10 Tips To Take A Great Shoot With Your iPhone

You forgot your digital camera?!

That’s great. Now give your iPhone camera a chance to take a great picture. Many people have the belief that a digital camera will always be better than the camera in a phone. This is true in some cases, but not in others. In many cases, you can use your iPhone as your digital camera. You will be surprised what your iPhone camera can do if you use it is it properly. Below are the tips and tricks used in iPhone photography:

1. Be close to the subject
2. Find a great indirect light on your subject
3. Set the focus by tapping it on the screen
4. Don’t zoom, just crop
5. Use the HDR auto setting
6. Don’t use flash in light conditions
7. Hold your breath
8. Use one hand to reduce the shakiness
9. Use your phone volume buttons to avoid any kind of vibration (you can also use your headphone volume buttons)
10. Use the multiple shoot (bursts)
11. Make your photos better by using editing apps

Now guys, those 10 plus 1 trick work very well for me. I don’t know when I last carried my digital camera, in fact I don’t need one since Apple gave me the best. Give your iPhone the chance and you will be surprised how you can take amazing pictures.

A Few More Editing Apps For You!!

In the previous post I only mentioned two apps which I think are the best. Of course some of you didn’t like them because as human beings, we have different preferences. In addition, what works for me may not work for you, so I decided to give more options so you can choose the best one(s). However, it is important to know that not all the apps are the same because some may have a few basic tools and some may have many complex ones. Beside Snapseed and VSCO cam, you can also try:

• Afterlight
• Litely
• Truefilm
• InFrameFoto
• AnalogFilm
• Picfx
• PhotoStudio
• Tadaa
• Camera+
• Vintique
• BeFunky
• Grungetastic
• PicsArt
• Rooki
• LensLight
• Filterloop

The above mentioned apps are good and they make photography better. However, it is good to take a good photo because let’s be honest, no matter how many tools you have, making a bad photo good is very hard. That is why in the next post I will give good tips on taking awesome photos. However, feel free to try any of the apps above because you never know which one may work best for you.

The Best Two Apps For Editing

If you like taking pictures, of course you will need to use one or these two apps. There are two ways to edit your photo. You can edit it by using the editing tool or by using effect (filter/preset).

In this blog I will mention the most famous app for editing tools and the most famous app for adding effects.

First, Snapseed is one of the best app for editing tool. it has also some effects. I really don’t use this app, but here i want to be impartial. You need to spend so much time working on this app so you can get a great result.

Here is an article the about Snapseed app.

Second, VSCO cam is a very simple app for processing your image with a different kind of preset mood. VSCO cam also has editing tools, but these tools are not like the editing tools in the Snapseed because VSCO cam editing tools are simple. By choosing an effect and pressing it, you will be surprised with the result that you have gotten.

Here is an example of photo that I have taken and edited by using VSCO cam app:

Before

After

You can clearly see the amazing result of processing the images by VSCO cam app. I have used this app for more than one year and most of my Instagram photos were processed by it. VSCO also has a page for publishing photos. You can also create an account in VSCO website, so you can share you photos. What makes this page unique is two things. First, if you are curious, you can see which preset was used in other people pictures. Second, VSCO selects everyday the most beautiful photos and shares them in their VSCOGrid page.

Snapseed & VSCO cam are free for downloading in the App Store. Depending on how you want your picture to look like, you can choose which one to download. In my opinion, Editing is very important if you want your pictures to look Professional.

iPhoneography on Wikipedia

I went on the internet to search for articles that give information about iPhone photography. I found one on Wikipedia that did not have enough information so I added some.


Below shows the information before and after the editing:

Before

"Iphoneography techniques are created using iOS-based apps."

After

Iphoneography techniques are created using iOS-based apps They are important so that they can add more features to the picture that has been taken. Using these apps, people can make many changes to a picture that was very bad and turn it to a very cool one. Some of these applications are free and some of them can be bought. They can be found in the App Store.

Before

"Basic editing techniques."

After

"Basic editing techniques" are those that are very simple to do and can bring about major changes to the image. They are usually done with a single click and are automated by the application. "They include:"

Before

"Basic effects."

After

"Basic effects" are those effects that have a great impact on the photo and they can change the face of everything. This is because they can involve removal of additional parts of the picture or changing the color, thus altering the major appearance. They include:

I added the few changes because it is good to have more information in order to be clearer.

Don't Be Surprised!!

My opinion? Does it matter to you, the reader? Some may say no and can't agree further, but on the other side there is nothing to lose by sharing experiences. That is why I took time to write down how I feel when using my iPhone camera. Enough of the technical specifications. After all, they are just numbers and words which will not make sense until you get to experience them, on your own.

In the previous article I might have mocked the iPhone camera towards the end and I am not taking back those comments. The big point here is that I meant them. However, what I am going to say next may leave you surprised. I like the iPhone camera! Surprised? I thought so. The thing is, it always goes back to the user of the device. One may not feel like they are getting the value for their money because $500 and above is a hefty price to pay. This is indeed true, however, this is also why many people do not feel satisfied with many purchases as they did not understand the manufacturer's intention.

