The trouble with smartphones and pads

[rpcrowe]

I have noticed that many persons shoot video using their smartphone or other device in the vertical (upright) position. Sure, this is the normal way a person might shoot. After-all this is the position which you use when making a phone call.

However this will result in a vertical image. When displayed on a horizontal viewing screen, the image is reduced in size so that the vertical can fit in the horizontal format. You end up with a skinny image only filling a portion of the format. What a waste!

Here is a video done by a member of the San Diego Shelter.

https://youtu.be/52ISDekh-rw

If the phone or pad had been tilted 90 degrees when shooting, the result would be an image that fills the horizontal formal...

[Shadowman]

Well at least it was posted to youtube in the correct format. I've seen quite a few videos posted where you have to crane your neck to see the content.

[Venser]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA

You're welcome.

[Mike Buckley]

Your thread title refers to the trouble with smart phones and pads. It seems to me that the real trouble is that some of the users aren't as smart as their smart phones or pads.

Ironically, just yesterday I saw a gorgeous full-page photo on the rear cover of Food and Wine magazine. It was taken using an iPhone 6. It makes me wonder why I have a DSLR.

[rpcrowe]

Although my wife has the iPhone 6, I have never read the instructions for that phone. I guess that I will read the instructions after iPhone 7 or 8 comes out and my wife upgrades. Then I will inherit her iPhone 6. I am using an iPhone 5 which I inherited when my wife switched to the 6P.

Anyway, I wonder if the instruction book mentions the correct position in which to hold the phone for videos...

And Mike, regarding the quality of iPhone photography, my daughter and her husband, along with two of their friends use the latest Samsung smart phones. The quality of the imagery from those phones appears (at least viewing them on the phone's LCD) better than what we get from the iPhone 6P.

That doesn't bother me a bit, because I have no desire to shoot with my iPhone...

Venser: What a wonderful YouTube video. I will be using it from now on when I reply to folks who send me vertical videos...

[dje]

Yes great video from Venser, I must show it to my daughters who transgress like this all the time ! The trouble is, they look at it in vertical mode on their phones and it fills the screen but as their chief video editor, I get to deal with it in Premiere and it drives me mad.

Dave

[NorthernFocus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA

You're welcome.

You're thanked. That was cool.

[jcuknz]

Mike ... When I see what my Son produces with his 'pad' at times I wonder why I bother with MFT On the other hand at the moment they do not have the reach ... but I believe they are working on that

Have posted the link Venser to my family circle ... Thank you

[Black Pearl]

Oh man you've hit on one of my absolute pet hates.

I get irritated enough by people who aren't into photography that shoot vertical videos but when friends who I know aren't stupid, who I know understand photography and who I know should know better do it I'm seized with apoplexy and start ranting at the computer screen or iPhone/iPad - which are inanimate objects and don't listen but that doesn't stop me.

And if one of them says something like "Well I couldn't get everything in if I shot it horizontal" well thats it, I burst, I start waving my arms, pulling my hair out, goggling at them in utter confusion and ranting even more. I know for a fact every one of them has a decent sized wide screen TV at home and I also know for a fact that none of those TV's are mounted upright!!!!!!!

Right - I'm starting to itch - I'm off out to walk the dog and breath deeply

[rpcrowe]

I am glad to learn that this gripe against vertical videos isn't just from a cranky old man...

I also had a gripe with Facebook postings, Many postings resulted in off center images like these that one of our volunteers posted...



However, some research solved the problem;





This results in sizings like this...



BTW: The top left image shows the dog as she looked when we got her, pretty ratty. I have since attached titles to these entry images, indicating that they are how the dog looked when we got it...

Images without borders. These were shot using a cell phone but, cropped to fit...



All that I have to do now is to convince our volunteers to resize the photos before posting. I have even offered to resize the images if they would send them to me. However, some of our volunteers (and a couple of executives of the group) don't see anything wrong with the awkward sizing Some times I feel like I am shoveling sand against the tide I wonder if I am being too picky???