(camera body, lenses, flash, etc.). Even those of us with “serious” cameras
don’t always have them handy. However, most of us can’t leave our homes without
a cell phone with a camera feature (or three).
In 2011, I wrote a magazine piece about
submitting photos for publication.
It addressed the difference between professional cameras and iPhones.
All cell phone manufacturers have stepped up their game since then. The
difference between cell phone images and professional camera images have
narrowed considerably.
Additionally, many newspapers pay a little extra over the assignment fee to get some "atmosphere" cell phone images before a major event to post online. It's enough of an incentive to have a decent cell phone camera and arrive early.
So, let’s address some iPhone basics to maximize the use of the
camera you have in your pocket rather than the camera that’s safely stored in your
closet.
Just the basics
This post is only going to address a basic iPhone (i7 and
below). The information should be useful on most cell phones, but there will be
differences between brands.
I also understand there are many ways to attach cell phones
to other gadgets and vice versa to make them do many beautiful tricks. I have a
closet full of add-on lenses and gadgets too. They’re fun, but I’ll only
address the basic as-is cell phone camera today.
Base Information
A basic iPhone view roughly equates to a 28mm lens on a 35mm
camera. It’s considered to be a wide-angle of view. “Normal” is 35mm to 50mm on
a 35mm camera system.
This means there will be edge distortion and objects will
appear farther away and smaller than normal on an iPhone. It also means the
depth-of-field will be greater (more things in the photo will appear to be in
focus). You will want to get very close to the main subject if you want it to
dominate the frame.
Shooting Suggestions
This section will cover the basics of how to use the iPhone.
Other brands of cell phones may have more or less of these features. Please
check the user manual or online.
Swipe on lock screen
By the time someone wakes up the camera, unlocks the screen,
finds the camera app and tries to make a photo, the moment is normally over.
Here’s the fastest way to get shooting.
Wake up the camera with the wake/sleep button on the right side
or the home button on the bottom of the screen face. Then, swipe left to open
the camera screen without unlocking the screen.
You’re now ready to shoot without searching for the camera
app.
Use volume as trigger
The two buttons on the left side of the iPhone control
volume. Additionally, either of these buttons function as triggers while in
camera mode. They also work in burst mode (see below).
In low-light situations, it’s best to use these buttons to
minimize camera shake. You may still have rotation if you don’t stabilize the
phone, but it rotates in fewer directions than pushing on the face of the
phone.
To avoid any rotation, you can attach your EarPods
(hardwire) to your iPhone, stabilize the phone (see below) and use the EarPod
volume as a remote trigger. This ensures there is no camera rotation or shake
from user interaction. This feature doesn’t work with AirPods (wireless).
Select focus and
light balance
The iPhone is designed to “average” a scene for
focus,
color balance and
exposure (amount of light included). It will
ALWAYS BE WRONG with extreme scenes (white snow, black coal,
monochromatic scenes of most colors, etc.). This can be corrected if you pay
attention while you shoot.
You can select where focus will be by touching that area of
the frame and holding your finger on the phone's screen. A yellow bounding box will appear to let you
know the area where you have chosen for focus and exposure.
Adjust exposure
If the exposure is too light or dark due to the subject
(snow or coal), you can adjust the exposure. When focus and exposure above are
selected, a yellow dot with tiny radiating lines also appears. This is a
sliding exposure scale. Change the exposure of the whole scene by sliding your
finger up and down near the sunshine dot.
AF/AE lock
AF means Auto Focus and AE means Auto Exposure. These can be
locked to a specific distance and exposure.
Choose the distance you want to focus and the exposure you
want and press the screen where focus/exposure should be. The bounding box
mentioned above will appear. Continue to hold until the box becomes larger and
“AF/AE LOCK” appears in a yellow box at the top of the screen. Now, you can
recompose your camera without affecting the focus or exposure.
It will remain locked until you put the screen to sleep or
otherwise leave the camera mode. Every photo you make will be at the same focus
distance, exposure and color balance. If you have an adjustable
color-temperature and lumen desk light, you can easily see the difference it
makes.
Trick color balance
When shooting some monochromatic scenes (detail shots of
roses for instance), the phone will try to “correct” the color of the scene. It
often ruins the entire photo beyond what can be repaired with iPhoto edits.
To avoid this, you can view a “normal toned scene”
(typically something white) with the phone. Then, lock or rapidly recompose the
scene on the desired location and immediately shoot. Both have the same effect
of tricking the camera into using the previous color balance in the new
location.
The major difference between the approaches is focus. If the
AF/AE is locked, the subject needs to be focused at the same distance. If the
rapid recomposition approach is used, the iPhone sets a new focus before
shooting the new scene – however, it won’t have time to change the color
balance to the new scene.
Shoot too many
If your best shot is the last frame, you should have shot
more.
The basic rule is to always shoot three to get one (
pro ruleis 10:1 minimum). Something will happen each time photos are made. Shutter lag,
camera shake, subject movement, blinked eyes, wrong exposure, wrong focus, bad
color balance and more can ruin a single frame. It’s best to make several
alternatives to ensure one works.
