WHY SHOULD I EMPLOY A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER WHEN I CAN USE MY SMARTPHONE CAMERA?

Nowadays many business owners opt to photograph their food, drinks, and products themselves rather than hire a professional. They have a camera within easy reach on their smartphones, so I guess the logic makes sense. But is the logic correct? Providing you understand the limitations of phone cameras, along with the differences in color that basic phone settings can introduce, and couple that with having a good working knowledge of composition and lighting, then you are probably well equipped to take on the job yourself. But if any of those things concern you then read on. In this post, I intend to explore the differences between phone cameras and DSLRs, and some of the fundamental differences may surprise you.

How far has smartphone camera technology progressed?

Smartphone technology is advancing all the time. Lenses in particular are improving with faster glass that enables a greater amount of light to enter, producing softer backgrounds where needed. This provides you with greater control of which areas of your image are in focus, and which you would like to creatively soften. A huge step forward in technology, helping bridge the gap between smartphone cameras and DSLRs is the ability of some of the latest phones to provide manual exposure. This is now being built into some smartphones, and for some others there are third-party apps available, providing control over shutter speed and ISO, as well as whether the camera captures JPEG or RAW images. Adobe Lightroom CC takes this a step further by providing HDR functionality. You may be thinking that I’m building a great case for smartphone image creation. Don’t misunderstand me, my intent is not to criticize smartphones at all as after all, the best camera is the one you have with you. And I have also created numerous passable images using smartphone cameras. It really boils down to what you prefer to use and when. So let’s now take a quick look at the state of DSLR technology to see how the two compare.

How do DSLRs compare?

Spoiler alert, this section may get a little technical and mathematical.

One of the major advantages of smartphones is their size, they fit easily in your pocket whereas that’s far from the case with DSLR cameras. But that comes with a cost as small size is not always your friend. In this case, the small size of the smartphone image sensor can be problematic. As an example, the iPhone 14 has a 12-megapixel sensor. I would argue that is about the minimum you will need for food photography. Comparing that with the 45.7 megapixel sensor of the Nikon D850, it becomes obvious how much smartphone camera sensors are lacking.

Now I know what some of you may be thinking, which is some of the latest Samsung smartphones boast a megapixel count that vastly exceeds that of the Nikon D850 sensors. And you would be correct, but there’s a catch. There’s always a catch! The physical size of the Nikon D850 sensor is 24 x 36mm, meaning it’s 2 inches from corner to corner. By comparison, the sensor size of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra boasts a 200-megapixel sensor, which is about 0.77 inches from corner to corner. You would be forgiven for thinking that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra leaves the Nikon D850 in the dust when it comes to megapixels, but the issue here is that despite the fact that more megapixels can provide greater resolution, if it’s on a sensor that small having the pixels packed closer together, the resulting image will not be representative of the same image captured on a larger sensor, especially as image noise will be more apparent, particularly at higher ISO values. The larger DSLR sensors will also produce a greater dynamic range, which is especially useful if you are shooting in low light or where your scene has a high contrast. Dynamic range is what determines how much detail you will be able to capture within your image, measured in f/stops. The wider your dynamic range, the more detail you will be able to capture in both the highlights and shadows.

Another factor worth mentioning is that DSLRs have a physical shutter and optical viewfinder, whereas the smartphone’s shutter and display are electronic. This isn’t in any way a criticism of either, it’s one of those things that are more of a personal preference. Electronic viewfinders and shutters have the advantage of letting you see exactly what the camera sees, so you’ll have a good idea of how your image will turn out, and provide you with the option of making exposure adjustments on the fly. But here ISO is not your friend, you need to keep it low as both your preview and your final image will be noisy at higher ISOs.

A final word about Megapixels

Whichever type of camera you possess, whether it be a DSLR or a smartphone, despite the megapixel count claimed by the manufacturer, you will never be able to take advantage of the full count. If you are lucky enough to be using a 45.7 megapixel Nikon D850, not one of your images will be produced using 45.7 megapixels. In all cameras, 25% of the pixels are tuned to red light, 25% are tuned to blue light, and 50% are tuned to green light (the green pixel count is higher because our eyes are more sensitive to green light than the other colors). The pixel count also assumes perfect glass as well, which does not exist. Essentially the manufacturer’s quoted megapixel specification is a lab-generated measurement that cannot be attained in the real world.

