beyond iPhone 15. Notably, the HEIF Max photos (48MP) will let iPhone 14 Pro users show off that larger sensor without draining all of their storage. Meanwhile, ProRAW 12MP files will let budding photographers on older iPhones create even greater edits of their shots. iOS 17 is coming on September 18.

There were also a couple of big hardware upgrades to iPhone photography announced this week. iPhone 15 will get the stunning 48MP camera from the iPhone 14 Pro, a really welcome addition. Meanwhile the iPhone 15 Pro Max benefits from 5x optical zoom and some pretty wild image stabilization too. You can pre-order the iPhone 15 from Friday, and the release date is September 22.

We’re covering all the Apple iPhone 15 event news and reactions now that Wonderlust is over. Don’t miss all our iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, iOS 17and watchOS 10 coverage so far.

The Power of Creative Restraints in Photography

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Have you ever packed the perfect kit for a trip only to feel weighed down by too many lens options? Or maybe you’re wandering around with a trusty zoom lens and end up missing shots while deciding which focal length to go for? This video succinctly explains why creative restraints – not flexibility – are often the key to achieving creative focus.

In one of his shorter videos, Pat Kay takes less than six minutes to explain how creative restraints can fuel your output as a photographer. After breaking down the basics of creative limitations, such as using primes instead of zooms, he goes on to explain that deliberately placing creative restraints on your photographic approach can boost focus and accelerate your progress. So, more than simply picking up a fast 50mm prime to limit focal length choice, he’s talking about having clear goals and setting limitations that will push you in the right direction.

As someone who almost exclusively shoots with prime lenses, I spent a lot of time doing the former. Almost as soon as I bought my first camera, I shot with every prime I could get my hands on before I even understood the characteristics of focal lengths. As a result, it actually took me longer to reach the point where I had clear goals and could place informed creative restraints on my photography – not only in terms of gear, but also my approach.

Are you the kind of photographer who likes to work with creative restraints or is flexibility a better asset for you?

‘Sexual experimentation was central to our lives’: Chloe Sherman’s best photograph

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

I moved to San Francisco in my early 20s and fell in love with it: the vibe, the ocean, the hills. It’s a big city on small terrain and feels like nowhere else. But it also gave me access to something I longed for: a diverse, vibrant and radical queer community. It was shocking how many people made up the queer scene in San Francisco in the 1990s, which is when this image was taken. It all felt so fast; there was so much going on. I would walk out of the house and immediately run into people I knew. On any given night of the week, there was a club night, event or show that people would be at – often more than one.

We lived in tight circles of friends but our extended networks were vast and constantly overlapping. People moved in and out of your life; you drifted apart and you came together again. Our lives revolved around the Mission District, a predominantly Latin neighbourhood in the heart of the city.

I can’t recall exactly when I met Dusty and Mary, the couple in this photo. I lived with Dusty in a houseshare for a few years. Mary was a friend of a friend before becoming Dusty’s partner, and spent a lot of time at our place.

I carried my camera everywhere at the time. Photography was a casual, spontaneous, integrated part of my communication with somebody – it was built into the fabric of my life. On this day, we were leaving the house we shared when I saw Dusty and Mary sitting in this car and knew I had to capture it. The car was an old white Rambler that seemed to make the rounds of San Francisco’s queer scene. Few of us owned our own cars – we all shared. I was struck by how beautiful they looked.

I love the colour and composition. There’s a lick of red pulling from the right foreground into the centre of the image. It’s like an invitation into a new world, like looking into a snow globe. And there, right in the centre, you have Dusty and Mary, staring directly at you with this smouldering gaze. I took a whole roll of shots. In those pre-digital days, you never knew what you had. Taking rolls to be developed felt like an Easter egg hunt. But this image stood out because of its sheer emotional warmth.

Dusty and Mary loved the shot. It became a ritual among my friendship group to share images and hand out prints. We would sit and look at this archive of our lives. In retrospect, it was such a gift to have been able to reflect on our life as we lived it. I think it added a kind of excitement and pride about the lives and community we had built.

It’s not just their intimacy that strikes me now; it’s also how perfectly it captured a specific time in San Francisco’s history. Dusty and Mary were an iconic butch-femme couple, and their look is so distinctly 90s – Mary in the slip, Dusty in that archetypally masculine white vest. It’s both a document of my personal history and a document of queer life at a specific moment in the city’s history.

