***Story originally aired on March 7, 2013***
iPhonography is the latest craze for creating spectacular images with your iPhone and it’s radically changing the photography landscape.
Gone are the days when you needed thousands of dollars in equipment and lighting to get a professional-looking photograph. Now, you can snap photos like a pro with your smartphone and a few photography apps.
Brian Noppe is a professional photographer in Vancouver, who specializes in taking pictures with an iPhone. He teaches a course called iPhonography 101. It helps turn the average Joe into a pro of sorts, by exploring the world of photography apps.
"They're making useful, interesting apps that nobody else would have thought of and they're making them available for a dollar, for free, for two bucks, that's fantastic. It’s changed the game completely," said Noppe.
Apps can turn a moody photo of the Lions Gate Bridge into an art deco masterpiece. Or turn a photo of a B.C. arbutus tree into an abstract watercolour.
"The biggest thing is just those minor adjustments of exposure and contrast and things like that, that just can add a lot of punch to the colour and the look of the photograph," said Noppe.
When it comes to choosing the right app for you, Noppe says apps are like art, where individual preference rules. But Noppe does have his favourite apps.
"I use an app called KitCam a lot, because it's got some film-like features. Camera Awesome is another excellent one, and Camera Plus. Those are the three most interesting and popular camera apps that are on the market right now," said Noppe.
And Noppe is not worried he’ll one day be out of a job, just because amateurs have the same photo editing tools at their disposal as the professionals.
"A good photograph is still a good photograph. So if you have an eye and a brain and you're really good with it and you differentiate yourself from everybody. I still think there is room for great photography and there is a difference."
The next iPhonography 101 workshop is on Wednesday, March 13 in Gastown. It costs $88. For more information, or to register, go online to iphonography101.com.
