IOS Photo Taking Tips
Photo Tips
As well as using our arsenal of apps to edit the photos you take to make them look amazing, you can get better photos by using these essential tips for when you’re actually pressing the shutter. Some of these pro tricks are to do with mastering your iOS device itself as a camera, and some are tips we’d give everyone shooting with anything from an iPod touch to a five-grand Canon 1Ds. Follow everything we tell you here, and we promise you’ll be delighted with what you shoot!
Understand the on-screen shutter
The little icon on the screen that takes a photo when you press it actually triggers when you lift your finger off the glass, not when you press down. So when you’ve composed your shot, tap and hold the button, and only release when you’re steady and everyone’s smiling!
Use the volume shutter
So long as your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is running iOS 5, you can use the physical volume-up button on the edge of the device as the shutter. Some people find this wobbles the camera too much, but others find it more comfortable – try them both to see what suits you.
Trigger the shutter remotely
And as long as you’re on iOS 5, plug in a set of headphones with in-line volume controls and you can use the volume-up button on there to take the shot. Pro photographers use cable releases not dissimilar to this with big, fancy cameras mounted on tripods to reduce shake. You can go one better, too: some Bluetooth headsets and keyboards, once connected, can trigger a shot wirelessly with the volume-up button!
Hold still!
Unless you’re doing it for arty reasons, you’ll want to reduce blurriness in your photos. Come to a complete stop before taking your photo rather than walking and snapping, and tuck your elbows in tight against your body to help keep the camera stable – iOS devices are so light it’s easy to shake them when you’re shooting. If you’re really shaky, or shooting in low light, take a couple of deep breaths to still yourself as much as possible before pressing the shutter.
Use a tripod
Of course, for the ultimate in stability – and to let you join in with group shots! – get a tripod. A cheap one will do fine, but you’ll need a way to attach your device to it. For iPhone 4/4S, we recommend The Glif, but even the iPad can grab onto a tripod or convenient branch using a Joby GorillaMobile Yogi!
Zoom using your feet
Avoid the ‘zoom’ on the iOS camera; all it’s doing is cropping into your photo before you take it. You may as well take it at full quality and crop more carefully afterwards. Instead, where possible, just get closer to your subject.
Watch the horizon
It’s all too easy to take squint shots with small, light iOS devices; keep an eye on the horizon, and turn on the Grid (tap the Options button) to keep you straight and true.
Rule of Thirds
The Grid lets you easily compose using the Rule of Thirds, a classic composition technique. Feel free to read up on it, but the basic thing you need to remember is to place focal points – faces, say, or a tree in a landscape – near points where the lines intersect rather than slap-bang in the middle of the frame – the results are often visually more interesting.
Tap to focus and expose
On all iOS devices, tapping somewhere on the screen will expose the photo for that spot before you shoot. For example, if you were taking a picture inside of someone against a bright window – not, it has to be said, a great idea – the device is likely to expose for the window, turning your subject into a silhouette. Tapping on the subject should expose properly.
On later devices that can focus, this tapping will also make that part of the picture be sharp. Annoyingly, you can’t set focus and exposure separately with the default Camera app, but an app such as Camera+ can.
Getting macro subjects in focus
The camera might get confused if you’re trying to take a close-up shot of some delicate blossoms, for example, missing the up-close bit and focussing on the background. An easy way to help it is to hold your hand behind the thing you’re trying to focus on to give it a bigger target to latch on to.
Change your point of view
Most of us just lift a camera to eye level and press the shutter, but you can literally get a fresh perspective on something by getting down on your belly or climbing up on a table; you’ll usually get a more interesting shot. It’s an especially useful tip when taking photos of your kids – hunker down to their eye level and the result is often much more engaging.
The deferred cheese
Asking people to smile for a photo can often produce an array of terrifying rictus grins. A slightly risky but much more rewarding trick is to count down ‘3… 2… 1… smile!’ to the shot, but don’t actually press the shutter on ‘smile’; wait a second for when everyone relaxes and starts to laugh about having to smile for the camera and you’ll get more natural expressions.
Get up close and personal
There’s a temptation, when photographing people in particular, to fit everything in – whether that’s a top-to-toe body shot or their entire face. Most photographs look better if you crop in, though. Experiment; you’d be amazed how close you can get for a portrait shot before it starts to look weird.
Use reflected light
Pro photographers usually only use hard, direct light for particular effects. More often, light is diffused and bounced onto the subject. You might think a bright, sunny day is great for portraits, but the softer light of an overcast spring day tends to be more flattering. If you do have light coming from one side, try holding a big sheet of white or reflective card on the other side of your subject to bounce some light back onto it; instantly, portraits look much more professional.
Turn off auto-flash
Even if you have a flash on your iPhone, it’s worth turning it off in the Camera app; it doesn’t really illuminate very far (certainly not enough to be of any use at a sporting event or similar situation) and it’s unflattering. Besides, the iPhone 4 and 4S cope surprisingly well in low light.
HDR
HDR is a bit of a dirty word in photography because it can be used to make photos look a bit silly, but the HDR on iOS can actually be useful. Turn it on especially if you’re taking pictures in very bright sunlight, and want to capture not only the details in a ruin’s doorway, for example, but also in the clouds in the sky. Besides, you can set your device to take the HDR shot and the normal shot at the same time, so you can choose later.
Clean the lens!
Our iPhones spend a lot of time in lint-strewn pockets and being held in hands that exude oils. Before recording a special moment, take a second to check that the lens is clean!
Make a virtue out of a necessity
If you have an iPhone 3GS or earlier, iPad 2 or iPod touch, then unless you’re shooting in Californian sun, the shots can look a bit noisy and flat. One way to deal with this is to slather them in effects in an app such as Instagram, which can make a virtue out of their lo-fi looks. And don’t feel bad; there’s an entire community out there that loves taking photos with low-quality Holga film cameras that leak light and distort the images!
