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Digital Camera VS iPhone 6
Bucky
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I am in my first year of painting, using photos exclusively as my source that were taken with my iPhone 6. As beautiful as the photos look on my phone, the printed out version is always less impressive -- the exposure, colors, values, are distorted. And I always have them printed at a reputable, professional print shop.
So, I'm thinking of buying a digital camera, but my budget is limited -- in the $500 - $700 range. I'm thinking specifically of the Sony Alpha A6000.
I know next to nothing about cameras. My question is simple: Will a digital camera such as this one, in the low - middle range quality, produce significantly better printouts than photos taken by my iPhone 6? From the research I've done, it seems like a digital camera would be better but I'd rather not spend the money if the results would be similar.
Thanks.
So, I'm thinking of buying a digital camera, but my budget is limited -- in the $500 - $700 range. I'm thinking specifically of the Sony Alpha A6000.
I know next to nothing about cameras. My question is simple: Will a digital camera such as this one, in the low - middle range quality, produce significantly better printouts than photos taken by my iPhone 6? From the research I've done, it seems like a digital camera would be better but I'd rather not spend the money if the results would be similar.
Thanks.
Comments
The problem is that you are probably comparing the screen on the phone to the printed material, and one of those is a bright backlit screen, the other requiring reflected light. They will never look the same.
You're better off editing the photos in software and adjusting colors so that when printed, it looks closer to what you want. Alternately get a printer so you can do this yourself.
But as stated above, that's probably not the problem.
Bucky, My advice if you are going to buy a camera is buy the best one you can afford but be sure to get one that you can easily understand the instructions, menus and features but above all else be sure to have complete MANUAL control over:
- Shutter Speed
- Aperture
- ISO
This is the camera that Mark Carder Recommends in his Advanced Photography Guide. It is in the price range you mentioned. https://www.amazon.com/Olympus-Mirrorless-14-42mm-F4-0-5-6R-Backpack/dp/B07JJJPNS2/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1541702192&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=olympus+om-d+e-m10+mark+ii&psc=1The photography guides for both iphones and DSLRs is at the top of the DMP main page.
One other advice is to NOT rely on tripods that are bundled with camera kits. Spend $30-40 and get a sturdy one with a built in level indicator and a hook to suspend a stabilizing weight.
Photoshop is expensive overkill, and a waste of money. All that is needed is cropping, white balance, color adjustments, and support for several formats. Any photo software can do all this and more, and in most cases you already have software installed that can do this.
This is not opinion:
There is nothing special about RAW images. That is just a name for a variety of lossless file formats.
I find Photoshop overwhelming to say the least and it's really not needed outside of the high-end community, and I find GIMP to be not particularly user friendly (but at least up to date).
By far the best balance of user-friendless and features I ever found is Paint Shop Pro v9 (before it got bought out and ruined). If you look around the internet you'll see a lot of people still use it, lament it got taken over and ruined (v10 onwards). As it's now out of production it's hard to get, but if anyone wants some tips on how to get it feel free to message me (if that's okay).
It's an amazing piece of software, I use it just about every day.
Photoshop is still excellent. If you don't want to pay a monthly subscription fee, you can still get an older version that is resident on your hard drive. The older versions of Photoshop are missing some of the newer bells and whistles but are still plenty good. The books by Scot Kelby took the mystery out of using it.
But it is all useless if your monitor is not calibrated because a printer will then be "seeing" something different from what you see on your screen. The Spyder5 Express is easy to use and works well.
Finally there is the matter of printing. You can get your own printer and many people do. I didn't want the hassle and have tried a variety of print shops online. The best one I found is picturesalon.com. Before preparing and sending anything out I recalibrate my screen and then send them a TIFF file (not a JPEG). Their colors have been pretty consistent.