There has been a lot of things happening in the world of smartphones this past year. Some good, some bad. So who knows what we will see in 2020. These are some of the things that I want for smartphone photography in 2020.
A physical aperture
The first one will probably never happen. Though, It’s something I want to see happening. Maybe in a very niche smartphone.
The aperture on a camera allows you to control the amount of light entering your sensor. A by-product of this is the amount of depth of field, sometimes referred to as bokeh.
Most smartphone cameras these days mimic this with software. We all have a portrait or aperture mode on our smartphones. But this is all done with depth-sensors (often called an extra lens on your phone).
The reason that I want this to be a real physical one, it just simply for the extra control. Having smartphones which finally finishes the exposure triangle.
A higher dynamic range
For those unaware of what this is. It’s the number of stops between light and dark a sensor can detect. Basically, a sensor that can capture a scene with less contrast. Especially when photographing raw, this gives you a lot of possibilities when it comes to editing. In my Nikon D850 I have a pretty high dynamic range, but in most smartphones that is still missing.
Okay sure, the sensors are smaller, so it is harder to achieve this, though it should be possible.
The current workaround is the HDR feature, which stands for High Dynamic Range. In this, you combine an underexposed, properly exposed, and overexposed photo into one. Making sure your shadows are clear, your highlights are not clipping, and the subject is properly exposed.
Though it is great, it is not possible to get this in RAW on smartphones.
To get out of its own niche
In my opinion, smartphone photography is not a niche on its own. I already created an entire blog post about it.
In short, I find smartphone photography the wrong term for what people use it to describe. These days, people do photography with their smartphones.
Likewise, others do it with a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
You don’t do DSLR-photography. You photograph landscapes with a DSLR. The same goes for smartphones.
I wish in 2020 we do a bit of a shift in mindset. Where we don’t see it as a category of its own. Rather, we see people embrace the smartphone as a photographic medium more. Whether it’s for portraits, macro, or any other niche.
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