They say that the best camera is the camera that you have with you when you need it, and for most
of us, that’s this camera on our iPhone. But do you know how to get the most out of your camera?
In this video, I’m going to share 12 tips with you, to help you take the best photos possible.
OK, let’s get into it.
You probably already know that your iPhone can take impressive panoramic photos,
but there are a couple of things about them that you may not know.
The first thing is that when you have panoramic mode enabled in the camera,
you can tap on the panoramic section in the middle of your camera screen to change the
direction of the arrow. By default, the arrow moves from left to right, in other words,
you have to point the camera to the left and then sweep across the horizon to the right. However,
you may prefer to go from right to left, and this feature allows you to do that.
Another thing to consider is that panoramic pics don't have to be horizontal. Try it
with vertical images. To do this, simply go into pano mode on your camera and instead
of holding the iPhone in portrait mode, hold it in landscape mode. Start from a
low position and work your way upwards, holding the camera as steady as you can.
It might sound silly, but when there are large, overwhelming landscapes that tower above me,
such as huge cliffs or buildings, I find that this mode can be a really
great way of creating the illusion of impressive height in the photo.
If you put a subject at the bottom of the picture, this can look really impressive.
If you know that you want to take an ultra-stable photo and you don't have the luxury of using a
tripod, one trick you can try is setting a timer to take the photo. Simply swipe up to gain access
to the additional controls at the bottom of the camera. Tap on the timer button and set it to
either three seconds or 10 seconds. Then press the shutter button, and you will have either
three or 10 seconds to compose your shot and hold the phone as steady as you can using both hands.
The camera will take the photo at the end of the timer, giving you an opportunity to hold
your phone as steady as possible without having to push the shutter button again.
Long exposure photography is when you capture a photo of a scene, such as water running down
a riverbed, waves crashing on a beach, or a busy street with cars passing by,
but you do so using a very slow shutter speed. The slow shutter speed is what creates the eerie
visual effect. Photographers achieve this using specialised equipment and by using a tripod for
stability. Your iPhone can take really impressive long exposure photos, and it's quite easy to do.
To capture a long exposure photo, you need to take a Live Photo first. These are the photos
that your iPhone takes where it also captures a second or two of video. In your camera,
make sure that Live Photo is enabled by checking that the Live Photo icon looks like this:
If the icon has a line through it, that means that Live Photo
is disabled. Tap the icon to enable Live Photo. Point your phone at the scene you want to capture
and press the shutter button. Try to hold your phone as still as possible while the Live Photo
is being captured. While not as essential as with traditional cameras, the more stable you can hold
your iPhone, the better the result will be. Once you’ve captured the Live Photo,
view the photo in the Photos app. In the top left corner of the screen, tap where it says "Live
Photo" and change it to "Long Exposure". And just like that, you’ve captured
an impressive long exposure Photo image with just a touch of a button.
Imagine the best translation app you’ve ever used. Then imagine
having something that’s faster and more accurate,
and doesn’t drain your phone battery because it’s been condensed into a portable device
that works anywhere without data restrictions. That's essentially the Vasco Translator V4.
Switch it on, set your default language,
and you're good to go. It works off a global connection, so no Wi-Fi needed,
and Vasco translators come with a finite data package included in the purchase price, so no
monthly fee or hidden costs, meaning you can use it as much as you like in almost 200 countries.
You operate it via the bright, 5 inch touchscreen.
With ‘conversation’ you set your language and the language of the
person you're speaking to. Tap the microphone button, speak, and the device will display
and speak the translated text. Repeat the process for the person you're talking to.
It has a camera on the back for quick translation of text from menus,
posters, signs, whatever you need to translate.
It supports up to 108 languages, allowing communication worldwide.
You can even use it to learn a new language with the learning mode.
It's an amazing piece of tech, and if you'd like to purchase one for yourself,
you can do so with a 5% discount using the code Proper5, and that
discount can also be combined with the Black Friday week promotion for 20% off,
that the company is running between November 24th and November 28th.
I'm including this tip as a very quick tip because it is only relevant to a small but growing number
of iPhone owners. If you own an iPhone 14, 14 Pro, or 15 Pro, you have the option of shooting photos
with a 48-megapixel sensor. When we talk about megapixels, we’re essentially referring to the
pixel density of the image. In general terms, the more megapixels there are, the sharper the
image is going to be. What this means for you as a photographer is that the more megapixels
there are, the more flexibility you have to crop your image and still retain high quality.