This was a time when a queer community couldn’t be located easily online. To find people like you, you moved to cities like San Francisco. It’s easy to see, in retrospect, that this was a turning point for LGBTQ+ rights: it was long before marriage equality, but I think we were aware, even at the time, that we were part of a broad cultural shift. The world we lived in was a pretty radical counterculture: experimentation in terms of sexuality and gender was central to our lives, and we were not embraced by the outside world.

In preparing these images for the new book, I’ve been really struck by the reaction of the new queer generation. There’s a hunger for seeing and understanding their queer history, and for a glimpse of the lives that came before them. I hope my work helps to archive and contribute to our collective history.

Renegades. San Francisco: the 1990s is published by Hatje Cantz

Chloe Sherman’s CV

Born: New York, 1969
Trained: “Fine art photography degree at the San Francisco Art Institute”
Influences: Dorothea Lange, Mary Ellen Mark, Del LaGrace Volcano, Nan Goldin, Eugene Richards, Alex Webb, Lewis Hine, Henri Cartier-Bresson
High point: “Hearing feedback that my work has moved, inspired, or empowered someone”
Low point: “My transition from film to digital. I struggled with the new technology and gear – and missed the formatting and tactile experience of film”
Top tip: “A great shot is sometimes the quiet, ordinary or unexpected moment. Observe behind the scenes, where the story is often more intimate and intriguing”

How Bham Film Walk is making film photography popular again in Birmingham

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Local photographer Mack McCollum at the Bham Film Walk in August. (Nathan Watson)

By now, it’s no big secret that film photography—yes, like your parents’ old 35mm cameras—is making a huge comeback. Across the world, a growing community of photographers are setting down their new digital cameras in favor of their simpler analog predecessors. Birmingham is no exception.

Learn more about the Bham Film Walk and see how you can join.

The rising popularity of film photography

Local film photographers at a Bham Film Walk meetup near Lakeview. (Photo by Blake Calhoun, taken on a Canon P with Ilford HP5)

Over the past decade, film photography has seen a massive resurgence in popularity across the globe. Whether it’s the “film look”, the analog process, the anticipation of seeing your scans—or a little of all three—there’s something about film photography that is appealing to a new generation of photographers.

“I catch myself thinking that people just want to shoot film because they’re influenced by Instagram and YouTube, but there is more to it. A lot of young people have not experienced analog or physical forms of art, and I think they want to. Physical arts—like film photography, painting, hand/writing poems or journaling—have the ability to romanticize memory in a way digital forms can’t. I think a lot of people are looking to hold their memories tight in the modern world.”

Mack McCollum, Photographer and Bham Film Walk attendee

Seth Kuntz using a Yashica TLR at a Bham Film Walk. (Photo by Mason Criswell on a Fujifilm X-T3)

Unlike the instant gratification of digital photography, film forces the photographer to separate the moment from the results. In addition, the limitations of film—either 24 or 36 photos on a standard roll of 35mm film—requires photographers to choose each shot carefully and deliberately.

“Film photography has always intrigued me because it is tangible, organic and has a life of its own. Film is making a resurgence because technology consumes every aspect of our lives in today’s world. The art of waiting has been lost. I feel film helps keep patience alive in today’s instant world. There is value in that.”

Leigh Ann Edmonds, Photographer and Bham Film Walk attendee

Last year, local residents Jake Patrick and Jordan Higgins opened the first professional film lab in Birmingham in years—Electra Film Lab. In addition to developing and scanning film, Electra Film Lab has begun selling 35mm and 120 film that you can’t find anywhere else locally.

“All of the greatest photographers shot with film, and the medium’s chemical and physical nature brought life to their art and message. I think of all the artists who inspire me—Robert Frank, Dorothea Lange, William Eggleston and Fan Ho—and how their use of film created art that matters. Each shot is precious and each story mattered. That inspires me to use it, too.”

Mack McCollum, Photographer and Bham Film Walk attendee

Enter Bham Film Walk

Local photographers Noah Ray and Blake Calhoun had the idea for a film walk community in Birmingham during a recent couple’s trip to Chicago with their wives (coincidentally both named Rachel!)

“The four of us brought our film cameras to a Chicago Bears game and got some great shots at the tailgate and walking around the streets of Chicago. When we were walking back, I asked, ‘Why don’t we have something like this in Birmingham?’ Chicago is a lot like Birmingham—sure, the streets of Birmingham aren’t as crowded, but the architecture is there.”

