The secrets of great iPhone photos

Agree, it’s a shame to have the latest model iPhone, with one of the most advanced cameras in the world of phones, but not to use the potential of its camera.

With our guide, we will help you dive into the world of mobile photography and learn the tricks and techniques of professional photographers. If you want to learn how to invert a picture on iPhone you can explore Skylum’s blog.

Lock the focus

First, familiarize yourself with the basic concepts

Exposure is the amount of light that hits the camera’s sensor. Exposure determines the brightness of objects in the frame.

• Composition – the arrangement of objects in the photo.
• White Balance – A color tone that reflects the light and temperature of the photo.
• Contrast is the ratio of the brightness of the lightest area of the image to the darkest area.
• Saturation – The intensity of color in a photo and how lush and bright the photo looks.

This knowledge will help you avoid mistakes in the beginning.

Most modern smartphone cameras are equipped with an automatic focus system and online photo editor. This helps you quickly take a single picture or clip, but it gets in the way when taking a long photo.

The camera can change the focus by itself, shifting it from one object to another. If an object appears in the frame, it can easily “pull” the focus on itself, defocusing the subject.

The same situation happens with exposure. After you have adjusted the exposure for the subject, the camera will adjust the exposure so that the subject is evenly illuminated with no over-highlights or blackouts. A brighter subject in the frame may make the subject too dark and vice versa-a darker subject that the camera starts to focus on will greatly brighten the main subject in the frame.

To lock the focus and exposure, simply touch the main subject on the screen and hold your finger down for a few seconds. After locking, you will see a special notification. To return to automatic mode afterward, simply tap anywhere on the screen to change focus.

With fixed focus and exposure, you’ll get shots and clips with the same light throughout your photo shoot.

Frame the photo

If you’re photographing somebody, you don’t have to frame the whole person. It is optional to crop a photo to fit a specific still object. Crop the image to focus attention on the main part of the picture – a person or an object. For example, if you want the model’s cup of coffee or other accessories to be more visible in his hands. Full-length shots are also great, but only when the background demands it. Often you can do with cropping and get a more exciting photo in the end.

Preparing the location for the shoot

First, choose your lighting. Find a place with natural, diffused light – best if it falls from the side. If you are going to shoot indoors, usually find a spot about 0.5-1 meters away from the window. If you are going to shoot outdoors, find a place with even lighting without glare and shadows (usually evenly shaded).

Then choose a suitable background. Just find a neutral background (a gray or blue background will work fine), preferably without relief. Brick walls and surfaces with stripes, dots, and other patterns will be distracting. The subject should stand out, and this is accomplished with the right light and background.

Portrait Mode

I like to take pictures that are processed after shooting (like the one shown below) in Portrait mode. It’s available on all iPhone 12 models. This mode incredibly captures a sense of depth, which you can adjust when editing in the Photos app to make the shot more expressive. This is especially useful when shooting layered and three-dimensional floral arrangements. If you haven’t done still-life photography before, I suggest starting with Portrait mode.

Editing in the Photo app

For 99% of photos, I apply a few standard edits right in the Photo app. But that’s my preference-experiment to find your signature style. For example, I crop photos, choose aspect ratio, and adjust exposure, saturation and warmth.

• To access these editing tools in Photos, tap a photo to open it full screen, and then tap the scale icon with divisions at the bottom of the screen and scroll through all the options.
• Crop the photo to the right size so that the flowers fill the entire frame and catch the eye.
• If you increase the exposure a bit, the frame will be brighter and the floral arrangement will stand out more, especially on a mobile device screen.
• For shots of bouquets and other colorful still lifes, you can slightly increase the saturation (less than 10 points) to make the colors brighter and more profound.
• Finally, adjust the color temperature of the photo. I usually go for a slightly cooler color temperature. It gives a more refined look and the color palette stays true to life.

All of these settings are easy, but they make the photo look complete and ready to delight viewers.

Final Words

Using our tips you can squeeze a lot more efficiency out of your iPhone.  Later, you can perfect your photos even with standard apps! On Skylum’s blog, you can read how to invert a picture on iPhone.