On previous iPhones, the number of megapixels was capped at 24, but the new phones allow you to
shoot on the regular wide lens at 48 megapixels. I would absolutely recommend enabling this setting.
To do this, go to Settings, then Camera, and tap into Formats. If you have the option, ensure that
ProRAW and Resolution Control are toggled on. Then, tap into where it says Pro Default. Here,
you can choose HEIF Max up to 48 megapixels. This is the option I would personally recommend. These
images are 48 megapixels in size, but the format means that the file sizes won't be
too large. You could choose ProRAW Max up to 48 megapixels, which is great if you want to work
on the files in something like Lightroom, for example. However, keep in mind that these file
sizes can be huge. I would assume that for most people considering shooting in RAW, you probably
already know quite a bit about photography and don't need me to explain it to you.
Also, on the previous screen, I would recommend looking at the
Photo Mode setting. If you have the option, choose 24 megapixels.
Your iPhone has an extremely important setting when it comes to the camera,
but I think a lot of people either don't know it exists or they don't understand how to use
it. It's called "Preserve Settings." What this feature does is remember the different settings
that you've enabled for the different parts of the camera and ensures that they’re set the way
you like them each time you open the camera app. If you don't enable this setting and then set
it up the way you prefer, each time you open the camera, it will default to its default settings.
To access this setting, open "Settings," choose "Camera," and then choose "Preserve
Settings." Each of these toggles will remember a particular setting related
to your camera, and the settings menu explains each of them to you.
For example, if you toggle on "Camera Mode," your iPhone will remember the last camera mode
that you were using and ensure that it’s selected the next time you open the camera. This works even
if you close the camera or restart your phone. So, for example, if you were taking a video,
with this feature enabled, the next time you open the camera, it will open in video mode.
There are also creative controls for preserving things like filters,
aspect ratios, and light settings.
"Depth Control" is the setting for adjusting the depth in photo, portrait, and cinematic mode.
I won't go into detail about each one of them, but I will scroll down and show you
the settings that I have enabled here. I think that out of all of them, "Live Photo" at the
bottom is probably one of the most important, as one of the most frustrating things about
taking photos on the iPhone is accidentally capturing live photos when you didn't mean to,
or not capturing them when you wanted to. Toggling this on will prevent that from happening.
Two of the most basic yet important settings that you need to enable on
your iPhone's camera are kind of hidden away in the settings menu and not enabled by default.
Open Settings, choose Camera, and scroll down to
the Composition section. Ensure that Grid and Level are enabled.
Grid does exactly what it sounds like - it puts a 3 x 3 grid on the frame of the camera,
which is really handy for composition, especially if you know about the rule of thirds when it comes
to photography. The rule of thirds is a guideline in photography that suggests dividing the image
into nine equal parts using two horizontal and two vertical lines. You place key elements
of the photo along these lines or at their intersections, and it helps create a visually
pleasing and balanced composition that draws the viewer's attention and adds interest to the image.
Level does exactly what it sounds like, and puts essentially a spirit level on
the screen along with the grid. It uses the accelerometer inside your iPhone to
ensure that you’re holding the iPhone as level as you possibly can when you
capture your image. You might not always want a perfectly level image, and some
of the best and most creative photos are captured when you ignore things like this,
but if you know that you would like a level image, I would recommend that you use this.
Also, if you enable Level in Settings and you're someone who likes to take photos from above where
you're looking down on something, the Level mode functions here as well to ensure that you
have a perfectly horizontal phone. You'll see these two crosses - one white and one
yellow - and when the two crosses are perfectly aligned with one another,
that means that you have a perfectly horizontal phone, and a perfectly level picture.
If you have a compatible iPhone, which is generally every iPhone from the iPhone 11
onwards, your iPhone has the ability to capture night mode pictures. Night mode
is exactly what it sounds like - it's a mode designed for taking photos in low
light conditions. One of the biggest mistakes that I see people making when
capturing pictures at night is enabling the flash. The problem with the flash is that it
can make people in photos look washed out. Capturing a photo at night using night mode
is almost always going to give you a better photo, but you do need to know how it works.
So night mode should automatically enable when your iPhone sense it’s in the correct light
conditions - essentially, when it’s dark. In the camera app, you'll see a little icon with a number
of seconds on it. This refers to the number of seconds it will take to capture a photo in night
mode. So if it says 3S, for example, it means that it will take you three seconds to capture
your night mode photo. During this time, you want to hold your iPhone as steady as you can. If the
subjects are moving around a lot in the photo, this will give you a blur effect which might
be what you want. But if you're capturing a photo of a group of people, for example,
you might want to ask them to stay still for a few seconds while you capture the photo. Hold
the iPhone as still as you can, tap the shutter button, and continue to hold the iPhone as steady
as you can. An animation will show on the screen to let you know that the photo has been taken.
On a regular camera, like the DSLR that I use for all of my videos, the lens is positioned directly
in the center of the camera. It's also very large and bulky, making it quite difficult to position
it in a way that allows me to take creative shots. That isn't the case with the lens on the iPhone.
The iPhone's camera lenses are very small, light, and positioned at the top of the phone,
making it really easy to get creative with your pictures if you just think outside of the box.
Your iPhone knows if you hold it upside down to take a photo, and it will automatically rotate
the photo to the correct position. This means you can hold your iPhone upside down and get the lens
really close to the ground, looking upwards to capture a photo. This works great if you're taking
a photo of a static environment, but it also works great if you're taking a photo of a subject like a
person or an animal. It adds both foreground and perspective to your image and looks much better
than the kind of photos that people normally take. A really cool spin on this is if you happen to be
near a puddle - you can use the reflection in the puddle to get some really clever shots.
If you happen to find a wall, you can use the wall to get a long leading line in your photo
by holding the camera lens right next to the wall and tilting it outwards.
Likewise, you can also easily take photos from up high. It’s much easier to hold an
iPhone up tall and press the shutter button on the screen
than it is to hold an expensive and heavy DSLR above your head.
The main trick here is to experiment and take advantage of the small
and lightweight nature of the lenses on your iPhone's camera.
Your iPhone can capture burst photography, which is when the camera captures a burst of pictures
in quick succession. This is great if you're trying to capture a photo of something that's
moving quickly, like in a sports setting or your kids or pets. It can also be used when taking a
photo of a person or a group of people, to ensure that everyone has their eyes open.
To take a burst photo, you need to be in the regular photo mode in the camera. When you press
the shutter button, press and swipe it to the left for a moment and hold it. You'll see a number
appear that counts upwards. This indicates the number of photos you're capturing in the burst.
When you release the button, it may seem like nothing has happened. However, if you view the
photo in the Photos app, you'll notice a burst icon in the upper left corner of the screen,
along with the number of photos included in the burst. At the bottom of the screen,
there is a "Select" button. Tap on this to swipe through all the different images captured in the
burst. Each one has a small radio button in the bottom right corner. Tapping on it will
show a blue tick. Do this for all the pictures you want to keep. Once you've selected all the
photos from the burst that you want to keep, press the "Done" button in the upper right corner of the
screen. Your iPhone will ask if you want to keep all the photos or only the ones you selected.
This will keep the photos you chose and delete the ones you didn't. It's a quick
and easy way to capture the exact photo you want.
Oh, and a bonus tip for you here: if you like burst photography but find the whole swiping
on the shutter button somewhat awkward for taking a picture, you can go into settings,
then camera, and ensure that "Use volume up for burst" is enabled. With this enabled,
tapping the volume up button while in the camera will take a photo just like normal. However,
pressing and holding the volume up button will take a burst photo.
The camera app allows you to adjust the exposure of your photo. You can do
this by tapping on the desired area in the composition until you see a yellow
square with a sun icon next to it. Then, use your finger to slide up or down on
the screen to increase or decrease the exposure according to your preference.
The only issue with this is that if you move your phone,
the exposure will switch back to automatic correction. This means that all the effort
you put into correctly exposing your photo could be wasted if you change your viewpoint.
However, there are two ways to change the exposure and make it stay that way. The
first method is to swipe up at the bottom of the camera screen to access additional options.