Noah Ray, Co-Founder, BhamFilmWalk

Local photographers meeting up before embarking on the film walk, taken with Ilford HP5 in a Nikon F2. (Nathan Watson)

Noah and Rachel—who run a successful wedding photography business in Birmingham—put out a poll in their Instagram to see if anyone else would be interested in a community film walk in The Magic City.

“We got a really good response, so we were looking forward to our first official film walk in January. Then, the day comes and it’s terrible weather—17 degrees and sleeting. Only two other people showed up, and we walked before it started raining so much we were forced to go inside. After that we thought the film walk was a terrible idea, but we decided to give it one more month. February rolls around and we’re meeting at Paramount. When we turned the corner, we saw more than 25 people standing outside—we knew then that it was really happening.”

Noah Ray, Co-Founder, BhamFilmWalk

What to expect at a Film Walk

Noah Ray (second from the left) talking with Blake and Rachel Calhoun. (Photo by Brandon Chalmers, Ilford HP5 on a Canon A1)

Held each month, the Bham Film Walk is an opportunity to meet new people interested in film photography, to ask and answer questions, to be inspired by incredibly talented photographers and—most importantly—to take photos.

Typically, a Bham Film Walk event kicks off at a local establishment, such as Black Market Bar & Grill in Five Points South, Paramount in downtown Birmingham and The Lumbar in Pepper Place. After giving attendees some time to arrive and catch up, Noah and Blake will give a short introduction to any new members before the group embarks on the walk.

(Photo by Russell Marbut, Canon AE-1 Program + Portra 400)

Although Noah and Blake plan out a tentative path for the walk, attendees are encouraged to explore the area on their own or with other members of the group. Eventually, the Film Walk attendees will reunite at another local establishment for food, drinks and visiting.

“Whether you’re an experienced photographer or its your first time picking up a camera, I want people to know that everyone is welcome at each Bham Film Walk event. Its a place where you can feel free to ask any questions you might have about film photography—sometimes I don’t even take any photos because I spend the whole time catching up with friends and meeting new people!”

Blake Calhoun, Co-Founder, Bham Film Walk

Want to join the next BhamFilmWalk? Here’s what you’ll need.

Obviously, you’ll need a film camera. Film cameras can range in price from $40 plastic Holga 120’s to $50,000 special edition Leica’s, so what’s the best option for you? First, I’d recommend reaching out to family to see if they have an old film camera laying around. If not, check local Facebook Marketplace listings and antique stores—you might find one! If that doesn’t work, eBay is usually a safe bet—just make sure you read the description carefully.

Pro Tip: Want to buy a film camera locally? Check out B Photo Supply and Framing in Pell City or Chris Barrett’s showcase at Hanna’s Antiques Mall in Birmingham.

Some popular film cameras for beginners include:

Canon AE-1 or AE-1 Program
Olympus OM-1
Minolta X700
Pentax K1000
Pentax Spotmatic
Nikon F

I’d recommend testing the camera to make sure it works before buying it. Google is your friend here. Once you have a camera, you just need a few more things!

That’s all you’ll need! Watch some videos to figure out how to load, use and unload your camera. Then, drop your film off at Electra Film Lab or send it off in the mail. Indie Film Lab and Southerland’s are both located in Alabama as well.

The next Bham Film Walk event is scheduled for Sunday, September 17th! Follow the Bham Film Walk Instagram to learn more about the upcoming event!

Museum Drops Ban on Photographing Picasso’s ‘Guernica’

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Man looking at Guernica — A visitor examines Pablo Picasso’s *Guernica* during the partial reopening of the Reina Sofía Museum in June 2020, which followed several months of pandemic closures.
Denis Doyle / Getty Images

In 1992, Pablo Picasso’s 26-foot-long painting Guernica arrived at Spain’s Reina Sofía Museum. Since then, museum officials have enforced a rule: No photos.

Now, nearly three decades later, the museum has lifted the ban, reports Euronews’ Rebecca Ann Hughes. Visitors have been allowed to photograph the famous 1937 oil painting since September 1.

“Our intention was simply that it could be done normally, not to announce it to the press or anything, because photos are already permitted throughout the museum, as in all the great museums in the world,” Manuel Segade, the museum’s new director, tells the state news agency Efe, per the London Times’ Isambard Wilkinson.

