Useful Tips For iPhone Photography – 10 Incredibly Useful Tips

The iPhone has inspired some people to take up photography since the camera in the phone is a quality camera with several functions that can be found on regular digital cameras.  Previously, cameras that were installed in the cellular phones were fine for what they were used for, which was primarily snapshots of friends, or vehicle accident reports.

There could be nothing else done with the camera because, in general, they all had a long lag time from the click of the shutter to the appearance of the image.  Needless to say, the pictures never caught what was originally intended by the photographer since anything living had a few second to move around, change position or even leave before the camera captured the image.

The iPhone has spawned a whole new group of aspiring photographers because of its ease of use and accessibility in addition to the high quality photographs it is able to capture.  Even those who are professional photographers, even just as a hobby, enjoy the size and portability of the iPhone.  The size alone has opened up new worlds to many busy people who never fully explored their hobby in the past because it did not fit in (literally) with their current situation.

Here are ten quick tips for iPhone photography:

  • Hold the phone like a camera.  This means that the photographs will come out much better if the phone is held with two hands.  Also, use the phone screen as a viewfinder is used on a regular camera.  Many people use the camera in the phone by stretching their arms straight out, trying to look past the camera instead of looking at the screen as you would normally do while photographing something.  Holding the phone in front, looking at the screen to frame the image will make a marked improvement in the iPhone photographs.
  • Don’t use the zoom on the camera phone.  If a close-up picture is desired, get closer to the object and snap the photo.  IPhone tend to lose a great quantity of their picture quality with even the smallest amount of zoom, so move closer to the subject of the photograph.
  • Take several shots of the same thing.  Digital photography has the benefit of allowing the photographer to take several shots in a short period of time, leaving room for mistakes.  With the ease of the iPhone, along with the speed, a good picture is bound to come out of the many shots that it is able to take.  However, do not delete pictures directly off the phone, as details that don’t look appealing on the phone’s screen can look vastly different on the computer monitor.  Always upload photographs to the home computer before deleting them from the phone.  Remember, there is always photo editing software to enhance certain aspects of images that might be interesting.  Perhaps not interesting at the time of shooting, but one never knows what future needs those images could meet.
  • Light is an important aspect of camera phone photography.  Always keep the light behind the camera, while keeping the subject of the photograph well lit.  This does not apply if the subjects of the photos are the sun or ocean.  However, do not let opportunities to shoot dark or night images pass by, since experimentation is the key to succeeding with an iphone.  Even if the night pictures are not pleasing, they could inspire a photographer to break out the big guns and give it a go with a real camera.
  • Set the resolution setting and picture quality to high.
  • Pictures will come out blurred if the camera is not held still and steady.  Something to lean an arm or the camera on will vastly improve shaky hand syndrome that will appear easily on iPhone images.  After hitting the shutter, keep the phone in place for a moment due to different lag times in different camera phones.  Some of them have longer lag times than others.
  • Because the phone is small and light, it is easy to move around and take pictures from different angles and positions.  Experiment by getting down low, or climbing higher up, since portability is one of the wonderful benefits of a camera phone.
  • Don’t forget to clean the lens often because the iPhone is also a phone, which necessitates hands and fingers being all over it.  If images start looking cloudy or smeared, the first thing to try before tinkering with any settings is to see if cleaning the lens solves the problem.
  • Process the pictures as is done with any other digital camera photographs.  There are phone apps that can do it, but it is easier to see what is happening to the picture on the regular computer with editing software.  Some pictures that might not seem to be the quality that is desired can be edited into amazing shots.
  • Last, but not least, with the camera phone, since the quality will not be that of a regular digital camera, keep clutter in the shots to a minimum.  Even low quality shots can still look fairly decent as long as there is not too much in the frame.  The camera phones are best for taking shots of one subject, thus enabling more of the background to be in focus with the subject.

Experiment and have fun with the camera phone, since that is the main purpose of it.  Follow the ten tips suggested above and the success rate of camera phone shots will increase along with the confidence in ability to take quality, interesting photographs.