The days of blurry low-res photos are fully in the past — the latest iPhones feature built-in cameras that rival DSLR cameras in quality. If you’re using your phone as a casual point-and-shoot digital camera, these tricks will transform your ordinary snapshots into professional-looking works of art.
Explore the Camera’s Built-in Features
The iPhone’s Camera app is designed to automatically help you take the best-quality photos with minimal need for editing.
- Tap to focus: A simple tap on the screen puts your subject in focus. Tap and hold to lock in the autofocus (AE/AF). Slide up or down to adjust the exposure or brightness.
- Get artistic with filters: Tap the three circles icon for a selection of color filters to apply to your scene. Choose from Vivid Cool to Dramatic Warm tints or Noir for moody black-and-white portraits. Filters can be undone in the iPhone’s Photos app.
- Experiment with photography formats: In addition to standard photos and videos, the built-in Camera app lets you switch between time-lapse and panoramic photography, slo-mo video, and portrait mode. You have never had so many ways to record cute pet moments!
Take Control With Photo Shooting Apps
Unleash your iPhone camera’s full potential with apps that offer DSLR-style manual controls. With apps like Camera+2, Obscura Camera, or Manual Cam, you can adjust the ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and more. Use Slow Shutter Cam for cool waterfalls, light trails, and motion blur effects.
Shine a Light
Brighten up your selfies with a clip-on ring light. Ring lights are available in a variety of sizes. They offer multiple brightness levels and are USB rechargeable, so you’ll never take pics in the dark again.
See Through a Different Lens
Capture more of the world around you with iPhone photography accessories like a secondary detachable lens. Lens kits for the iPhone include specialty lenses for macro, wide-angle, and fish-eye photography. Simply attach the lens to your front-facing camera and get a new perspective on your surroundings.
Edit With the Photos App
The native Photos app on your iPhone offers more than storage for your pictures and videos. You can also directly edit your photographs. Open your image in the Photo library and select Edit to adjust filters, size, and orientation and to manually fine-tune settings for exposure, shadows, vibrancy, and other features. (You can go through a full range of these features here on our blog.)
Enhance With Editing Apps
Need to do some quick retouching before posting your pics online? No need to upload images to a desktop computer — you can do it all from your phone! Try some of the best phone photo editing apps, such as Snapseed, Adobe Lightroom, or TouchRetouch, to fix blemishes and remove unwanted objects. (Psst: we rounded up our favorite editing apps here on our blog!)
Mobile phone photography has come a long way from grainy flip phone pics. Swipe left on your iPhone lock screen to start snapping those time-lapse selfies and fish-eye pet portraits! Take advantage of every opportunity to document life’s precious memories – and make sure you get them printed.