The phablets are eating the laptops - maybe shoot vertical?

greyalienabductions said:

Strobist said:

With the trend of larger and larger mobiles, and the fact that 98.3% of facebook users log into the mobile, while only 1.7% use laptop/desktop exclusively, there is a lesson to be learnt here:

Like it or not, the vertical online photography and vertical videos are here to reign.

(not everybody care to twist their phone in landscape mode - far, far from it.)

Vertical does not just apply to personal sharing, commercial giants like Coca Cola and BMW know exactly how their customers behave from market feedback - and they have turned to vertical online campaigns.

So if you only photograph for yourself, and not to share with others, any format would do.

But if you are competing for customers *online* or do share photographs for fun *online* - can you afford to not shoot vertically, when so many has left their laptop behind, and watching/working vertically on their phablets?

I guess some airheads will say, nah, my art is so great that people will turn their mobiles to landscape mode when they watch my masterpieces, or Im really an modern Ansel, my art is too great for mobile, it can only be printed large and seen in fine-art exhibitions.

To them i would say, sure buddy, sure...

Click to expand...

Some platforms like instagram are so restrictive that they don't even allow a vertical image beyond 4x5 ratio. They only want squares and the vast majority of users on instagram post squares.

Oddly, instagram allows wide screen images, I think to 16x9 ratio, but no wider. The problem is the instagram app does not allow rotating the phone, so, that's dumb!

Head over to Youtube and you'll find that 99% of the videos are still widescreen orientation.

100% of movies and TV are still produced in widescreen format.

You can buy a 65 inch TV, a Roku, and Netflix for a year for less money than the latest iPhone costs.

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sportyaccordy said:

tbcass said:

sportyaccordy said:

Amazingly, the video & photo IQ of the phone held up on my 55" TV, even when zoomed in. I mean it wasn't phenomenal, but it looked no worse than a streamed broadcast. So even the IQ argument for ILCs is shaky.

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Streamed broadcasts look terrible when you hit pause so you are supporting the IQ argument for ILCs. The constant motion of video hides the flaws.

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You are conflating two unrelated things (still and video IQ). Evaluating video IQ with stills IQ standards is a red herring. ILC video IQ is also worse than ILC stills IQ too.

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sportyaccordy said:

IMO the content out of the phone had good enough IQ, even on a 55" TV, that the IQ boost from a "real camera" would not have been worth the added hassle.

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sportyaccordy said:

sportyaccordy said:

sportyaccordy said:

But yes, the viewing medium absolutely matters, and has become another reason ILCs are irrelevant to the mass market.

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Why do you bring up the mass market? It's not relevant to DPR members.

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It's only irrelevant to anyone who never plans on buying gear ever again, or to people who don't use social media etc. The whole trajectory of the camera industry over the last 2 decades was hugely impacted by the mass market's entry and exodus.

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tbcass said:

sportyaccordy said:

tbcass said:

sportyaccordy said:

Amazingly, the video & photo IQ of the phone held up on my 55" TV, even when zoomed in. I mean it wasn't phenomenal, but it looked no worse than a streamed broadcast. So even the IQ argument for ILCs is shaky.

Click to expand...

Streamed broadcasts look terrible when you hit pause so you are supporting the IQ argument for ILCs. The constant motion of video hides the flaws.

Click to expand...

You are conflating two unrelated things (still and video IQ). Evaluating video IQ with stills IQ standards is a red herring. ILC video IQ is also worse than ILC stills IQ too.

Click to expand...

You said photo IQ. Photo IQ from smartphones looks terrible on my 58" 4K TV

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tbcass said:

tbcass said:

IMO the content out of the phone had good enough IQ, even on a 55" TV, that the IQ boost from a "real camera" would not have been worth the added hassle.

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As you said, It's your opinion. I disagree because my opinion is different.

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tbcass said:

tbcass said:

tbcass said:

tbcass said:

But yes, the viewing medium absolutely matters, and has become another reason ILCs are irrelevant to the mass market.

Click to expand...

Why do you bring up the mass market? It's not relevant to DPR members.

Click to expand...

It's only irrelevant to anyone who never plans on buying gear ever again, or to people who don't use social media etc. The whole trajectory of the camera industry over the last 2 decades was hugely impacted by the mass market's entry and exodus.

Click to expand...

There is a core of photographers who will always value high IQ therefore the mass market is meaningless to them. That core is well represented here on DPR. That is why what you said is mostly irrelevant to DPR posters with you being an exception.

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Brad Bohland said:

Brad Bohland said:

tbcass said:

Brad Bohland said:

I never got the point of social media. What is it?

Click to expand...

I get the point but have little interest in it. Social media is mostly for communicating with friends and has taken the place of email, phone calls, and letters by mail.

Click to expand...

