Bon Appétit Used the iPhone to Shoot Its March Issue

The iPhone 6S is responsible for the photos in the March issue of Bon Appétit

By Lulu Chang February 17, 2016

apple 2016 first quarter iphone 6s plus review camera — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The folks at Apple have been telling us for years that our iPhones can replace all the fancy cameras in the world, and now thanks to Bon Appétit magazine, they’re finally able to say, “Told you so.” On Tuesday, every foodie’s favorite publication revealed that it shot its March issue using, you guessed it, the not-so-humble iPhone. In a blog post revealing the big surprise, the magazine wrote, “Imagine the surprise the photographers we worked with on our March Culture Issue experienced when they got the call saying they’d have to ditch their DSLRs and tethers for the hippest pocket camera around.” And as it turns out, the results were still pretty spectacular — at least, in terms of making us salivate.

When you grab your copy of the magazine next month, keep in mind that “nearly every photo in the feature well (aka the big, visual stories in the middle of the magazine), was shot on an iPhone 6s.” Speaking with Wired, the food publication’s creative director, Alex Grossman, admitted that the entire premise came about as something of an amusing accident. “I think we probably said it jokingly initially and then were like, you know, it actually might be possible,” he said.

But it’s only very recently that the iPhone has adopted the capabilities that make its camera worthy of shooting magazine-ready photographs. As Wired reports, “Grossman says it’s really just a matter of increased file size — a bar the latest crop of smart phones has no trouble rising above. The bigger the file, the better it will look on a printed magazine page.”

The latest issue is a very real representation of how most food looks online in the age of mobile phones and Instagram, in which everyone is something of an amateur photographer. “Food culture has gotten a lot more democratic. We can all snap a photo, post a blog, it’s become more inclusive instead of exclusive,” Adam Rapoport, editor of Bon Appétit, told Fast Company. “And the smartphone has had a tremendous amount to do with that.”

To read about all the trials and tribulations that came alongside the iPhone-only challenge, check out Bon Appétit’s blog post on the issue, and pick up next month’s issue to decide just how good that phone’s camera really is.

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