Hold down for burst
mode
iPhones are notorious for “shutter lag” (the time between
trigger actuation and the camera response). It isn’t a big deal with a photo of
your lunch, but it’s a huge issue with
anything involving action.
To give us a fighting chance at a decent shot, the iPhone
has a “burst mode.” This feature makes about 10 frames per second while the
trigger is held down. It doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get a
baseball on a bat,
but you can get part of someone blowing out their birthday candles.
The vital part of this feature is selecting which frames to
keep. Before you transfer and delete photos from your phone, you need to select
which images you want to keep from the burst.
Tap the photo in your library. You will see a shadow box at
the top-left of the screen that states, “Burst (7 photos)” or a different
number. At the bottom of the screen, you will see an additional editorial
feature labeled “Select…” Press that option.
You’ll be able to move left and right through the entire
burst sequence. In the bottom-right corner of each photo is a small empty
circle. Press that circle to select the images you want to keep. The circle
will turn blue with a white check mark if it’s selected.
After you have selected images to keep from the burst,
choose “Done” in the upper right-hand corner. It will give you the option to
keep everything or only those selected. If “only selected” is chosen, all
others will be deleted to save memory space.
“Chimp” before
leaving
The term “chimp” means to look at your photos on the viewing
screen after you shoot. While it has a negative connotation, it’s still a good
idea to ensure you have more than one useful shot before you leave a scene (or
eat your meal). Unless you checked each frame with a magnifier before you leave,
you might have a bad surprise when you prepare images later.
Zoom to check focus
When you have a photo from your library displayed on your
screen, you can touch it with your thumb and finger. As you increase the
distance between those to points, the photo will zoom into more detail. As you
decrease the distance between those points, the photo will zoom out to the full
photo.
While you are zoomed in, you can look at the focus to ensure
the image is sharp. If not, shoot it again. Then repeat.
If the shot will be vital, consider carrying a lupe in your
car or bag. This will let you look at the image in minute detail to ensure it’s
useful.
Stability
I’ve written an entire post about
eliminating camera shake,
so I won’t go over it again.
However, let’s address how to manage it with a phone that doesn’t have a post
hole.
Love or hate them, everyone has seen “selfie sticks.” These
are basically extra-long arms so more people can fit into a selfie or more of
the background scene can be included in the frame. They are ubiquitous because
they’re cheap.
While I’m too ugly for selfies, I still purchased a cheap,
discontinued one to repurpose it. The part of the selfie stick that holds the
camera also mounts on a tripod (or other ¼-20 screw). It holds the phone in a
stable position while it is attached to any other regular camera mount screw
(including flexpods and clamps).
Top Settings
Across the top of the photo screen are five additional
buttons. The lightning bolt is flash, HDR is for high dynamic range, “live”
records a tiny (.MOV) video rather than a still photo (.jpg), the clock is for
delayed timer, and the triple balls are for different color filtration
variations.
Flash
iPhones have a tiny light next to the camera lens. It’s
typically used in dark forests to search for masked murderers in horror movies
or to find keyholes in the dark by everyone else.
It can also discharge a brighter blast of illumination
(flash of light) for photos in a dark area. It can be turned On, Off or Auto.
Before reaching for the flash, understand color quality is
poor compared to
camera flash units. It also can “blow out” (overexpose) parts of a subject or scene.
Leave it “Off” most of the time. The camera is fairly good
in low light for casual uses.
Turn it “On” when you know the scene is too dark OR when the
subject is backlit or in severe sunlight that casts bad shadows.
Use “Auto” while frequently moving from indoors to outdoors.
While it hurts many images, it’s an effective safety net for extreme light
situations.
HDR
HDR means “High Dynamic Range.” It has more stops than the normal 5-stop
dynamic range. This setting is used when
you want to add texture to the darkest shadows or the brightest highlights.
For simplicity, let’s say HDR photos are basically several
photos superimposed on each other to utilize the best parts of each. It’s more
complicated, but I don’t want to slow us down.
You will see in the HDR photo that there is detail in both
the highlights and shadows, which wouldn’t be possible with a direct photo.
However, this magic comes with some tradeoffs. For instance,
the contrast tends to be muted. Also, if there is any phone or subject motion
while the camera is recording the frames, there will be “ghosting,” subjects
may appear translucent in several places rather than solid in one place within
the scene.
Timer
The primary purpose of the timer is to let the photographer
frame the image, set the time, and race into the scene to be part of the photo.
It functions fine in this mode as long as the phone is stabilized (on a tripod
or leaning against something immobile).
The secondary use is to avoid camera shake (blur). It’s an
image-saving technique during low-light situations. Camera and/or subject shake
is most likely in low light because it takes longer for the camera to collect
the correct amount of light to make a properly-exposed image.
Choose your scene, stabilize the camera, instead of pressing
the shutter, use the timer on a reasonable time (3 second delay). This ensures
the iPhone isn’t rotating or still vibrating from your touch while the image is
recorded. It’s sharp.
Filter
If you desperately want to use software filters on your images, send
the original photo to yourself as an email, save the emailed photo (it will
have a new name now), and apply after-filters to the second image. If you make
images with a permanent filter, there’s no reasonable way to “undo” it.
