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I'm thinking about getting a lens/lenses for my iPhone 6s, but know zippo about them.
It will be mostly for pictures of my work, so it will be pretty much for indoor use. Anyone using them, or know more than my zippo knowledge?
Around the $100 mark, or under for something marvelous would be nice! Thanks, all!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Lance is all about iPhone photography. Hopefully he sees this.

Alex, I've got a dslr camera, some lights, and a few backdrops. You're welcome to come out here and play, cause I'm trying to figure out some of this stuff too.

Steve

Thanks, Steve. This is more for my cabinetry work. I'm starting to document works-in-progress for my Facebook cabinetry page, so that my clients and friends can follow along. Photography certainly isn't my forte, but I have a friend that has offered to take really good pictures of finished work for me be it kitchens or - gasp - guitar stuff! I'll be coming over soon, anyways!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Lenses are not where I would start.

What sort of camera work are you wanting to do?

The first thing is that an iPhone camera is still a camera. All the basic stuff about light, shutter speed, exposure, looking for bright spots and shadows, focal length, framing pictures and picking subject you want the camera to focus on still applies.

As such - a lot of the camera magazines have little articles that will help your pix no matter what camera you are using. They also have photo editing tips.... Such as you can't Photoshop a bad picture into a good one.
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What is it about your current pictures that you don't like?

Thanks, John. I'm looking for wider angle pictures - mostly - and better close ups. I just upgraded from iPhone 4s to a 6s, and have only taken a couple of pictures in the shop. That's where I will be taking most of my pictures, so I'll test it out a bit more in the next couple of days.
Most of the pictures will be for the benefit of my customers, and I'd like them to see better detail.

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Unless you are trying to show the hairs on a gnat's rear end - you probably don't need a macro lens. The biggest thing that helps up close work is more light. The onboard flash is not real good up close..... You tend to get half bright, half dark. The next is understanding the camera's built in minimum focal length. Inside that minimum length, you get a blurry mess because the focus just can't work up that close. In that case - moving back an inch or two gives a much better picture quality.

On the wider angle stuff - have you fooled around with the onboard panoramic features? This allows you to stitch together a really wide angle shot without having to fool with evil fish eye lenses that distort the heck out of images.

Often, our biggest battle is that the flashes really don't work all that well... I find the camera is actually biased to not use flash unless there is no other choice. That means really slow exposures, blurry, and pictures where the light/dark balance is WAY off... Like super bright blobs and super dark blobs... With a lot of extra light - you gain enough shutter speed to get good detail without ending up with a blurry mess, washed out details, or weird light balance from long exposures..... Some diffusers are also nice - so you can shine the light all around stuff so you don't have to battle shadows. It can be as simple as a white sheet or a piece of white cardboard on one side and the lights on the other to bounce the light back around.

Thanks

I don't think you'll need a lease. Just try to think about the lighting while taking pics and of course the background stuff, wood shavings, out of sorts tools, etc. I'd also recommend downloading Snapseed as it can do quite a bit to help pictures with HDR filters and several other editing options that are super fast and easy to use. I shoot with a Nikon D610 and a Nikon D800 with a bunch of fast primes. When my camera equipment isn't handy though the iPhone and snapseed suffice. I think the app costs like 3 bucks but it will do far more for you than an aftermarket lenses that is more geared toward zooming in as opposed to wide angle. Moment makes a cheap $12 wide angle lens that might be worth a look, but I personally wouldn't spend much more than that myself. The siphons camera itself is pretty good for being a phone.


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Thanks, John and Joey! You've both given me lots to think about. I got the Snapseed app last night (free) and played around with it a bit, so maybe that will help!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker