A Guide to Better iPhone Photography

You've probably always wondered how can I take better photos with my iPhone. Well, I have put together a guide of a few things that you can use to improve your mobile photography.

Hold your phone horizontal

It's more than natural to pull out your phone and take a picture while holding it vertically since that's the way we normally hold our phone while talking, texting, etc. But, that doesn't make for great photos. Chances are, you'll get a much better image if you hold your phone horizontally. 

That's mainly because of the simple fact that when you shoot a photo horizontally, you have the ability to capture much more in your field of view. It gives you a wider canvas to work with instead of forcing you to fit everything into the narrow confines of your vertical iPhone screen.

Target your shooting mode around your desired result

Apple's default camera app offers a variety of different modes for taking pictures, including panorama, square, photo, and portrait. This may seem like common sense instructions, but I find that it's really helpful to shoot in the mode you plan to publish for instance, when I'm taking photos I want to post to multiple platforms, I shoot in photo mode verses shooting in square mode and not being able to crop the image afterward. 

Follow the rule of thirds

As a photographer I use the rule of thirds quite all the time. Well your iPhone has a grid option available, which can aid you in lining up photographs so that they follow the rule of thirds. You can turn this option on by visiting Settings > Photos & Camera and enabling the Grid switch.

Turn off your flash

Recent generations of the iPhone flash are much improved upon their predecessors, but at the end of the day, the flash is still just an LED light: It's just not that powerful, and even with the TrueTone technology it can occasionally emit a strange hue onto your photographs. Instead, try shooting in natural lighting sources.

Hold down a spot on your viewfinder to lock focus

If you want to prevent your iPhone's camera from attempting to grab a different subject in the frame, it can be incredibly useful to lock your focus point on your current subject. You can do this by tapping and holding on the subject in question until you see the yellow AE/AF Lock alert. This means that the automatic exposure metering and automatic focus metering have been locked on your subject; to remove the lock, just tap anywhere else on the frame.

Slide the exposure meter to brighten (or darken) images

If an image is too blown out or underexposed for your liking, you can fix it before snapping the picture by adjusting the yellow exposure slider next to the focus square. Just tap once on the focus square and exposure slider, then use the sun icon to increase your exposure by sliding upward, or decrease exposure by sliding downward.

Snap photos with the volume button

Because the iPhone is so thin, tapping the digital shutter button can cause camera shake and blur the photo you're trying to take. Instead, you can use the volume up button when in the Camera app to snap a photo and avoid camera shake entirely.

Hopefully, this guide will help you in your quest to create beautiful photography with your iPhones. If you are interested in learning more about the basics of photography or videography, please don’t hesitate to reach out! We’d love to hear from you. You can reach The Burnette Agency by email at info@theburnetteagency.com or give us a call at 404-850-2081.