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9 Essential Tips For Taking Great Photos On The iPhone Camera

The iPhone Camera is fantastic for snapping photos. It’s become one of the most popular cameras you can buy. It’s so good that many people have decided to put their digital cameras on a shelf and use the one in their pocket. Read on to take your photography to the next level.

Use the iPhone Camera Shortcut

There are plenty of third-party camera apps out there, but if you want to catch something that’s happening now, you need speed on your side—this won’t happen if you need to unlock your device, tap on an icon and wait for it to load!

While on the Lock Screen, you can quickly swipe to the left, and you’re inside the Camera App.

If the iPhone or iPad is open and you’re inside an app, just swipe down from the upper right corner on an iPhone or iPad with Face ID, swipe up from the bottom of the screen on a device with Touch ID. This opens Control Center, and your Camera App is right there.

Follow the Rule of Thirds on the iPhone Camera App

To help you compose better shots, turn on the grid. This screen overlay can be found in Settings > Camera > Grid. It’s based on a photography trick known as the rule of thirds. Instead of always putting your subject directly in the middle of the shot, frame them to the left or right at the point where two grid lines intersect; you will generally get a more pleasing composition. Try it out. You may be surprised at the results.

Turn Off the Flash

Flash isn’t always the best way to go! Even though it’s improved over the years, it’s just an LED light, not that powerful, and it can give your photos a strange hue. 

Instead, try shooting in a natural light setting, or if you’re shooting at night, use the Camera app’s exposure slider to boost light in the photo.

Forget the Shutter Button

 Whether you’re taking a selfie or a photo of something in front of you. The on-screen shutter button isn’t always easily accessible. There is a better option— the volume button.

When taking a selfie, it’s more comfortable using the volume button and no more fingers getting in the way of the photo, and it helps to avoid camera shake on all your photos. If you’re taking a landscape photo, using the volume button allows you to use your iPhone just like you would a physical camera. It feels more natural.

Lock in Focus on the iPhone Camera

If shooting macro photography or want to prevent your iPhone camera from grabbing a different subject in the frame, tap and hold on the subject until you see the yellow AE/AF Lock appear on the screen. This allows the automatic exposure metering and automatic focus metering to be locked on your subject. To remove the lock, just tap anywhere else on the frame.

Use the Exposure Meter

If an image seems underexposed or over-exposed to your liking, it’s easy to adjust this before snapping the photo using the yellow exposure slider next to the focus square. 

Just tap once on the screen, and the focus square appears; using the sun icon next to the square allows you to increase your exposure by sliding up and decreasing the exposure by sliding down.

Turn on HDR Auto

Your iPhone has a software feature called HDR or High Dynamic Range. It allows you to capture a nice image without distorting either the light or the dark area of the photo. It does this by snapping several pictures in quick succession at different exposures, then merges them together to create a unified image. It’s great for taking a photo that is very bright against a darkening background.

Go into Settings > Camera > Turn on Smart HDR

It uses information from your iPhone’s sensor to determine when an image may need HDR correction. Only then does it activate HDR. This can save a little bit of storage space and prevents you from shooting HDR unnecessarily.

Master Portrait Mode on the iPhone Camera

Portrait Mode is a feature that’s often overlooked. With Portrait Mode, you can more easily focus on your subject and blur the background. 

It’s great for taking photos of a friend in a crowded place, or there’s an unattractive background or maybe a photo bomber. 

To enable Portrait Mode, open the Camera app, swipe to Portrait at the bottom of the screen.

You can immediately take a photo or take advantage of a lighting option across the bottom from Natural, Studio, or Contour light. Maybe you want to be creative and use Stage Light mono or High-Key Light Mono for black and white.

If you choose a lighting option, just leave it selected and take your photo. When you preview your image, you’ll see the subject in clear focus, and the background is blurred. This is a really cool effect to try out!

Add Some Lenses to your iPhone Camera

You can even add lenses if you like. Clip-on lenses are a great way to expand your options with minimal expense. There are many different types, macro, wide-angle and telephoto, and fish-eye, so you have plenty of flexibility.

Prices can vary. Olliclip is considered the leader in this market. However, there are plenty of other options.

Conclusion

If you have some thoughts or suggestions on iPhone photography, let’s hear them in the comment section. If you’re looking to take fabulous action shots  CLICK HERE

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Hi, I'm Ellen!

I help mature adults master their iPhone and iPads, even if they aren’t  techie! 

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