Communicating, entertaining, informing. Not to my (elitist) taste either.

Click to expand...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that social media is not social at all. We are a hyper-individualized society and look to our devices to escape the loneliness and boredom caused by our social isolation. We have a virtual social life to make up for the lack of a real social life. We're like the character in Woody Allen's Sleeper who falls in love with the virtual love machine. Is it vertical or horizontal? Who cares, it's a robot and it keeps us company either way.

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tbcass said:

Gato Amarillo said:

tbcass said:

Gato Amarillo said:

A few years back I was at a coffee shop with a group of photographers who were sharing photos by passing phones around. Out of six professional and semi-pro photographers exactly ONE of them turned the phone to look at landscape photos -- all the rest held the phone upright.

Click to expand...

Could that be because it just didn't occur to them to turn the phone horizontally?

Click to expand...

Like I said, this was a group of professionals. I'm pretty sure they all know how to turn a phone.

Click to expand...

While they may know how to turn a phone they weren't taking and composing photos but looking at ones already taken. As I said it probably didn't occur to them to turn the phone.

Click to expand...

tbcass said:

gloaming said:

No. I thought I had made myself clear that THEY find it too much to bother with. Also, most hold their phone vertically during their incessant chats, tweets, etc. Personally, I use my phone horizontally at least 50% of the time, such as when reading documents, scrolling through pages on the web, etc.

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If you read what I posted that’s what I said. They are so used to holding their phones vertically that it doesn’t occur to them to hold it horizontally.

--
Tom

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Brad Bohland said:

I never got the point of social media. What is it?

Click to expand...

tbcass said:

Just as a counterpoint I disagree with every single thing you wrote and I love Windows 10.

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Mackiesback said:

Smaug01 said:

The nice thing about phones, tablets and "phablets" is that they auto-orient. I shoot mostly horizontal (for computer viewing) and just turn the phone or other device as needed.

Tablets (to me) are castrated laptops. They just can't do as much, except be portable. They are cheap, but their capability is commensurate with the price, most of the time.

I read something a year or two ago, where some agency was using reporters with their cell phones to take pix. Their only rule was to shoot horizontal as a rule. (leaving aside the fact that reporters are probably not the best photographers, even when the phone is adequate)

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Tablets work in the app ecosphere, laptops in the traditional desktop ecosphere. Each have their place. I am on a tablet a lot every day doing things I don't really do on my laptop.

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tbcass said:

sportyaccordy said:

Funny enough, I just went on a vacation and shot with nothing but my phone. I cast my gallery to my Roku + TV, and immediately regret shooting all the videos vertically. Amazingly, the video & photo IQ of the phone held up on my 55" TV, even when zoomed in. I mean it wasn't phenomenal, but it looked no worse than a streamed broadcast. So even the IQ argument for ILCs is shaky.

Click to expand...

Streamed broadcasts look terrible when you hit pause so you are supporting the IQ argument for ILCs. The constant motion of video hides the flaws.

tbcass said:

But yes, the viewing medium absolutely matters, and has become another reason ILCs are irrelevant to the mass market.

Click to expand...

Why do you bring up the mass market? It's not relevant to DPR members.

Click to expand...

sportyaccordy said:

greyalienabductions said:

Strobist said:

With the trend of larger and larger mobiles, and the fact that 98.3% of facebook users log into the mobile, while only 1.7% use laptop/desktop exclusively, there is a lesson to be learnt here:

Like it or not, the vertical online photography and vertical videos are here to reign.

(not everybody care to twist their phone in landscape mode - far, far from it.)

Vertical does not just apply to personal sharing, commercial giants like Coca Cola and BMW know exactly how their customers behave from market feedback - and they have turned to vertical online campaigns.

So if you only photograph for yourself, and not to share with others, any format would do.

But if you are competing for customers *online* or do share photographs for fun *online* - can you afford to not shoot vertically, when so many has left their laptop behind, and watching/working vertically on their phablets?

I guess some airheads will say, nah, my art is so great that people will turn their mobiles to landscape mode when they watch my masterpieces, or Im really an modern Ansel, my art is too great for mobile, it can only be printed large and seen in fine-art exhibitions.

To them i would say, sure buddy, sure...

Click to expand...

Some platforms like instagram are so restrictive that they don't even allow a vertical image beyond 4x5 ratio. They only want squares and the vast majority of users on instagram post squares.

Oddly, instagram allows wide screen images, I think to 16x9 ratio, but no wider. The problem is the instagram app does not allow rotating the phone, so, that's dumb!

Head over to Youtube and you'll find that 99% of the videos are still widescreen orientation.

100% of movies and TV are still produced in widescreen format.

You can buy a 65 inch TV, a Roku, and Netflix for a year for less money than the latest iPhone costs.

