Photographers share stunning photos shot on iPhone XS

Posted:
in iPhone edited September 2018
As it does almost every year, Apple granted a pair of professional photographers early access to iPhone XS ahead of its release to show off the handset's capabilities. Prior to launch this Friday, travel photographer Austin Mann and former White House photographer Pete Souza on Monday shared images pulled from Apple's flagship smartphone.

iPhone XS Photo
Source: Austin Mann via PetaPixel


Mann, who has been seeded with early iPhone units in the past, was first to post a series of photos from a trip to Zanzibar for PetaPixel.

Many of the photos are stunning, showing the wide dynamic range of the new iPhone's cameras. There are pictures of splashing waves, shots taken while facing directly into the sun, a number of Portrait Mode photos and more.

It does appear that there are still some instances in which Portrait Mode has issues nailing down subject separation, as can be seen in the shot of the beer can. Slight blurring around the top edges of the can show the system is confusing the object with background content. That said, Portrait Mode photos of a boat crew appear spot on.

  • iPhone XS Sample Image by Austin Mann
  • iPhone XS Sample Image by Austin Mann
  • iPhone XS Sample Image by Austin Mann
  • iPhone XS Sample Image by Austin Mann


In a second gallery, Souza shot a slate of photos for the Daily Mail.

All the photos were taken in Washington, D.C., and again show off many examples of low light photography, vivid colors, and Portrait Mode capabilities.

  • iPhone XS Sample Photos Pete Souza for Daily Mail
  • iPhone XS Sample Photos Pete Souza for Daily Mail
  • iPhone XS Sample Photos Pete Souza for Daily Mail


Be sure to check out the full galleries for even more photos.

As the release of iPhone XS and XS Max approaches, we are likely to see more examples of the new handsets' photography functions. Apple constantly touts iPhone as the world's most popular camera, and invests heavily in TV, print and digital ads. One such campaign, "Shot on iPhone," has become a primary means of advertising new iPhone hardware, borrowing photos shot by everyday users and amateur photographers.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!
    doozydozenclaire1
  • Reply 2 of 24
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,335member
    I'm actually impressed that Apple would show a photo (the first one) with lens flare. I suppose the inline processing software could remove the dot since it's a physical limitation of the lenses, but I'm okay with it being there for the sake of full disclosure.
    muthuk_vanalingamwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 24
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    lkrupp said:
    These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!
    Well... I'll say one thing.  These photos are beautiful and will be perfectly acceptable for 99% of iPhone users.  It's amazing to see how far the iPhone camera has evolved from the early days's of the early iPhones.

    That being said... I do a lot of photography.  My camera of choice is a Canon 5DMarkIII.  I love the camera in my iPhoneX and use it often.  That being said, the best shots I've taken with my iPX, along with the photos shown here on this story don't come remotely close to what my full-frame sensor takes.  Hands down, I see (for the most parts) the weaknesses in these shots that are clearly attributed to the tiny sensor and the physics involved with the collecting of light for a small sensor versus a large sensor.

    Most users will NOT care about that, and that's perfectly okay.  Many users will take their photos, and ruin them even more via Instagram filters for nothing more than selfie shots, and impulse photos to fill up smartphone storage, and cloud storage which then fills the pockets of those cloud providers.  That's the reality.

    When I take my day-to-day photos of whatever is going on around me, my iPhone is perfect because of that well-used saying that the best camera is the one on your person.  When I want to take photos that I really care about, then it's a no-brainer and out comes by trusty Canon 5DM3, and (hopefully soon) a pro-level Canon Mirrorless camera.

    It's all relative.
    zoetmbboltsfan17d_2revenantnapoleon_phoneapartBwlmogmuthuk_vanalingamdoozydozenpscooter63lolliver
  • Reply 4 of 24
    lkrupp said:
    These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!

    Be honest, if you weren’t told would you know these were taken with an XS vs an X? There wasn’t a huge camera hardware upgrade this year so I’m not surprised the photos aren’t blow away better than the X. I’ll be interested to see how they compare to the next Pixel phone. Tech press was raving about its camera last year. I think The Verge said it was superior to both iPhone and Galaxy cameras.
  • Reply 5 of 24
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member
     That being said, the best shots I've taken with my iPX, along with the photos shown here on this story don't come remotely close to what my full-frame sensor takes.  

    No shit.