Previously, the room holding Guernica was the only area of the building where photography was prohibited, reports Hyperallergic’s Maya Pontone. Even now, visitors are banned from using flashes and stabilization devices like tripods or selfie sticks.

Museum officials hope that changing the policy will help prevent crowding in the room, which only allows 70 visitors in at a time.

“It only takes a few seconds to take a selfie, and so the pace of the public will flow more,” a spokesperson tells the Times. “It does not damage the painting, but rather prevents crowds and people trying to take a covert shot while the guards in the room reprimand them. It will improve the visitor experience.”

Over the years, the museum has made some exceptions to the rule. Last year, for example, Mick Jagger prompted criticism by posing for a quick photo in front of the painting during a private viewing, according to the Art Newspaper’s Gareth Harris.

Guernica has been a main attraction at the Reina Sofía since its arrival in 1992. One of Picasso’s most celebrated works, the painting depicts the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. It’s named for the Spanish city of Guernica, which Germany bombed in 1937 in support of General Francisco Franco. As Smithsonian magazine’s Jason Daley wrote in 2017, “It was one of the first times that a civilian population was targeted by aerial bombing.”

Picasso created the large-scale black-and-white work in about a month and a half. It remains “a timeless, universal symbol, vilifying the implacable and criminal destruction of war, and opening artistic debate on the representation of armed conflict,” per the Reina Sofía’s website.

Segade thinks that dropping the photo ban will help the museum align its values with modern-day technological norms.

“[We] are constantly mediated by cameras—when we go to a concert, when we go to any cultural event,” Segade tells Euronews. “We believe that it doesn’t make sense that Guernica doesn’t have the same iconic character it deserves.”

He adds, “I would like us to reach 100 percent photographic accessibility, especially for a young audience that lives filtered by a screen. I think it is also important to pay attention to their way of approaching reality.”

Fires, floods and fallen leaves: Wednesday’s best photos

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Amizmiz in Al Haouz, Morocco

A member of Morocco’s auxiliary forces embraces an woman arriving to receive aid after the deadly earthquake in the High Atlas mountains

Photograph: Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images

S.F. artist gets ‘messy’ and moves even farther away from traditional photography in latest work

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Artist Klea McKenna looks over various pieces for upcoming gallery shows while at her studio in San Francisco on Aug. 17, 2023.

Photo: Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Like many artists, Klea McKenna felt her creative practice shift and evolve in surprising new directions during the COVID pandemic.

The San Francisco experimental photographer, whose latest body of work is currently on view in the exhibition “Vessel” at Euqinom Gallery, gave birth to her second child four months before the lockdown. When her studio space in the Minnesota Street Project temporarily closed its doors, curtailing interactions with her creative peers, and the city’s schools shut down, she started working on the rooftop of her Bernal Heights apartment.

Yet, McKenna said that during the time of global uncertainty, she embraced an explosion of new materials and techniques, perhaps in response to everything from the changes in her own postpartum body, psyche and family structure to the disorienting new status quo of a fractured world on pause and effectively holding its breath for better news.

“I could feel I was in the throes of a major shift in my work,” McKenna told the Chronicle on a recent morning in her Dogpatch studio.

Test samples of fabric dye coat pieces of paper on a workbench inside Klea McKenna’s studio in San Francisco. The first book of her work, Witness Mark, will be published in September.

Photo: Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

She described augmenting her hand-embossed, black-and-white photograms (camera-less prints on light-sensitive paper) with bold, saturated colors like violet and blood red. McKenna also explored the potential of a wider array of historical and everyday found objects: flea market paintings, vintage handkerchiefs, even mass-manufactured cardboard boxes (which take on a weightier, medical symbolism when one knows they were originally filled with latex gloves or tissues).

Unexpectedly, the photoreliefs she’d become best known for, of natural elements such as rain, tree rings and spider webs, grew layered with painting, collage and intaglio printing, moving toward an unexpected maximalism and even further removed from traditional photography.

“Klea doesn’t call herself a painter, but these are paintings,” said Euqinom founder and director Monique Deschaines at the “Vessel” opening reception on Sept. 9. “And she doesn’t use a camera, but they are also photographs. Her work is impossible to categorize.”