Click to expand...

You dont need to buy the latest Iphone. A $200-300 Android phone works great, and is a little easier to carry around than a 65" TV + Roku.

Click to expand...

Brad Bohland said:

Brad Bohland said:

Brad Bohland said:

tbcass said:

Brad Bohland said:

I never got the point of social media. What is it?

Click to expand...

I get the point but have little interest in it. Social media is mostly for communicating with friends and has taken the place of email, phone calls, and letters by mail.

Click to expand...

Communicating, entertaining, informing. Not to my (elitist) taste either.

Click to expand...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that social media is not social at all. We are a hyper-individualized society and look to our devices to escape the loneliness and boredom caused by our social isolation. We have a virtual social life to make up for the lack of a real social life. We're like the character in Woody Allen's Sleeper who falls in love with the virtual love machine. Is it vertical or horizontal? Who cares, it's a robot and it keeps us company either way.

Click to expand...

As the social fabric deteriorated, it became much harder to meet the basic need for meaningful connection. The question moved from what is best for other people and the family to what is best for me. The modernization of society seemed to prize fame, wealth, celebrity above all else. All this, combined with the breakdown in social ties created an “empty self, shorn of social meaning”.

The rise in technology and the development of hugely popular social networking sites, such as Facebook, further changed the way we spend our free time and communicate. Today, there are nearly 936m active Facebook users each day worldwide. Internet addiction is a new area of study in mental health and recent cross-sectional research shows that addiction to Facebook is strongly linked to narcissistic behavior and low self-esteem.

So maybe it’s time to take a break from that smartphone, shut off your computer and meet up with a friend or two. Maybe, just maybe, you might feel a little better – and boost your self-esteem.

https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-becoming-so-narcissistic-heres-the-science-55773

Click to expand...

MarkInSF said:

Sure, it's possible to get buried in social media and lose your physical social life, but it was through an early (dial-up) sort of social media that I met my partner of 27 years. One form of connection does not preclude others.

Click to expand...

MarkInSF said:

Brad Bohland said:

I never got the point of social media. What is it?

Click to expand...

It's this, with more ads.

Click to expand...

MarkInSF said:

sportyaccordy said:

greyalienabductions said:

Strobist said:

With the trend of larger and larger mobiles, and the fact that 98.3% of facebook users log into the mobile, while only 1.7% use laptop/desktop exclusively, there is a lesson to be learnt here:

Like it or not, the vertical online photography and vertical videos are here to reign.

(not everybody care to twist their phone in landscape mode - far, far from it.)

Vertical does not just apply to personal sharing, commercial giants like Coca Cola and BMW know exactly how their customers behave from market feedback - and they have turned to vertical online campaigns.

So if you only photograph for yourself, and not to share with others, any format would do.

But if you are competing for customers *online* or do share photographs for fun *online* - can you afford to not shoot vertically, when so many has left their laptop behind, and watching/working vertically on their phablets?

I guess some airheads will say, nah, my art is so great that people will turn their mobiles to landscape mode when they watch my masterpieces, or Im really an modern Ansel, my art is too great for mobile, it can only be printed large and seen in fine-art exhibitions.

To them i would say, sure buddy, sure...

Click to expand...

Some platforms like instagram are so restrictive that they don't even allow a vertical image beyond 4x5 ratio. They only want squares and the vast majority of users on instagram post squares.

Oddly, instagram allows wide screen images, I think to 16x9 ratio, but no wider. The problem is the instagram app does not allow rotating the phone, so, that's dumb!

Head over to Youtube and you'll find that 99% of the videos are still widescreen orientation.

100% of movies and TV are still produced in widescreen format.

You can buy a 65 inch TV, a Roku, and Netflix for a year for less money than the latest iPhone costs.

Click to expand...

You dont need to buy the latest Iphone. A $200-300 Android phone works great, and is a little easier to carry around than a 65" TV + Roku.

Click to expand...

They do, for most things cell phones are used for, but their camera specs are not at all comparable (and I'm talking new, not used, for pricing.) They also typically get few or no Android updates, and some of the added functionality is pretty nice. In contrast, buy a pricey Pixel 6 Pro and you get five years of guaranteed Android updates and a far more capable set of cameras (bigger, higher res sensors, one with a 4x zoom lens). The iPhone world is similar, though they got decent cameras sooner.

Click to expand...

MarkInSF said:

Brad Bohland said:

Brad Bohland said:

Brad Bohland said:

tbcass said:

Brad Bohland said:

I never got the point of social media. What is it?

Click to expand...

I get the point but have little interest in it. Social media is mostly for communicating with friends and has taken the place of email, phone calls, and letters by mail.

Click to expand...

Communicating, entertaining, informing. Not to my (elitist) taste either.

