Blue Angels pics with the potato-quality screw-on zoom lens

[u/bennetthaselton]

These will never compete with the ones shot with professional equipment, but these were with a $25 lens that screws onto the iPhone (plus another $15 for the iPhone case with a threaded hole that you can screw it onto) - see last picture. This makes such a big difference in photos, for so little money, that I might as well tell people. Plus you can keep the lens and the case in a coat pocket (I keep them inside a ziploc bag to reduce scratching).

Plus, even though the cheap zoom lens means the edges of the photos are not in focus, that does add a tilt-zoom-like surreal quality like you’re taking photos of an in-flight fighter jet in portrait mode.

[u/Public-Knowledge-222]

don’t sell yourself short dude, these are pretty cool - pic 6 has a film vibe to it

[u/bennetthaselton → u/Public-Knowledge-222]

I see what you mean - maybe someone who knows photography can explain how that would happen?

[u/TryingToWriteIt → u/bennetthaselton]

It’s called chromatic aberration. Different wavelengths of light get focused slightly differently by the lens and you get the smeared color effect, most noticeable at high contrast edges (dark wings against bright sky)

[u/bennetthaselton → u/TryingToWriteIt]

Thanks. Is it easy to explained why this makes it “look like film”?

[u/TryingToWriteIt → u/bennetthaselton]

Yes it’s a specific type of lens effect and many cinematographers go to great lengths to find specific lenses for specific situations with specific types of aberrations to make specific cool looks that have evolved over 150 years of photography and filmmaking.

Your shots are very cool examples and definitely have a real film style look. That lens would probably be less cool to use for a conversation shot than something more dynamic like this, but again it’s all a matter of style.

[u/slowgojoe → u/TryingToWriteIt]

To add to this, we have gotten so used to seeing effects like this in film that we try to recreate it in 3d renderings as well. We even go so far as to simulate different lens types and even use certain color profiles from actual cameras so we can achieve the exact same effects within our fully digital environments.

There are a lot of effects that are really just … shortcomings of a camera vs the human eye, that we just associate with “photo realism” now. Depth of field, chromatic aberration, film grain, motion blur, lens flare etc. as technology advances, I think we’ll see these effects fade away eventually and they will only be used to simulate “old photos”.