Apple unveils the best photos from the Shot on iPhone Macro Challenge
The trick to getting the best out of camera phones is to shore up their weaknesses with external devices. Cell phone cameras are multiple stops slower than &quot;real&quot; cameras (i.e. they take in 1&#x2F;4 to 1&#x2F;8th as much light). So you add light to the scene to shore up that weakness.<p>Most of these pictures were probably lit very carefully with high quality lights, or else were taken in bright daylight, and the phone was probably held in a high quality tripod. It is also likely that hundreds of dollars worth of software was used to edit each of these images.<p>It&#x27;s pretty cool that you can get such nice results from a phone. But you&#x27;d probably have an easier time of it on a five year old aps-c camera with a macro lens, to say nothing of modern 35mm cameras.<p>These images are somewhat analogous to the videos of fake hamburgers that fast food companies use to sell their product. That is, the physical conditions where this picture was taken did exist. It&#x27;s not totally CG. But the images are designed to make you think that you can get results that practically are out of reach for most of the people looking at the photos.<p>Still knowing that can also allow you to make better cell phone pictures by taking into account those weaknesses when you&#x27;re taking pictures. There are valuable techniques to learn from these images, aside from the fact that they are all high quality art.