Are you surprised to see photography skills of some iPhone users in 2023? Do you really want to develop this skill to click beautiful photographs from your iPhone? This article is for you!
In the first days of Smart Phones, we still held onto digital cameras and not really laying out trust in the phone’s capability to take good pictures. But today, some camera phones are better than the average point-and-shoot devices. Even professional photographers see smartphones as assisting equipment in their kit. If you have an iPhone, you probably have one of the best pocket cameras available in the market. The device is small, has a long range of capabilities, comes with a photo editor application, can be taken anywhere, and takes pretty enough photos. If you know how to use it right, you could as well be the king of Instagram!
In this article, we will share some cool iPhone photography tips for Apple users that can help you to click some amazing photographs with the help of your iOS device.
Cool iPhone Photography Tips and Tricks:
1. Practice and Practice:
Even with high-quality professional DSLRs, the quality of the pictures shows the amount of time you have spent shooting. Even with the iPhone, the basic theory of photography is the same. The more you practice, the better frames you make. Photographs can be made anywhere and at any moment – you need not travel to some exotic location. The more you see through the lens, the better you understand subjects and situations.
2. Zoom Your Feet not the iPhone Camera:
If you want to go closer to your object, you should zoom your feet as the iPhone doesn’t have a telephoto lens. While you may think of digital magnification as an alternative, it actually does ruin the quality of pictures. Don’t touch the slider at the bottom if you want crisp pictures. Alternatively, you can just walk some meters ahead to get a closer shot. For better quality, it is always recommended not to use the digital zoom provided by iPhone. You can even adjust the angle by adjusting your current position to get a better photograph.
3. Use Grid lines for Better Results:
One of the basic laws of photography is the rule of thirds. This ensures that you compose pictures in a way that they look aesthetic and deep. This would consequently include more head space, lesser negative space, the laws of direction, leading lines, and much more. Using the grid line display of the iPhone, you can come up with a better image than otherwise. Try to click different images by adjusting the location of your object and see which looks the best. This way you can have a better understanding of the object positioning in photography with iPhone devices.
4. Hold your iPhone as you would hold a true camera:
The quality of the image depends a lot upon stability. Sharp and crisp images are however hard to get if you are just playing away with your shooting. Hold the iPhone as you would do to your camera – use both hands and use your fingers to click the shutter. The iPhone is no less capable than a normal point-and-shoot camera. Give the device its recognition!
5. Learn to use AE/AF lock:
If you want to focus on a moving subject (bird, cyclist, running kids, etc); use the AE/AF (Auto focus) lock to your advantage. This also works great with moving objects to click a stable photograph. You can easily lock the focus on your object by launching your iPhone photo app and holding your finger on the object in the screen. You will see one rectangle and then one message “AE/AF lock” and it is done. You can find detailed articles about how to use AE/AF lock feature in this blog post.
6. Light, Camera & Click:
Photography is all about good light and proper exposure. It is practice and understanding the capabilities and limitations of the iPhone that would make you a better iPhonographer. The general principle says that the lower the light, the grainier the picture is. However, shooting in low light conditions such as dawn or dusk and even at night can result in amazing frames. Just keep your composition steady.
7. Use extra lenses:
If you are bent on increasing the capability of your iPhone camera, there are several options for extra lenses compatible with iPhone available in the market. The normal iPhone camera has a 30 mm focal length. You can add extra magnetic lenses including a macro for close-ups, fish eye lenses for dramatic landscapes, and wide angles for extra large frames. You can easily find such lenses available on leading eCommerce websites like Amazon.
8. VSCO Cam Presets:
VSCO Cam is an amazing iPhone application that allows the shoot, edit, and publish features along with amazing additional facilities to enhance your iPhone photography. it allows amazing presets to edit your iPhone photos and the best filter is the analog effect creating surreal images. Apart from this, it is equipped with amazing features like Presets, before-after comparison, grid, editing and many more.
9. Manual Editing:
There are a great variety of photo editing apps available for iPhones. However, the best results are achieved if you choose to manually edit your photos. Editing is professional photography means touching up the pictures and not extending to graphic editing of the whole frame. There are different photo editor tools available online but the most popular and trusted tool used by a professional photographer is Adobe light room and adobe photoshop.
10. Use HDR Mode:
High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode captures multiple exposures to ensure details are preserved in both highlights and shadows. This is especially useful in high-contrast scenes. Simply enable HDR in your camera settings.
11. Explore Portrait Mode:
On newer iPhones, Portrait Mode can mimic the depth of field of professional cameras, creating a beautiful background blur effect. Experiment with this feature for captivating portraits.
12. Third-Party Camera Apps:
Explore third-party camera apps like ProCam or Halide. They offer advanced manual controls, allowing you to fine-tune settings like ISO, shutter speed, and white balance for greater creative control.
13. Get Creative:
Image Courtesy: Flickr
Great photos showcase great shooting angles, lie down, shoot the sky, and experiment with shooting angles. Give some time to observe the field or your object and try different angles, you certainly will get unique frames.
Conclusion:
There is no doubt about the quality of photographs that can be clicked from an iPhone device, the only thing is; you need to understand the basics of photography. Start practicing now and keep sharing your photographs here by comment. We would love to feature them in this article.
FAQs:
Practice is key. Experiment with different techniques, study photography principles & learn from other photographers.
The rule of thirds photography divides your frame into nine equal parts. Place key subjects or points of interest along these lines or at their intersections for balanced and visually appealing shots.
Popular apps like Adobe Lightroom, Snapseed, and VSCO offer powerful editing tools to enhance color, contrast, and composition.
HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode combines multiple exposures to capture detail in both highlights and shadows. Use it in high-contrast scenes for balanced photos.