Look for the circle icon with a plus-minus symbol inside it, which is the exposure edit
button. Tap on it and then slide left or right to adjust the exposure for the shot.
Alternatively, if you see this icon at the top of the camera screen, it provides a direct link to
the exposure controls. Any changes you make to the exposure here will be retained. In fact, if you’ve
enabled exposure adjustment in the preserve settings, as we discussed in an earlier tip,
the exposure changes you make will remain even if you close and reopen the app. If you want the
iPhone to automatically adjust the exposure again, simply set the slider back to the middle point.
Unless you own an especially old iPhone, chances are your iPhone probably comes
with at least more than one camera lens. Most iPhones have both a wide lens and a zoom lens,
although some iPhones like the Pro range have a wide lens, zoom lens, and an ultra-wide lens. The
iPhone 15 Pro has a three times zoom lens, while the 15 Pro Max has a five times zoom
lens. But a habit I see a lot of people falling into is always using the standard wide lens when
taking photos. There isn't anything wrong with this as such, the wide lens is a really good
cover-all lens for most types of pictures that you're likely to want to take, but it's definitely
worth knowing about the different lenses that you have in your arsenal and experimenting with them.
To change the lens that you're using, tap the number buttons that you can see
near the shutter button. On my iPhone 15 Pro, for example, the .5 button represents
the ultra-wide lens. The 1x is the standard wide lens, the 2 is the two times zoom lens,
and the 3 represents the three times zoom lens. You can switch between them by tapping on the
buttons or you can swipe between them. This also opens up any digital zoom option that you have
on your phone. So here, for example, while the optical zoom is limited to a three times zoom,
I can zoom in up to a 15 times zoom, although much of that will be digital.
Also, if your phone supports it, you can tap on the number 1 to choose different focal lengths
for the wide lens. You can choose between a 24 mm equivalent, 28 mm equivalent, and a 35
mm equivalent. These different focal lengths will all take very different types of photos,
so it’s worth playing around with them and seeing how you get on with them. For example,
landscapes can look extra impressive if you zoom out and use an ultra-wide lens. On the other hand,
one of the best ways to take good portrait photos is to stand back from your subject
and zoom in on them, which you could do with two or three times zoom on this phone.
Portrait mode is one of those features in the iPhone camera that started out as a bit of a
gimmick but has gotten increasingly better in recent years. If you take a photo with a good
DSLR, the camera will capture something known as bokeh in the background of the photo. This
has to do with focal length - essentially, your subject that's close to you is in focus
while everything behind your subject is out of focus, creating that really nice blur effect.
Portrait mode on your iPhone allows you to use computational photography
to create the same effect. To use it, open the camera and choose portrait mode
at the bottom. Position yourself accordingly and take your photo.
On a portrait mode photo, you'll notice the portrait option in the
upper left of the screen. You can use this to disable portrait mode
if you wish or enable it again. But when you tap edit on a portrait mode photo,
that's when you can really start to have some fun with everything this mode has to offer.
Tapping the F icon allows you to change the F-stop of the photo. The lower the numerical value here,
the more blurry the background is going to be. Your iPhone will choose a value
that it thinks is right for the photo, but you can, of course, override this.
The button to the left of this allows you to experiment with different lighting modes.
I tend not to use these personally, but you might find one in here that you like.
Because of the way that the iPhone has captured the data for the image,
you can tap on the image itself to change the focal point. So,
for example, if your subject is currently in focus, you could tap on the background.
Your subject would now be out of focus, and the background would be in focus.
The final really great thing about portrait mode is that if you own an iPhone 15 or 15 Pro,
these phones are always looking to try and capture portrait mode data,
even if you haven't selected portrait mode when you take a photo. This is great if you're looking
at an image later on and you realize that you would've liked to have captured it in
portrait mode. If you see the relevant portrait mode icon on a regular photo that you took,
this is your phone telling you that you can treat it like a portrait photo.
- So there you go, 12 tips to help you take
better photos on your iPhone. Considering that this is something we all do every day, hopefully
there was a tip or two that you found valuable. What do you think? Is there anything I should have
included? Drop me a comment and let me know. And as ever, if you found this video useful,
do please consider leaving me a like and subscribing to my channel for more content
like this in the future. See you on the next video.