Then I discovered its camera apphas no pro mode.
The realization made me absolutely dread the idea of going out to shoot the streets.
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Developing a personal style is a strenuous and deeply intimate process.
Its about taking risk and failing, over and over again.
Until you eventually make it work.
Consumer products like the Pixel and the iPhone arent designed to fityourstyle theyre designed to fitthe norm.
Theyre whipped up to hey the masses.
They emphasize technical proficiency over distinctive style because the goal is to appeal to as many people as possible.
As a photographer, though, I cant pretend this strategy hasnt ruined smartphone photography for me.
Sure, technical proficiency is important, but intentional aberrations have an absolving quality to them.
This isnt unique to photography either: Its true for all art.
Breaking the rules isnt inherently wrong.
Its only wrong when you do it without a purpose.
Think about your favorite filmmakers, musicians, or painters.
you’re free to probably immediately name the defining features of their art.
In other words: What makes their styledefiningis what separates them from the norm its what makes them different.
Thats why I despise the idea of letting my phone define my photography.
Its the artistic equivalent of counting on auto-correct to sharpen Kafkas writing.
Its like Nas penning a verse and asking Alexa to spit it out.
(It sounds like Im comparing my photography to Kafkas writing and Nas rapping.
Thats also why I care about having a camera pro mode as a photographer.
I want to shape up my images manually, not have the phone do it for me.
But Google doesnt do photography like that.
Instead, it relies on computational algorithms to make all these choices for you.
Computational photography smotherspersonal style, it killsmood, it erasesdifference.
All of these things made me hesitant to shoot with the Pixel 4.
I knew I wouldnt find the process fulfilling.
I despised every single one of them.
Dont get me wrong: I absolutely love the overall Pixel 4 smartphone experience.
Despite its many shortcomings, it wasmy favoritephone of 2019.
It was easily my most trusted tool.
I simply wasnt fond of using it for photography.
So much so that I never even bothered to review the pics I snapped with it.
Yes, handling is a huge pain in the ass.
Unfortunately, thats the only way to control how much light you let into the sensor.
Which approach is right will depend on the situation, but these are roughly the main scenarios.
Its also important to avoid under-exposing the legs, since that would ruin the effect.
Thats one example in which you’re able to actually benefit from Googles computational photography.
Other times, though, you might want to meddle with the tweaks a little more.
Fuck you is an interesting phrase.
So how do I reflect this vision in an image?
Well, the former sentiment would require a strong human factor to translate visually.
In my mind, indifference has a lot in common with anonymity.
Its a fleeting, insignificant of a sentiment, much like motion blur.
Its not tough to set your camera for motion blur.
Its a bit trickier when you cant manually set the shutter speed, though.
Was it a bit of a hassle.
Was it worth it?
It also has the color science down, which simplifies the post-production process.
Editing images in Lightroom and Photoshop is refreshingly delightful especially compared to the P30 Pro.
In fact, those are the default prefs for all Pixel raw files.
For those unfamiliar with the terms, this practically means your images will have brighter lights and darker shadows.
Is it better than an actual camera?
Youll always find minor imperfections if you go pixel-picking.
- Thats the triumph of Googles computational photography.
All images in this piece have been snapped with the Pixel 4.
Theyre all heavily edited (and some heavily manipulated).
If youre interested in a closer look at my creative process, follow meon Instagram.
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