    StrangeDaysshane seatonpulseimages
  • Reply 6 of 24
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member

    Be honest, if you weren’t told would you know these were taken with an XS vs an X? 
    I'm sure that a lot of iPhone users and even nonusers wouldn't know which phone was used for these pics.

    And I'm sure that wasn't the point of his post. I'd like to see examples of the best work of every one of those MR complainers. A lot of those posters are hater-idiots with my-way-or-the-highway mentality.
    StrangeDaysshane seatonpscooter63chasmlolliverclaire1watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 24
    sflocal said:
    lkrupp said:
    These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!
    Well... I'll say one thing.  These photos are beautiful and will be perfectly acceptable for 99% of iPhone users.  It's amazing to see how far the iPhone camera has evolved from the early days's of the early iPhones.

    That being said... I do a lot of photography.  My camera of choice is a Canon 5DMarkIII.  I love the camera in my iPhoneX and use it often.  That being said, the best shots I've taken with my iPX, along with the photos shown here on this story don't come remotely close to what my full-frame sensor takes.  Hands down, I see (for the most parts) the weaknesses in these shots that are clearly attributed to the tiny sensor and the physics involved with the collecting of light for a small sensor versus a large sensor.

    Most users will NOT care about that, and that's perfectly okay.  Many users will take their photos, and ruin them even more via Instagram filters for nothing more than selfie shots, and impulse photos to fill up smartphone storage, and cloud storage which then fills the pockets of those cloud providers.  That's the reality.

    When I take my day-to-day photos of whatever is going on around me, my iPhone is perfect because of that well-used saying that the best camera is the one on your person.  When I want to take photos that I really care about, then it's a no-brainer and out comes by trusty Canon 5DM3, and (hopefully soon) a pro-level Canon Mirrorless camera.

    It's all relative.
    I do a lot of photography as well. It's a big hobby of mine. My camera of choice is a Nikon D850. There is obviously no comparison from a shot taken on an iPhone to a shot taken on a camera with a full frame sensor. I'm like you. I always use my Nikon when taking photos I really care about. Occasionally I'll want to have a canvas made from photos I've taken. I'm not going to enlarge iPhone photos. 

    With all of that said, it is really impressive what phone cameras have become. They are only going to get better. I actually use my iPhone a lot for making time lapses. That's one thing I've really been into lately. I've made several videos of compiled 4K time lapses I've done with the iPhone X, Nikon D850, GoPro Hero 5, and DJI Osmo. The iPhone holds up pretty well against the other devices I use. Watching the 4K videos I've made on my TV, I've been quite impressed with the quality of the iPhone X.  
    doozydozenlolliverwatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 24
    Most people who shoot with an iPhone arent going to print their photos very large, most of it just gets shared on social media and for those purposes these cameras are great for showing small images. When you blow these images up in printing that’s when you start to see where the iPhone has issues. 
    edited September 2018 muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 9 of 24
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Bokeh is a result of artifacts caused by lens shutter blade diffraction.  Human eyes see the depth of focus blur due to the iris getting larger without this.  Yet we photographers still cling to the idea that mechanically induced bokeh is awesome.  I hate to say it but we also introduced film grain to digitally clean video because again we missed the artifacts produced by limited technology.  Humans are funny things.
    edited September 2018 MplsPberndogdoozydozenlolliverwatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 24
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 3,911member
    The iphone can’t compete with a high-end DSLR. I won’t say it never will, but I do doubt - the physics of lenses and sensors mean it will always have it’s limitations. But you have to remember that that isn’t the competition. Smart phone cameras have all but elimated the pocket point and shoot camera market, and as has oft been said, the best camera is the one you have with you. These examples may not be professional quality, but they’re more than good enough for the vast majority of people, and the continuing advances make them even better and useful in more varied situations. The times when you say “sorry about the pic,all I had with me was my iphone” are getting quite few and far between.
    muthuk_vanalingamlolliverwatto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 24
    lkrupp said:
    These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!

