Impractical Practical Photography

There is a lot of doom and gloom in the photo industry surrounding renderings taking over photography. Some of them are old hat, like Ikea's catalogues, some are new like virtual Instagram influencers, and each one heralds the end of our profession.

Apple, recently, has been going the other direction. The wallpapers for the latest iPhones and Apple Watches are all real photos and videos¹. Planets made of soap, nebulas from ink and paint, and physics replacing a physics engine with giant versions of watch faces.

In both cases using CGI might have been easier, but Apple instead chose to allow their photographers to experiment and play with photography in ways that aren't often found in commercial shoots. The results are visually stunning and, perhaps, even whimsical.