Berlin by iPhone
A few weeks ago I got to spend some time in Berlin, and so of course I took the opportunity to try and photograph the city whenever I had a chance. While I actually had a bunch of different cameras with me, I ended up taking quite a lot of photos on my iPhone. I will cover the other photos I got with both my Fujifilm and Canon cameras in a later post, but for now, I thought I would collect all the iPhone ones into a single story!
We were in the city for two weeks, and for the first week, we stayed near Alexanderplatz. This part of the city, still has the hallmarks of its east Berlin past, especially in some of the imposing architecture that has survived. There is certainly an air of brutalism in the buildings, even the more modern ones, which I guess is to blend in. It was also cold, wet and foggy much of the time we were there which added to this atmosphere. And of course, the famous TV tower hovering over everything punctuated the sky (and the clouds) to constantly remind you of where you were. We had a running joke while we were there that you could see this from almost everywhere in the city, and sure enough, everywhere we went, there it was in the background. We did get a couple of nice days though, where the sky was clear and this made for a nice juxtaposition with said TV tower!
As you venture away from the square much of the city’s past is on display, from the multitude of architectural styles of centuries past, to the juxtaposition of old and new buildings on museum island. And everywhere is just that little bit gritty.
For the second half of the stay we were between Podstamer Platz and the canal and I noticed a distinct change in the styles of the buildings. Now in former West Berlin, I think you could see the influence of the divided city, with a distinctly different style of building, but maybe it was my imagination. Perhaps a resident or more scholarly person than me can enlighten me as to if this is true or not. The uniting factor was the graffiti and some pretty incredible street art. Of course the other thing you see everywhere are the ubiquitous bike lanes along with speeding cyclists.
Then there are the more modern towers of Podstamer Platz with the iconic Sony Centre and the Berlin Mall with its giant glass ceiling connecting the two halls of the building. We spend the last morning in the Tiergarten enjoying the spring blooming trees and flowers as the temperatures soared. The following day (after we left) was to be the Berlin marathon, so barriers were up everywhere for that, but it was nice to have a relaxing few hours to relax in nature before getting on a plane.
These were all shot on the iPhone 15 Pro Max and in Apple Pro RAW. I processed these in Lightroom and I ended up creating a unifying look for these and the shots from my other cameras. I might make them available as a Preset to download once I have the second part of this post finished, so stay tuned for that.
I also shot a few faux X-Pan type shots with the 65x24app that I talked about recently. I tried to process these to look a bit like film, but I wasn’t hugely happy with the results. I’ll include some of them anyway, as they finished the iPhone theme off nicely!
Final Thoughts on Shooting Berlin with an iPhone
Berlin is a city that rewards wandering—and with a device like the iPhone 15 Pro Max, it's easy to capture fleeting moments without slowing down. Whether you're after gritty urban textures, moody skies, or spontaneous scenes, shooting Berlin on an iPhone proves that you don’t need a full camera kit to come back with compelling images.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll share the photos from my Fujifilm and Canon cameras—and perhaps a downloadable preset to go with them.