ELLE Australia has created history by being the first Australian magazine to shoot their newest cover and editorial, using only Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus.
The June cover features fashion blogger-stylist and influencer Margaret Zhang, shot by fashion photographer Georges Antoni.The beautiful image was taken at sunset on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, using the iPhone 7 plus feature ‘portrait mode’ and if you didn’t know it, you wouldn’t be able to guess it!
The ‘portrait mode’ function was designed to combine the two cameras on the iPhone 7 Plus, to create a sharp focus on the person in the foreground whilst blurring the background. Pretty professional hey! Who needs a super expensive DSLR camera anymore?
Justine Cullen, editor-in-chief of ELLE Australia thinks the use of smartphones is so ubiquitous in our everyday lives, so why not use it for our work too? “Our phones these days are not only the truly ‘must-have’ accessory, they’re also an extension of who we are,” she said to Mumbrella.
Also speaking to Mumbrella, Antoni said he found the experience shooting a magazine cover on an iPhone 7 Plus to be an interesting dynamic. “The public are so conditioned to seeing people shooting on their phones that they don’t really take notice, so the shoot could happen in a much more stealth way.”
Whilst ELLE may have been Australia’s first magazine to produce a whole cover and editorial with a smartphone, this way of professional photography isn’t new. American photographer Miller Mobley also went ahead and used the iPhone7 Plus to shoot a magazine cover for Billboard, featuring model Camila Cabello.
According to Billboard, Mobley explained that working with an iPhone allows for ease of use in the sense that it’s smaller and creates a more casual nature when shooting. “It was interesting to see Camila’s response to shooting with the iPhone,” he said. “Because of her age and the generation she’s grown up with, an iPhone has always been around and accessible.”
Smartphones are being used by professional photographers seemingly more and more and apparently for a good reason.
According to Apple, the depth of field effect created with the iPhone 7 Plus ‘portrait mode’, ‘was previously only reserved for DSLR cameras.’
So with smartphones now using DSLR competitive features, where does that leave the future of professional photography? Will cameras eventually even exist?
The newest thing for fashion photography could soon probably include a cover or editorial shoot taken only with a drone. Now before anyone actually puts this idea into action, remember you heard it from us first!