According to me, Apple is not all about huge figures. They are all about performance, but perfect quality. For  example, many smartphones have large screen, say 5 inches, but only a few can match the quality of the iPhone display. Apple views value for many from a very different perspective. They see quality to be more important than quantity and that explains why I love the camera despite criticizing it in the review section.

Apple gives you 8 mega pixels, why? Because any figure past that doesn’t work well in terms of photo or video experience. Many more pixels may be good and that is why they gave the panorama feature to enable the taking of large photographs at an impressive pixel density.

The native camera app may not give you much, but Apple lets the developers go wild with other alternatives such as the Snapseed or the VSCO cam. These two are free and offer everything I may want on the camera interface and in terms of editing too. Despite giving less on the native app, they allow other people to give much more on 3^rd party apps for free.

I also criticized the iPhone camera experience because of the lack of a dedicated camera button. I did this because I know its value to some people. In my opinion, it is rather unnecessary as Apple provides a large shutter button on screen which makes things neat and easy.

I like the iPhone’s fast shutter speed because it allows the capturing of images that require rapid response. In addition, simply holding onto the on screen shutter button allows you to take a multiple shoot and later choose one of the best photos. The image quality of the iPhone is outstanding.

I have seen many photos taken by other smartphones and very few match the quality of photos taken by iPhone 5s. In my opinion, the camera experience is breathtaking. Be it a selfie or a simple scenery shoot, the experience is amazing, remember, In my opinion.

iPhone Camera!! What about it?!

In the previous article, we talked about the secrets of the iPhone camera and some of the specifications mentioned here might not be news to you. However, they will be discussed in detail. I choose to review the iPhone camera using the 5s model because that is what I have used and I am familiar with.

The iPhone 5s camera has an 8 megapixel camera that boasts a 15% size increase than the camera in the iPhone 5. That increase in lens size means better image quality because the pixel density in large photos can be taken without stretching the pixels too much. The iPhone 5s also has a fixed f/2.2 aperture lens and that means that more light can be let in. This makes the images brighter and real even in low light conditions which prove to be difficult for some other smartphones in the market. The camera also features a software implemented tool called image stabilization. This is most helpful to those who have shaky hands and are not able to hold the camera still while taking a photo. The image stabilization takes 4 images and combines them to make a perfect one. I quite like this feature myself because one might be in motion say in a vehicle and will still be able to capture an amazing scene. The camera also features a digital zoom, which lets the user pull the image closer. This is a very crucial feature in all the cameras.

However, I do not like the digital zoom in this camera because the zoom makes the image blurry. This makes the image quality poor in most cases. However, it may perform well, depending on the lighting conditions.


There is also a dual amber and white LED flash that form a perfect balance of lighting conditions. This allows better photography in low light conditions. This combined with the large lens aperture is what makes the iPhone stand out from its prime competitors like the Lumia series featuring the iconic Carl Zeiss lens.

Other software features such as the panorama allows users to take very wide photos in portrait mode and captures so much detail in a single take.

From the user perspective, is the iPhone camera the best? Is handling it any better than the features it boasts? I am afraid the answer is no. The problem with Apple is they give its consumers what they think is right for them. They provide a small variety of digital filters or even other trick photography features. The lighting is simple with everything automated. The zoom is terrible and so is the user interface which is very simple because it has less features.

It is not only on the software side that the iPhone camera fails, but also on the hardware. For starters, there is no dedicated camera button. Apple claims that the volume buttons can be used to take pictures and it is indeed true. However, the sheer force needed to press these two buttons is immense and truth be told it leads to shaky images which does not work out well for most users.

All in all, the iPhone 5s cameras are a great improvement from the past generation iPhones and many other smartphones. However, one can’t always help having the feeling that Apple could have done much better with this device.

Secrets Behind The Glorious iPhone Camera

Is it the 8 mega pixel, or is it the dual LED flashlights in iPhone 5s? But then Nokia has 41 mega pixels and dual flashlights, too. What would make GSMARENA website even compare to these two? We all have secrets, don’t we? We will even go to very great depths to know other people’s secrets. Well, there are no secrets and if I told you there were, I would be lying, or would I? Yes, I guess there are some secrets, but not any that I know of. The spec sheet tells it all.

Now I would go to copy the whole GSMARENA review of the iPhone camera, but then it would be too scientific for me to handle. All those aperture talks and lens diameter and would make sense to many engineers, but as much as I would love to understand them, I just couldn't get a grip. But that doesn't mean I stopped trying.

The first iPhone camera secret is its 8 megapixel. This means we can take very large pictures with great detail and be able to manipulate them later as much as we want. This is very helpful to professionals. The camera also has an Autofocus function which works very well as users will be able to get the best focus on their target objects. This prevents getting blurred or shaky images. The iPhone camera also works very well under low lighting because of the way the lenses were made. Switch the lights off and take a picture of your wardrobe, I am sure you will notice a blouse that you never knew existed. That is also thanks to the additional dual led flashlights at the back.

The software packed into this device is also breathtaking, from changing scenery right before you take the photo to the zoom feature that lets you pull your object closer. The iPhone camera does it all and does it well.

The iPhone does not boast big megapixel figures like many smartphones do. What it does have is what it needs to take your photography to a whole new level. You will be addicted to shooting buildings and go insane with selfies because the iPhone camera does more with less, and that is the big secret.