11 iPhone Camera Settings You Must Master to Take Better Photos
Think you already know everything about your iPhone's camera? Well, if you're a professional photographer who loves to fiddle with camera settings, that might be the case. For everyone else, there's always something new you can learn about photography.
So, if you'd like to become an iPhone power user, keep reading. We're going to introduce you to several iPhone camera settings you can use to get the best photos.
1. Preserve Your iPhone's Camera Settings
Do you have a favorite camera mode or custom filter? If so, it's frustrating to have to select it afresh every time you open the Camera app. By the time you've got your camera set up, the fleeting moment you wanted to capture could have vanished forever. Fortunately, you can avoid this by configuring your iPhone to preserve its camera settings.
To set it up, go to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings. You have several options to choose from: Camera Mode, Creative Controls, Exposure Adjustment, Night Mode, and Live Photo.
The options may vary slightly depending on your iPhone model, but Apple includes brief descriptions beneath them to help you out if you're unsure what they mean.
2. Enable Grid Lines
Most people who enjoy the art of taking pictures are familiar with using the rule of thirds in photography. It's one of the photography rules and formulas to follow when you're composing a picture. Put simply, it dictates that you should place the subject of a shot in one of the four intersections of lines on a 3x3 grid.
However, in order to get the most out of this rule, you'll need to enable an on-screen grid in your iPhone camera settings so you can see the four intersections. Gridlines are also useful for other composition issues, such as keeping the horizon level or making sure walls and buildings are at precisely 90 degrees.
To turn these gridlines on, go to Settings > Camera and toggle on Grid.
3. Use Burst Mode
Have you ever tried to take a picture of a fast-moving object on your iPhone? Often, the object in question is long gone before your phone can process the image. And even if you manage to get the shot, your subject will often be blurry and distorted.
The solution is to use Burst Mode. This takes a rapid-fire series of shots that'll give you a selection of photos to choose from. You can keep the best and discard the rest.
To use Burst Mode, go to Settings > Camera and enable Use Volume Up for Burst. Then, keep your finger pressed on the Volume Up button while taking a shot. Burst Mode will automatically engage and continue until you release your finger. For more details on this mode, take a look at how to take, view, and share burst photos on iPhone.
4. Turn On Live Photo
When aiming for the perfect shot, you can also use Live Photo to help you. Although a Live Photo looks like a normal picture in the Photo Library, that moment you captured in time comes to life when you long-press it. In the Camera app, simply tap on the circular Live Photo icon on the top right to turn it on.
It's a useful alternative to burst photos if you don't want dozens of similar pictures clogging up your photo albums. This is because Live Photo records the 1.5 seconds before and after you take a snapshot. You can then change your Live Photo into a still photo later.
5. Lock the Focus and Exposure
If you want to improve your smartphone photography, you'll need to start experimenting with focus and exposure. It's impossible to consistently take professional-grade snaps without having at least a basic understanding of how these two functions work. Failure to learn these essential iPhone camera settings will ruin your smartphone photography.
In simple terms, exposure refers to how much light reaches the phone's electronic image sensor, while focus determines the sharpness of a photo.
On your iPhone's camera, you can manually lock both values. This means you can customize your shots more effectively; you won't have to worry about the app automatically overriding you.
To manually lock focus and exposure, open the Camera app and tap and hold on your photo's focal point. After a couple of seconds, you'll see the AE/AF Lock banner pop up at the top of the screen. To unlock it again, tap anywhere on the screen.
6. Adjust the Exposure Bias
We explained how you could manually lock the exposure to prevent your device from automatically overriding it. But how can you change the exposure bias to brighten or darken an image?
It's easy. To begin, open the Camera app and tap anywhere on the screen to bring up the focus point.
Alongside the focus point, you'll see a sun icon. Tap and hold on the Sun icon, then slide it up and down to adjust the bias as you desire. Your iPhone camera settings allow you to choose anything from -8 to +8 f-stops.
7. Change the Aspect Ratio
In general, aspect ratio refers to your photo's width and height. There are three aspect ratios (4:3, Square, and 16:9) to choose from in your iPhone's Camera app.
For example, if you're taking pictures to post on social media sites like Instagram, or product images to publish on some e-commerce sites, Square would suit you best. By directly taking pictures in the aspect ratio you want to use or publish, you won't have to spend extra time cropping them later.
Besides saving time, it also helps you get the best angle to photograph your subject because you're already previewing the actual image as it is through your iPhone's camera.
8. Take Advantage of Your iPhone's Camera Timer
The timer is perhaps one of the most underused iPhone camera settings. If you enjoy taking selfies, it's the perfect tool. Instead of trying to do acrobatics with your arm to fit everyone in the shot, you can use a nearby ledge, line up the photo, and still have plenty of time to get yourself into position.
To use the timer, tap on the Arrow icon in the bar at the top of the camera window, then hit the Timer icon that appears at the bottom. You have the choice of a 3- or 10-second timer. Make your selection and compose your image. The timer won't start until you press the shutter button.
9. Mirror Your Front Camera
Many of us might not admit, but to get a good selfie, time and effort is needed to find the angle that shows our best side. Plus, not everyone is naturally photogenic. Putting on a natural-yet-picture-worthy smile can be a challenge.
After going through all that, it's definitely frustrating when you see a flipped image looking back at you—selfies often look less attractive when mirrored.
To avoid this outcome, toggle on Mirror Front Camera in your iPhone's camera settings. For detailed instructions, check out how to stop your iPhone selfies from mirroring.
10. Mute the Camera Noise
It's not clear why phone manufacturers think we want to hear a fake camera shutter noise every time we take a photo. It's more annoying than anything else.
Unfortunately, there's no iPhone camera setting that lets you turn off the noise permanently. Instead, you have two ways to prevent the sound. You can either use the Ring/Silent switch on the side of your device, or you can use the Volume buttons to turn the volume off completely.
If you use the latter, you need to do it before you open the Camera app since the Volume buttons will take a photo in the app.
Some countries, like Japan and South Korea, do not allow you to mute this noise. In such regions, following these instructions will have no impact.
11. Enable Location Services for the Camera App
Are you a traveler? If so, you might find it useful to tag your photos with the location at which you took them. It'll help you stay on top of all your memories in the years to come.
Your iPhone lets you turn on geotagging, but it's not immediately obvious where to find the setting as it's not in the Camera app or the Camera settings menu. Instead, you need to head to the Privacy menu. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Camera and select While Using the App.
Remember, you can turn this feature on and off at your leisure without affecting location data that your phone has already attributed to existing photos.
Learn How to Take the Perfect iPhone Photo
Hopefully, the settings and tricks we've covered introduced you to some iPhone camera features that you weren't aware of previously.
While it's all well and good being an expert in the Camera settings menu, that won't get you very far in the real world. The only way to really supercharge your photo skills is to get out there and practice—so, what are you waiting for? Utilize these iPhone camera settings to get the best photos.