iPhone 4 Camera Review

Written by Mel McLellan

As you know, we've been making a greater attempt to take personal photos since Seven came along.  The challenge however, is always having a camera on us!  Our DSLRs are huge and not practical for us on an everyday basis.  We've had the Canon G10 and tried to keep it in the diaper bag, but it gets taken out to download images and doesn't always get put back in.  Besides, even the diaper bag is not always handy.  The most practical thing, as I'm sure you've all experienced, is to take photos with your cell phone because quite frankly, we're attached at the hip to those things!  Here's the thing though - I HATE cell phone photos!  The quality always sucks and then there they are - your memories - in awful little cell phone photo form.  Ugh!  This has always been the case, until the release of the iPhone 4.  I can finally say that I feel good about taking our family photos and videos with my cell phone!  Below are some examples of images taken with the iPhone 4.  So that it would be a true comparison to the images you normally see on our blog, I've brought them into photoshop and done what we normally do with minimal dodging, burning, and retouching. This is in our room with large windows facing my sleeping subjects.

Still in our room but with the window light behind him.  There's a little motion blur in this instance but no more than I would expect to see from the G10.

Outside it does tremendously! (Not feeling so positively about the pool unfortunately.)

This is in a bathroom with no windows and fairly dim light.  It took a few tries with a jerky, jumpy baby to get a capture that wasn't blurry but it is possible, even in those conditions.  There's quite a bit of "grain" to the image but not enough that I mind or feel it interferes.

The digital zoom is the only feature that I'm not fond of and I'll probably just steer clear of using it.  The image quality just gets too poor for my taste.

In case you haven't heard everyone else raving about it already, I will rave one more time - I'm loving the Hipstamatic app!  Lots of fun film and lens effects to play with!  Here's an example:

The flash works just as well as you would expect a point-and-shoot flash to work.  However, I'm just not fond of direct flash photos, I hate red eye, and the flash is absolutely blinding and stays on forever, so I think I'm just going to avoid it unless absolutely necessary. (This is the waiting for 4th of July fireworks photo and as you can see, someone is very unenthused.)

We were sitting probably 10 feet from the window in medium lighting conditions here, but everything is still nice and sharp.  I'm not sure the G10 would have done so well.

Again, just natural light indoors.  You can see that Seven turned his head as it was taking so he's a bit blurred but again, the results are on par or better than any point-and-shoot camera we've had.

Of course we will always prefer to have a nice DSLR camera on hand for family photos but in a pinch, I'm pretty pleased with these results! I don't have any of our home videos prepped to share but the following is a great side-by-side comparison of the iPhone 4's video capability in relation to the Canon 7D if you're interested.  We were impressed! iPhone 4 Video Review Hope this helped you if you're trying to decide whether or not to upgrade your phone or are looking for a quick and easy solution for your personal photos and videos like us!  Have a wonderful week! - Mel

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Rory and Amanda's Engagement Photography Sneak Peek!

Written by Mel McLellan

Amanda wanted an engagement session with Old South flair so we traipsed around the countryside to find the perfect southern settings!  I love shooting in urban areas but rural shoots conjure up reminiscences from my childhood which makes them so fun and nostalgic!  Amanda and Rory, you guys were great!  Thanks so much!  Can't wait for your wedding! :0)

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Franklin Lifestyle Session – Marcia and Cade

Written by Mel McLellan

We had the pleasure to teaching a promising young photographer a couple of weekends ago and Marcia and Cade were our gracious and gorgeous models for the shooting portion!  Thank you guys so much!  You were great! :0)  Here are a few of the resulting images - hope you enjoy them!

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