Details and notes for her work hang inside artist Klea McKenna’s studio in San Francisco on Aug. 17. The first book of her work, Witness Mark, will be published in September.

Photo: Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

In the Euqinom show, womanly breasts, nipples and womb-like curves appear alongside terraced shapes and voids reminiscent of Incan or Navajo geometry.

“I stopped compartmentalizing so much and let my identities and interests all bleed together,” McKenna explained. “I just knew that what I was making reflected my moment. And whatever else the prolonged moment of the last three years has been, for myself and I think for a lot of us, it’s certainly felt pretty chaotic and messy.”

Embracing that messiness, and continuing to chart her path “away from straight photography” since graduating from San Francisco’s California College of the Arts in 2009, McKenna is now experiencing her own prolonged moment of art-world success and recognition. Just this year, she was one of only 15 American photographers to receive a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.

Artist Klea McKenna’s first book of work, Witness Mark, is seen at her studio in San Francisco on Aug. 17.

Photo: Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

As “Vessels” is on view, she has also released her first monograph, “Klea McKenna: Witness Mark.” Published by Saint Lucy Books, it covers five distinct bodies of her work from roughly 2013 to 2019, and includes an illuminating essay by Oakland photographic historian Corey Keller.

More Information

Klea McKenna: Witness Mark
Text by Corey Keller, Vanessa Kauffman Zimmerly, Leah Ollman and Klea McKenna
(Saint Lucy Books; 230 pages; $50)

“Klea McKenna: Witness Mark” book release event: A panel discussion, reading and book signing with Klea McKenna, Corey Keller, Leah Ollman and Vanessa Kauffman Zimmerly. 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14. Free, but must RSVP to info@euqinomgallery.com. Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota St., S.F.

“VESSEL: Julia Goodman & Klea McKenna”: 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Through Oct. 28. 49 Geary St., Suite 417, S.F. www.euqinomgallery.com

“I love that I have a book now where I can just show you what I’m talking about,” McKenna said, reaching for a fresh copy of “Witness Mark” beside her studio desk and flipping to an image from her “Faultlines” series. The hand-embossed imprints of natural cracks she found in rocks or cement, which she “rubbed” on photographic paper with other women at night in darkness before exposing the images to light, help illustrate her unusual process.

McKenna fell in love with camera-less photograms around 2007, out of an exasperation with an art world smitten at the time with large-format, hyperrealistic color photography. Digital images had never been easier to shoot, retouch and disseminate, and yet she felt frustrated with the medium’s predictability.

“I would go out and find the perfect thing to photograph, but where was the magic in taking a picture and getting it back only to confirm it looks exactly like what you saw when you took it? I wanted there to be some alchemy in the process,” she said.

Artist Klea McKenna stands among her artwork while working on various pieces for upcoming gallery shows while at her studio in San Francisco Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. The first book of her work, Witness Mark, will be published in September. Photo: Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

It’s a sentiment shared by other celebrated photographers, like the Bay Area’s Megan Riepenhoff, Chris McCaw and Binh Danh, who have also embraced older, physical and entirely analog processes.

McKenna said she landed on photograms as her medium of choice because they were a way to make one-of-a-kind images that emphasize touch rather than sight, a distinguishing feature of her work within the primarily visual medium of photography. Viewers can’t help but wonder about the physical labor — all the rubbing, buffing and burnishing — that created it.

The enigmatic images of tree rings in her “Automatic Earth” series resemble an unknown coastline or topographic map, while in “Rain Studies,” she’s captured abstract swaths of raindrops as they fall through the night sky. Working at night in Hawaii and here at home, exposing the paper by flashlight, some drops read as perfect crystalline teardrops, others blurred in motion or as small pointillist dots ready to burst.

“They were meant to create a cross-sensory experience, to convey the feeling of standing in the pouring rain, even the sound of it,” said McKenna.

Artist Klea McKenna works on various pieces for upcoming gallery shows while at her studio in San Francisco.

Photo: Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

These various bodies of work are the product of touch and were by necessity created in darkness, their final reveal in the darkroom giving McKenna the surprise factor she longed for as a grad student disenchanted with the easy, no-stakes perfection of digital technology.

She ascribes her “comfort with darkness” to a “deeply bohemian” childhood, spent moving at a young age between rural west Sonoma County and an off-the-grid, one-room hexagonal home her parents built “on the side of a volcano in Kona, Hawaii.”

