Instead of using a big camera, I used my professional gear in my pocket!
In order to create the "Grit and Glory" theme for Buzzed Magazine, I would need to have equipment that could handle fast movement and editing. While most students may be able to use a regular DSLR camera, I decided to use the iPhone 15 Pro to show that mobile technology can be at an industry standard for print media.
Shooting in 48MP ProRAW (The "Print Ready" Setting)
In order to create my cover and feature spread for this assignment, I did not use the regular "Photo" setting. I went into Settings > Camera > Formats to turn on Apple ProRAW Max (48MP).
Why? Photos are compressed into small sizes by default. ProRAW captures all of the image data from the sensor. This provided me with the "editing latitude" to increase the shadows of the gym scene and sharpen the textures of the athlete’s muscles without the image becoming "pixelated" or "grainy."
Freezing the Action with Burst Mode
Timing is everything in sports photography. For the "Performance" section of my TOC (Image 1), I had to capture the perfect moment when the athlete is in peak tension.
Technique: I used the volume button to enable Burst Mode, which allows me to take 10 frames per second. I could then choose the perfect frame where the athlete's form is in perfect shape. In my production log, this is represented by "deliberate selection," which is a key convention in magazines where only the most heroic image is used.
Portrait Mode for Depth of Field
For the "Wellness" shot (Image 2), I wanted to have a "soft" background to convey a sense of relaxation.
The Tech: I used the Telephoto lens, which has a 3x zoom, in Portrait Mode. The palm trees in the background became blurred, which made the subject stand out. This is known as "shallow depth of field," which is commonly used in high-end lifestyle magazines like GQ or Vogue.
Manual Exposure Control
The lighting in the gym is quite harsh. To control this, I tapped the screen to open the exposure controls and moved the sun icon down to achieve a darker exposure. This gave my "Sage" and "Red" tones in my final design a much more dramatic look.
Reflection
In using the iPhone 15 Pro, I was able to quickly move from the gym to the outdoor locations without having to carry heavy equipment. With the 48MP resolution coupled with ProRAW, these images looked as sharp as those in any sports publication on the market today when I imported them into InDesign.
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