Click to expand...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that social media is not social at all. We are a hyper-individualized society and look to our devices to escape the loneliness and boredom caused by our social isolation. We have a virtual social life to make up for the lack of a real social life. We're like the character in Woody Allen's Sleeper who falls in love with the virtual love machine. Is it vertical or horizontal? Who cares, it's a robot and it keeps us company either way.

Click to expand...

As the social fabric deteriorated, it became much harder to meet the basic need for meaningful connection. The question moved from what is best for other people and the family to what is best for me. The modernization of society seemed to prize fame, wealth, celebrity above all else. All this, combined with the breakdown in social ties created an “empty self, shorn of social meaning”.

The rise in technology and the development of hugely popular social networking sites, such as Facebook, further changed the way we spend our free time and communicate. Today, there are nearly 936m active Facebook users each day worldwide. Internet addiction is a new area of study in mental health and recent cross-sectional research shows that addiction to Facebook is strongly linked to narcissistic behavior and low self-esteem.

So maybe it’s time to take a break from that smartphone, shut off your computer and meet up with a friend or two. Maybe, just maybe, you might feel a little better – and boost your self-esteem.

https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-becoming-so-narcissistic-heres-the-science-55773

Click to expand...

Sure, it's possible to get buried in social media and lose your physical social life, but it was through an early (dial-up) sort of social media that I met my partner of 27 years. One form of connection does not preclude others.

Click to expand...

Brad Bohland said:

Brad Bohland said:

Brad Bohland said:

tbcass said:

Brad Bohland said:

I never got the point of social media. What is it?

Click to expand...

I get the point but have little interest in it. Social media is mostly for communicating with friends and has taken the place of email, phone calls, and letters by mail.

Click to expand...

Communicating, entertaining, informing. Not to my (elitist) taste either.

Click to expand...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that social media is not social at all. We are a hyper-individualized society and look to our devices to escape the loneliness and boredom caused by our social isolation. We have a virtual social life to make up for the lack of a real social life. We're like the character in Woody Allen's Sleeper who falls in love with the virtual love machine. Is it vertical or horizontal? Who cares, it's a robot and it keeps us company either way.

Click to expand...

As the social fabric deteriorated, it became much harder to meet the basic need for meaningful connection. The question moved from what is best for other people and the family to what is best for me. The modernization of society seemed to prize fame, wealth, celebrity above all else. All this, combined with the breakdown in social ties created an “empty self, shorn of social meaning”.

The rise in technology and the development of hugely popular social networking sites, such as Facebook, further changed the way we spend our free time and communicate. Today, there are nearly 936m active Facebook users each day worldwide. Internet addiction is a new area of study in mental health and recent cross-sectional research shows that addiction to Facebook is strongly linked to narcissistic behavior and low self-esteem.

So maybe it’s time to take a break from that smartphone, shut off your computer and meet up with a friend or two. Maybe, just maybe, you might feel a little better – and boost your self-esteem.

https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-becoming-so-narcissistic-heres-the-science-55773

Click to expand...

MarkInSF said:

tbcass said:

Gato Amarillo said:

tbcass said:

Gato Amarillo said:

A few years back I was at a coffee shop with a group of photographers who were sharing photos by passing phones around. Out of six professional and semi-pro photographers exactly ONE of them turned the phone to look at landscape photos -- all the rest held the phone upright.

Click to expand...

Could that be because it just didn't occur to them to turn the phone horizontally?

Click to expand...

Like I said, this was a group of professionals. I'm pretty sure they all know how to turn a phone.

Click to expand...

While they may know how to turn a phone they weren't taking and composing photos but looking at ones already taken. As I said it probably didn't occur to them to turn the phone.

Click to expand...

Or they were only looking at the pictures very casually and had no reason to rotate their phones. I always do if I'm watching video and usually if viewing a landscape photo, but not if it's something casually shot. I strongly dislike the square format being pushed on us as default, but there's not much point in rotating a phone if presented with a square image.

Click to expand...

MarkInSF said:

tbcass said:

gloaming said:

No. I thought I had made myself clear that THEY find it too much to bother with. Also, most hold their phone vertically during their incessant chats, tweets, etc. Personally, I use my phone horizontally at least 50% of the time, such as when reading documents, scrolling through pages on the web, etc.

Click to expand...

If you read what I posted that’s what I said. They are so used to holding their phones vertically that it doesn’t occur to them to hold it horizontally.

Click to expand...

You are presuming a lot about their mental processes. If they're like me they decide whether to rotate on a case-by-case basis. If it's an image I care about, I rotate. If it's just a bunch of images I have no great reason to see in detail, I don't. Even professionals (especially them) have to see large numbers of images, and if they're viewing them on their phones they likely aren't looking at their artistry or technical excellence.

Click to expand...