5 tips to take outstanding photos with your iPhone

While travelling or on an outing, there are many times we want to take a picture, but don’t have cameras on hand. Quite often too, we think of capturing the image using our phone cameras, but there’s something missing. However, it is possible to take outstanding photographs, just using your iPhone camera. Try these tips when you do use it to capture all your important moments in beautiful images:

1. Set focus and exposure: You probably already use the feature of focusing with the iPhone camera, where you tap the screen to create focus. However, you can also set the exposure, determining how bright or dark the image is. For exposure composition, tap on your subject, then drag the little brightness (sunburst) symbol next to the focus square up to make the picture brighter, or down to make it darker.

2. Use the self-timer: There’s a self-timer on the iPhone, which is great for taking a picture that you would like to be part of as well. A self-timer also allows you to change focus for up to 10 seconds.

3. Use filters: Filters are not permanently within a photo, even if you select one before you take a picture. Even though the filter looks like it’s applied when you view your photo in your Camera Roll, actually what your iPhone has done is save the unfiltered photo along with an invisible tag that says “place the filter in front of this image when displaying it.”

4. Turn on Rule of Thirds grid: Go to Settings > Photos & Camera > Grid. Now, use those lines as a guide, positioning a horizon along the bottom horizontal line, lining up a standing subject with one of the verticals, or the eyes of a close-up portrait at one of the upper points where the guide lines cross, say.

5. Simplify your photos: Steve Jobs used to say, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” and he had it right. Most people try to capture too many things within the single frame, making it hard to create harmony within the composition of the photograph.One interesting subject is all you really need to create a memorable photo, and it’s easy to get the composition right when your photo has only one subject. Don’t feel like too much empty space is a bad thing – it will only make your subject more noticeable. Keeping the photo simple also makes it easier to interact with for people viewing your photos on their phones.

Do you use any of these?