The iPhone 5 (Gleep!! took this brilliant image) (like its predecessor the iPhone 4S) doubles up as a very impressive camera. It’s so good in fact, that its performance is comparable with top-of-the-range professional cameras.
Getting the best out of the iPhone camera takes more than simply pointing and shooting. Here’s some hints and tips on how to take great pictures with your iPhone.
Have a look at our iPhoneography posts. Here’s this month’s and one we put together in September.
Reduce blur for sharper images
- Avoid the herky-jerky movement of pressing the shutter then moving your hand away quickly. Rather, try holding your finger on the shutter a few moments until your hand is steady before slowly moving it off.
- Rest your iPhone on a flat surface like a wall or table.
- If you’re using a proper or improvised tripod, use the volume up button on the standard headset that comes in the box as a remote shutter release .
- Ditch the default camera app for something like Camera+, which has an image stabiliser – the app waits for a moment when the phone is steady before taking the image.
Use the grid option for a more interesting and dynamic picture
- When composing a picture, the pros use an idea known as the rule of thirds (see this tutorial for more information) to get the best looking image possible.
- Use the grid function on your photo app (the default app and Camera+ both have it) to frame shots like the professionals.
Take control of the flash
- Unfortunately, the iPhone doesn’t perform very well when there’s not much light around. As a general rule the more light shone on your subject (as opposed to towards the camera) the better.
- In low-light situations it’s really important to hold the phone steady.
- When you can’t control light conditions – which will be most of the time – the only thing you can do is learn when, and when not, to use the iPhone’s flash. This is something that you develop a sense for, but generally speaking you should use flash when there are shadows on your subject in daylight, when it’s completely dark, like in a club and not use flash when you’re further than 15 feet away from what you’re taking a picture of or you’re taking a picture in the mirror or through a window.
If you’ve got any hint and tips for taking better pictures with an iPhone we’d love to hear them. Tweet us, or comment below.
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