The daughter of ethnobotanists Kathleen Harrison and the late Terence McKenna, a famous early advocate for the transformational potential of psychedelics, she said her parents instilled in her a deep awareness of nature’s intricate and potent patterns. It’s in the unexpected beauty found in texture and in light that still fuels her creative process.

“At the apex of the wooden ceiling was a giant skylight in the shape of a prism,” McKenna writes in a personal essay on “Light” in her new book, remembering her childhood Hawaiian home. “In the absence of electricity, our days were timed with the sun. Inside my eyelids I still see sunlight filtered through a scarf pinned up over a window.”

Jessica Zack is a freelance writer.

Jessica Zack

Extraordinary World Of Microscopic Photography

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

The procedure itself can be soothing for photographers who are really engrossed in the world of microscopic photography. The razor-sharp concentration needed to capture these short moments promotes mindfulness and a close relationship with the topic. It serves as a reminder that beauty exists on all scales and that, occasionally, slowing down to see the minute can result in the most profound insights.

A reminder that there is more to the world than meets sight, microscopic photography invites the viewer to investigate the invisible. We are taken into a world of patterns, colors, and textures through the lenses of these accomplished photographers, challenging our perceptions and broadening our perspectives. Take a minute the next time you’re in nature to consider the hidden beauty that can be found in even the smallest spaces. Microscopic photography enables us to fully appreciate this beauty.

Incremental iPhone 15 Improvements Focus on Photography and Connectivity

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

At its Wonderlust event on 12 September 2023, Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 lineup with primarily incremental improvements. In keeping with last year’s approach, Apple introduced the 6.1-inch iPhone 15 and 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Plus along with the 6.1-inch iPhone 15 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Pro Max. The third-generation iPhone SE, iPhone 13, and iPhone 14 remain available to provide lower-cost options (see “Apple Unveils Four Models of the iPhone 14,” 7 September 2022). The iPhone 13 mini disappears from the mix, sadly marking the end of Apple’s 5.4-inch iPhones.

You can pre-order the new iPhone 15 models on Friday, 15 September 2023, and they’ll be available a week later on 22 September 2023.

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus

Although Apple continues to innovate more on the Pro end of the lineup, the basic iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus improve on their predecessors in various ways, some in part due to the adoption of the A16 Bionic chip from the iPhone 14 Pro.

USB-C: The most apparent change, shared by the Pro models, is the replacement of the Lightning port with USB-C for charging and data transfer. Unsurprisingly, Apple focused on the benefits of USB-C and made no mention of the EU’s requirement that all electronics use a common charger starting in 2024.
Dynamic Island: The iPhone 15 gains the Dynamic Island that debuted last year in the iPhone 14 Pro. It’s a subtle but effective way to display alerts and Live Activities in the area surrounding the camera and sensor package at the top of the screen, eliminating the need for a distracting notch.
48-megapixel camera: In a significant jump, the iPhone 15 gets a 48-megapixel camera that promises better photos than the previous generation’s 12-megapixel camera. By default, it combines pixels for a 24-megapixel image bolstered by computational photography. It also provides an effective 2x telephoto option by using just the 12 megapixels in the center of the sensor, giving the iPhone 15 optical-quality zoom levels of 0.5x, 1x, and 2x.
Computational photography improvements: The camera now detects people, dogs, and cats and captures depth information for Portrait mode, which can be applied after the fact. It’s also possible to adjust the focal point after the fact. Other changes improve photos taken in Night mode and using Smart HDR.
Roadside Assistance via satellite: This expansion to Emergency SOS via satellite enables iPhone 15 users suffering car problems in areas without cellular coverage to call for assistance. Access to satellite services is included for 2 years, and AAA membership in the US covers the roadside service. Those who aren’t AAA members will be able to purchase service separately.
Second-generation UWB chip: Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip enables Precision Finding at three times the range as before when used to locate other devices with the second-generation chip. That makes Precision Finding with Find My Friends practical in crowds.

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will be available in pink, yellow, green, blue, and black in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB storage capacities, starting at $799 and $899, respectively.

