Street Art Archives - Fashion Voyeur

When it comes to cameras, I’m one of those Bloggers who uses a cellphone for everything and there are a few reasons for that, the main one being that my EDS and Fibromyalgia just don’t like lugging round more equipment than the bare minimum. These days with cellphone cameras packing a pretty decent punch, they’re keeping people like me pretty happy when it comes to taking decent pictures and building in edit-ability. The front runners as we know are always Samsung and Apple (Apple fangirl over here) but Huawei are coming up trumps with their latest offering and the camera capability is even being compared to that of a DSLR.

With Apple now churning out two Key Notes per annum and with it that usually means two specs of iPhone, one on the “budget” end of the Apple spectrum and one more high end, products have never been more accessible. For 2018 Apple have focussed more on the iPhone X spec and scrapped its previous fascia for this new edge to edge design. When Three UK invited me to East London to take an iPhone XS out for a spin I jumped at the chance to photograph some of the most vibrant street art in the UK, after all, where else does the art change as quick as the staircases in Hogwarts?

Arriving at Old Street I was given a quick tour of the new functionality in the iPhone XS, basically if you shoot in Apple’s Portrait Mode (a Blogger’s staple) which blurs the background and sharpens the foreground – nine times out of ten, the iPhone XS floods this mode with light and allows you to sharpen or thicken the level of blur enhancing the effect. Pretty neat right? It’s a small change, and it’s the only change, but trust me, it makes a huge difference. Just the amount of light that makes it into the shot is worth it.

An image looking across an outdoor bar on the Shoreditch approach close to BoxPark. Fashion Voyeur Blog

iPhone XS Camera Trial A perspex bux as a piece of wall art, these are found all over the art district between Old Street, Hoxton and Spitalfields. Fashion Voyeur blog

iPhone XS Camera Trial: An image showing depth of perception and perception of depth. A mirrored office block reflects the buildings around it, some have street art painted on to them, there are trees close in the foreground and towerblocks in the distance demonstrating the camera's ability to photograph depth and translate this into an image. Fashion Voyeur Blog

The iPhone XS also seems a little more intuitive when you ask it to focus on something too, obviously the iPhone X was almost a prototype for Apple, it was completely new technology and as an iPhone X owner I’m a fan, but having used the iPhone XS I can see those refinements in action and see how well they work. What the iPhone XS is good at doing is picking up depth and both perceiving and translating that into an image. It’s also able to filter light across an image to great effect in the same way you might use it in a selfie to create a halo, by splitting the colours like a rainbow.

iPhone XS Camera Trial: Strett art painted under a bridge in black and orange which reads SCARY, shop on the iPhone XS splitting light across the image to create a halo effect

iPhone XS Camera Trial: An image shot down a wall creating depth, of a street art painted star

iPhone XS Camera Trial: Dumplings being prepared and cooked and shot through the steam in a food market opposite Old Truman Brewery

Shooting with the iPhone XS as a point and shoot camera is a dream. There’s no facility to shoot in raw like there is with the Huawei P20 Pro or Mate 20 Pro so it comes down to weighing up what you use the phone for in its entirety. Personally I’m an Apple fan girl through and through and I’m not sure anything could make me part with any of my Apple products; even when I’ve hated them, I always end up loving them. Apple’s choice of apps and ease of use far outweigh those of the Android platform for me.

iPhone XS Camera Trial: Political street art relating to Grenfell one year on and still no justice.

iPhone XS Camera Trial: Street Artists working on huge murals in Shoreditch

iPhone XS Camera Trial: Green dragon graffiti in Spitalfields, London

The iPhone XS though is one of those that you just click with, the absence of the home button might frustrate legacy iPhone users for around two hours, then you’ll forget you ever used one. Editing images is easy within the camera software itself, however if you’re an avid photographer caught without your camera and find yourself shooting on this device, you can always shoot on raw via the LightRoom app; something photographer (and now mate) Rob Percy taught me.

iPhone XS Camera Trial: A huge green wall mural with a tower block also featuring street art and two train carriages on top painted with graffiti on the Shoreditch approach.

iPhone XS Camera Trial: A silver figure protuding from the wall as a piece of three dimensional street art near the truman Brewery in London

iPhone XS Camera Trial: A child using the iPhone XS on a photowalk around Shoreditch to photograph a huge street art mural covering an entire wall

iPhone XS Camera Trial: The famous Romeo & Juliet House in Shoreditch, London, emblazoned with painted vines and quotes from the Shakespeare story as well as the painted figures of Romeo and Juliet themselves.

Basically if you’re wondering whether it’s worth an early upgrade then it comes purely down to affordability. I loved it and the ease of use and slick new touches were great, it’s less of an upgrade and more of a refinement, to me, it’s what the iPhone X should have been when it was released last year. If you can afford it go for it, if you can’t then wait, there might be something better round the corner when your upgrade is due.

Pixie