Smaller and smaller

Smaller and smaller

For strictly aesthetic reasons, I've never given much thought to LensWork's digital editions on smart phones. Sure, our PDFs can be viewed on an iPhone/etc, but the screen size seems too small to be an important choice. Nonetheless, I've received a number of emails lately from readers who've mentioned that this is precisely how they view our digital versions.

This didn't make much sense to me until I realized that these same people are probably using their iPhone/etc to view photographs they've made with the device. In some regards, the iPhone fan is becoming trained to see images at that scale. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that if they view web pages, movies, and their own still images on a 4-5" screen that they would find it perfectly acceptable to view LensWork Extended there, too.

Personally, I'll leave this to younger eyes than mine, but it is interesting how the hardware trends are affecting media consumption norms. Last night I watched a movie on my Nexus 7 tablet with my high-end Sony headphones. I must confess, it was a fantastic experience to have the audio played that way — so engaging that I never once felt uncomfortable with the video experience limited to the 7-inch screen. Visually, it was no different than reading a book at normal viewing distance. I could get very used to it.

Comments

[Jim Bullard]

I for one don't view Lenswork Extended on my phone. Partly for the aging eyes reason and party because I've learned from previewing images on the camera screen that size is important to whether some images 'work' or not. Tiny images work better if they lean heavily on strong forms but images with small detail need to be bigger. I've shot photos that looks fine on the little screen but when I blew them up on the computer screen they were "Eh!".

[Stephen Kane]

I would second Jim Bullard's comments. There's an art to making images appealing at the smaller sizes, but for some images, no amount of art or artifice will do them justice. Others may look like gallery masterpieces when seen small (thus the popularity of instant-art apps?) but fail in the transition to "standard" photo size. I guess it's just one more thing to consider before tossing certain photographs in the digital trash.

[Joan Myers]

What headphones do you have? I'm in the market...

[Brooks Jensen]

Joan,
For what use? Home, on the go, bluetooth, music? Truth be told, I have about 10 different pair that I use for various purposes.
Brooks

[Joan Myers]

Hi Brooks: I need good ones for a movie, on the go, for my Nexus 7. I spend too much time in airports and motel rooms...j

[Brooks Jensen]

Joan,
For more than you probably want to know, see http://daily.lenswork.com/2012/11/headphones.html.
Brooks

[Iza]

I actually was viewing and reading almost everything on the iPhone before I got an iPad and never gave it a second thought as to screen size. Portability was far more important. However, now, having an iPad, I read and write almost everything there, and only use large screen of my computer to post-process images. It might go away one day, too. Again- portability....