    Be honest, if you weren’t told would you know these were taken with an XS vs an X? There wasn’t a huge camera hardware upgrade this year so I’m not surprised the photos aren’t blow away better than the X. I’ll be interested to see how they compare to the next Pixel phone. Tech press was raving about its camera last year. I think The Verge said it was superior to both iPhone and Galaxy cameras.
    To be honest, there is a bit of a too soft of an edge to the object in the front, so yes, I can see it. But, I can also see that the bokeh is quite good.
    In 2005, it would take me about 10min-1hr to create a depth mask to match the quality of this Z-mask in those iPhone photos. And the latter is calculated in milliseconds in real time. I will take it, over spending 1 hr for a single shot! Life is too short for that cr*p! Yes, just like auto-stiching panoramas, they do have glitches sometimes, but I don't want to spend 1-2 hrs making one panorama manually. I would rather have a less perfect pano taken in 1-2 seconds, again, for the same reason - more time for me to so stuff I want.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 24
    The Daily Mail photos are all but unviewable due to the website they are posted on being incompatible with the iPhone........If someone could explain that please - I’m on  7+ 12.0
    edited September 2018 watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 24
    lkrupp said:
    These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!

    Be honest, if you weren’t told would you know these were taken with an XS vs an X? There wasn’t a huge camera hardware upgrade this year so I’m not surprised the photos aren’t blow away better than the X. I’ll be interested to see how they compare to the next Pixel phone. Tech press was raving about its camera last year. I think The Verge said it was superior to both iPhone and Galaxy cameras.
    I’ve stopped reading artistic (in this case photography) reviews on tech sites long time ago, especially from The Verge. Most of photos from Pixel I saw on Twitter seems too flat to me and lack some kind of life. I even saw one comparison with X photo and the poster just flat out prefer Pixel photo even when it’s so flat and lifeless and the photo shot by X look like it’s shot with Kodachrome. Tech people... I’ll never understand them. 

    That said, I’m not that impressed of this set of photo. These ones however..
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6176975/Ex-White-House-Photographer-Pete-Souza-releases-pictures-taken-using-Apples-iPhone-XS.html
    edited September 2018 doozydozenlolliver
  • Reply 14 of 24
    The photos are ok but not anything worth writing an article about. Not to nitpick but the horizons aren't even straight. Nice holiday snaps taken at a bad time for lighting but nothing more.
  • Reply 15 of 24
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    The photos are ok but not anything worth writing an article about. Not to nitpick but the horizons aren't even straight. Nice holiday snaps taken at a bad time for lighting but nothing more.
    Was reading all the comments before adding that very same observation.  I don’t even call it an edited photo if all that’s done is to straighten the horizon and crop or alter the aspect ratio.  I do that, to great effect, on all my iPhone-shot photos.  My friends think I know something about photography.  Lol
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 24
    The photos are ok but not anything worth writing an article about. Not to nitpick but the horizons aren't even straight. Nice holiday snaps taken at a bad time for lighting but nothing more.

    For whatever reason Apple loves Austin Mann. I don’t get what’s so great about his photos. This set doesn’t do much for me.
  • Reply 17 of 24
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    berndog said:
    The Daily Mail photos are all but unviewable due to the website they are posted on being incompatible with the iPhone........If someone could explain that please - I’m on  7+ 12.0
    Save your brain and stop reading the DM ;)
    lolliverwatto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 24
    foljsfoljs Posts: 390member
    lkrupp said:
    These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!
    Yeah, amateur idiots of MacRumors clearly can criticize long term pros...
    lolliverwatto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 24
    peteopeteo Posts: 402member
    lkrupp said:
    These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!
    If they were shot with the best digital DSLR ever made and people posted them as iPhone photos MacRumors forum posters would say they were the worst photos in the history of mankind.  Most of the bozo's on there support Trump, should tell you something.
    edited September 2018 lolliverwatto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 24
    peteopeteo Posts: 402member
    matrix077 said:
    lkrupp said:
    These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!

    Be honest, if you weren’t told would you know these were taken with an XS vs an X? There wasn’t a huge camera hardware upgrade this year so I’m not surprised the photos aren’t blow away better than the X. I’ll be interested to see how they compare to the next Pixel phone. Tech press was raving about its camera last year. I think The Verge said it was superior to both iPhone and Galaxy cameras.
    I’ve stopped reading artistic (in this case photography) reviews on tech sites long time ago, especially from The Verge. Most of photos from Pixel I saw on Twitter seems too flat to me and lack some kind of life. I even saw one comparison with X photo and the poster just flat out prefer Pixel photo even when it’s so flat and lifeless and the photo shot by X look like it’s shot with Kodachrome. Tech people... I’ll never understand them. 

    That said, I’m not that impressed of this set of photo. These ones however..
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6176975/Ex-White-House-Photographer-Pete-Souza-releases-pictures-taken-using-Apples-iPhone-XS.html
    wow those photos are awesome
    watto_cobra
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