One thing I was keen to try out was taking RAW photos on my phone. Would they be usable? Could there ever be a time when I could leave my heavy SLR at home and still get a half decent shot?
After a little bit of googling I discovered the Halide app "It gives you a tactile, intuitive, yet powerful way to take beautiful photos" Well for a penny shy of 6 quid I thought I would give it a go. First thing I did was switch on RAW capture and flick through the online quick guide. It's not rocket science, it's easy to use.
I was not disappointed, slightly mush jpg's were much improved if you saved them as RAW files and took a few extra minutes to run them through Lightroom. You can see for yourself a comparison at 100% between a standard jpg & a RAW file. The only adjustments I made were to colour correct the RAW file to match the original jpg.
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| jpg file - note the slightly mushy look, telegraph lines are absent. |
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| RAW file - slightly more noise, but more detail. Both Images taken at native ISO 25 |
When I was up in the Lakes recently I manged to take this shot up on Lingmoor Fell. I was really pleased with the IPhone output. I'm sure if I wanted to print a 15"x10" it would hold up well.
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| Lingmoor Fell. Shot on an IPhone. Processed in Lightroom & Silver Efex Pro |
I have to confess I was still carrying my SLR and took a few comparison shots. Maybe there will come a time when I just head out with my phone!
The only improvement, if the guys from Halide are listening is to have the option to change aspect ratios, I really like the square format.