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

As much as many people bemoan the cost of Apple products, Apple does very well selling premium products at premium prices. Nowhere is that more evident than with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, where Apple charges $200 more than the base model for innovative features. Along with the Roadside Assistance via satellite and second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, the Pro-only features this year include:

A17 Pro chip: The latest version of Apple’s iPhone (and likely iPad) chip offers 10% faster CPU performance (than last year’s A16 Bionic), twice the Neural Engine performance, and a new 6-core GPU design that’s 20% faster. There’s also a dedicated AV1 decoder for better streaming video experiences. If you do things on your iPhone that seem slow now—video streaming or mobile gaming, perhaps—you’ll appreciate the new chip. Either way, it will quickly become the new normal.
USB-C with USB 3 speeds: Although all iPhone 15 models have a USB-C port, the iPhone 15 Pro models support USB 3 transfer speeds of 10 gigabits per second. That also allows video output up to 4K at 60 frames per second.
Wi-Fi 6e and Thread support: For those needing maximum wireless performance, Apple says the iPhone 15 Pro’s support for Wi-Fi 6e can provide up to twice the bandwidth. Thread support could enable future opportunities for Home app integrations.
Titanium exterior: I’m not one to gush about different materials, mainly because most phones end up in protective cases, but Apple made a big deal about how the iPhone 15 Pro features an aerospace-grade titanium exterior and aluminum interior for strength, durability, and reduced weight. Both models are only 19 grams lighter—about the weight of four credit cards—and while that’s welcome, it’s not game-changing.
Action button: Apple replaced the Ring/Silent switch with a customizable Action button, activated by pressing and holding. By default, it still puts the iPhone into silent mode, but you can set what you want it to do, such as activate Voice Memos, set Focus modes, access the camera or flashlight, enable Accessibility options, or launch a Shortcut. It features haptic feedback and shows visual cues in the Dynamic Island.
Better photos: Both models of the iPhone 15 Pro get an even better 48-megapixel camera and receive the same computational photography upgrades as the base models that provide 24-megapixel default photos, better low-light photos in Night mode, more vibrant images with Smart HDR, and automatic Portrait mode. But the iPhone 15 Pro Max gains a 5x Telephoto camera thanks to a tetraprism design—the rumored “periscope” camera.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will be available in four finishes: black titanium, white titanium, blue titanium, and natural titanium. The iPhone 15 Pro starts at $999 for 128 GB, with 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB storage options. The iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1199 for 256 GB, with 512 GB and 1 TB storage options. Last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max started at $1099, but that was for 128 GB, which is no longer an option, so the prices are comparable. Or, if you take inflation into account, lower.

Upgrade Decisions

Last year, we suggested that there wasn’t much reason to upgrade to the iPhone 14, but the iPhone 14 Pro, with its 48-megapixel camera, Always-On display, and Dynamic Island, was more compelling. This year, I think the reverse is true.

Because the iPhone 15 gains the A16 Bionic chip, 48-megapixel camera, Dynamic Island, and computational photography improvements, it’s an easier upgrade decision if you’re coming from an iPhone 12 or iPhone 13. It’s harder to recommend upgrading from an iPhone 14 that’s only a year old, but even that jump is likely something you’ll notice.

However, the improvements in the iPhone 15 Pro over the iPhone 14 Pro are likely to be appreciated mostly by professionals. Most people won’t notice the increased performance of the A17 Pro, USB 3, and Wi-Fi 6e. As always, the camera improvements will gain a wide fan base, but the 5x Telephoto camera is available only on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and many people (like me) who would otherwise appreciate it would never consider such a large phone.

As such, I can’t recommend most people upgrade from an iPhone 14 Pro, and only the camera improvements and Action button tempt me to trade mine in. If you’re using an iPhone 13 Pro or anything older, it’s an easier decision because you’d also gain the features that set the iPhone 14 Pro apart.

Where do you come down on the upgrade decision?

Photography Council Lunchtime Talk: Will Matsuda

Sep 13, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Free and open to the public

Portland Art Museum’s Photography Council invites you to the upcoming Lunchtime Photography Talk featuring photographer Will Matsuda. He will discuss his practice and current projects, thoughts on expanding the genre of family portraiture, and strategies surrounding photographing climate change.

Will Matsuda (b. 1993) is a photographer and writer focusing on Japanese-American culture, his family, and the environment. His work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, and The New Yorker, among many other publications. A photograph from his series Hanafuda appeared on the cover of the Spring 2022 issue of Aperture magazine. His works have been exhibited internationally by Aperture Foundation and Yancey Richardson Gallery. He is based in Portland, Oregon, where he was born and raised.

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