PhotoActive

Episode 179: iPhone Camera Accessories

February 11th, 2025  |  32 mins 54 secs

apple, cameras, grip, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, moment, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

Photographers love to accessorize their cameras, and the iPhone is no different. A case is one thing, but what about other photo-centric add-ons? Should you buy an extra-wide or telephoto lens that snaps in front of the built-in cameras? What about grips and shutter buttons that make the iPhone feel more like a traditional camera? We weigh in with our opinions and experiences with these types of embellishments. (And Jeff accidentally uses the B-word.)

Episode 178: Photographing the LA Fires

January 24th, 2025  |  28 mins 19 secs

apple, cameras, fire, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, wildfire

The recent devastating fires in Los Angeles have created a lot of fire photography, and some of it compelling both for its content and its artistry. We talk about the challenges of photographing such extreme situations.

Episode 177: AI in Photography in 2025

January 10th, 2025  |  35 mins 11 secs

ai, apple, cameras, generative ai, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

We’ve been looking at various AI-related photography topics in recent episodes, such as using the Clean Up feature in the Photos app to remove unwanted items or the bigger question of “What is a photo?” Now it’s time to look broadly at what AI can offer photographers and where we think it’s going.

Episode 176: Cleaning Up Libraries

December 13th, 2024  |  27 mins 19 secs

apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

As we wrap up 2024, we’re realizing our photo libraries have grown quite a bit—in Jeff’s case, almost filling his cloud storage. So as we anticipate some holiday downtime, we’re turning our attention to strategies for cleaning up our photo libraries.

Note that we’re taking the next episode off to celebrate Christmas, so our next scheduled episode is January 10, 2025. Happy holidays!

Episode 175: What Is a Photo?

December 1st, 2024  |  34 mins 54 secs

apple, cameras, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

Our recent discussions of AI and the Photos Clean Up tool have brought us full circle to the bigger question: What is a photo?

Episode 174: Photos Clean Up

November 18th, 2024  |  32 mins 5 secs

apple, apple intelligence, cameras, clean up, generative ai, iphone, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

Aimless pedestrians wandering in the background of your photo? Trash on the ground in the foreground? Apple can help. In this episode we're looking at Clean Up, the new Apple Intelligence tool in the Photos app that uses generative AI to remove areas of a photo.

Episode 173: iPhone Photo File Formats

November 4th, 2024  |  38 mins 28 secs

apple, cameras, heic, heif, iphone, jeff carlson, jpeg-xl, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast, proraw

In our quest to better understand the often-confusing changes and additions to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro photo situation, we’ve decided to tackle the photo file formats. HEIF, ProRAW, JPEG-XL... there are a lot of options to choose from.

Episode 172: Photographic Styles on the iPhone 16

October 18th, 2024  |  35 mins 14 secs

apple, cameras, iphone, iphone 16, iphone 16 pro, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photographic styles, photography, podcast

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro introduce a new twist on an existing feature, and the result is... confusion and complexity. Photographic Styles can be very powerful, but it really requires you to dig into the details.

Episode 171: iPhone 16 Pro Hands-On

October 4th, 2024  |  35 mins 52 secs

apple, cameras, iphone, iphone 16 pro, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

Now that Kirk and Jeff have received their iPhone 16 Pros, it’s time to take them into the world and see how the new photographic features work. Is the Camera Control all it’s cracked up to be? Does a 48 megapixel ultra-wide camera make much difference? We talk about our first hands-on experiences with Apple’s new pocket cameras—sorry, mobile phones. Oh, and what about all this Apple Intelligence stuff?

Episode 170: iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro

September 13th, 2024  |  44 mins 5 secs

apple, cameras, iphone, iphone 16, iphone 16 pro, jeff carlson, kirk mcelhearn, lenses, photo editing, photo organization, photography, podcast

It’s that time again: new iPhones! By which we mean, of course, new Apple Cameras That Also Do Other Stuff. Kirk and Jeff are both upgrading their phones this year, largely due to the new Camera Control button but also the 48 MP (megapixel) ultra-wide camera and the new 48 MP Fusion camera that reads data fast enough to remove the shutter lag when shooting raw images. There’s a lot to discuss in this bonus-length episode!