Returning to the amazing 200-megapixel resolution of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. As I mentioned, the physical size of the sensor is only 0.77 inches, so its low-light performance will be poorer than that of a DSLR. So how do smartphones deal with this? They use a process termed “Pixel binning”, which is where adjacent pixels are combined to create “superpixels”, or in other words, artificially generated larger pixels that will have greater light sensitivity. The smartphone processor averages the inputs from four, nine, or even sixteen neighboring blue, green, or red-colored pixels, thus trading off resolution for dynamic performance. So those 200 megapixels? Don’t expect to be taking advantage of that high count, especially in low-light situations.

Let’s also consider the screens

When we shoot we do so tethered. Tethered shooting is where we connect our cameras to a computer and external color-calibrated monitor, which enables all images to be viewed as we take them. We find this is crucial to both keeping our workflow efficient and it also provides clients with the opportunity to review each image as we capture it.

The most important word in that paragraph was “calibrated”. Monitor calibration is a process whereby the colors on a monitor are measured and adjusted to comply with a common standard. Why is that important? It’s because every screen displays images differently. The same image will look different on our laptop monitors, external monitors, and our phone screens. There’s a good chance that it will also look different on a client’s screen, simply because each screen is designed and adjusted differently. When we sit down to view images with clients the question always arises about which screen is displaying the correct color, contrast, and brightness. Invariably this then extends to questions regarding how prints will turn out, will their colors match either screen or will they differ even more? The solution to these issues is monitor calibration, as this introduces color consistency. By employing a common standard each monitor can be adjusted so that it presents each image exactly the same way.  Further, professional printers are also calibrated to the same standard, which means the colors you view on the calibrated screen are going to be the same as what you will view on the print.

Now I hear you thinking, what has this got to do with the smartphone vs. DSLR comparison? It’s because smartphone screens are not calibrated at all, so by using a smartphone you will be introducing a degree of uncertainty when it comes to knowing whether you have captured the correct colors. To make matters worse, smartphones possess settings that can change the color of the screen so now you really don’t have any idea how your images should appear. The brightness setting alone can mess up exposure, so I suggest that if you intend to use your smartphone for any serious photography you adjust it to 50% brightness before you start shooting.

iPhones have a True Tone setting that completely changes the color of the screen, but thankfully, not the color of your images. But if you want to be able to see what your images are going to look like then it’s wise to turn that off. Also, the night shift function makes your screen very warm/yellow at night. So if you are shooting at night it can be worth turning that off as well.

Now switching to Android. I mentioned brightness above, and Android phones also have an "adaptive brightness" setting. Yes, you’ve guessed it, turn that off. Next is the eye comfort shield that turns your screen yellow. You know what I want you to do with it…yes, turn it off! Android users also have an option for changing the screen mode, you can either select “vivid” or “natural". This is a color saturation setting for your screen, but it does not affect your images. I recommend selecting “natural” rather than “vivid”. 

And the verdict is…

Personally, I prefer to use a DSLR to create commercial images and my smartphone for less important “snaps”. But I have taken many passable shots with only a smartphone, so I guess they can complement each other. Small size is a design objective with smartphones, so smartphone sensors will always be smaller than their DSLR counterparts. For this reason only, I do not personally feel that smartphones will ever supersede DSLRs; that will only be possible if they sacrifice the small size goal and increase their size. But I know only too well that technology is always advancing, today, probably at a faster rate than ever before. So things may change in the future for both smartphones and DSLRs. If you are a business owner deciding whether to photograph your products yourself using a smartphone, then I’m hoping this provides you with a few insights into their limitations. If you are confident that the colors in your final images will be correct then I wish you the best of luck. But if you’re not then just maybe it could be wise to hand off your project to a professional photographer. At the end of the day, whether you use a DSLR or smartphone is a personal choice, but I’m hoping the information that I’ve provided in this post will help you make an informed decision that is right for you.

If you would like to discuss beverage, food, or product photography further then feel free to reach out to us, as we provide professional beverage photography that gets your business noticed. Feel free to book a free 30-minute consultation here.

Do look around the rest of the blog here for more helpful posts, and if you have any questions please reach out. I’m happy to advise. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn where I always answer messages with a detailed reply.