7 iPhone Camera Hacks to Take Better Photos!

Almost all of us love to click photographs of ourselves and our loved ones for cherishing memories after they have been experienced. While some people carry professional digital cameras along, most of the time we are left with just the built-in camera of our smartphone to click the pictures with.

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If you happen to have a relatively latest-gen iPhone, you are holding one of the best camera smartphones in the world. So why not make full use of it? Here are the top seven camera hacks for making complete use of your iPhone camera and enhancing the picture quality substantially.

1. USE THE AUTO HDR MODE

HDR or High Dynamic Range is a very common photography technique and has been used in the iPhone camera app since inception. HDR combines three images of a single click and balances out the lowest and highest brightness points of the scene to provide users with the perfect image that is desired.

The HDR option on the iPhone has three modes - Auto, On and Off. While the other two are self-explantory, Auto mode will automatically choose whether HDR definition is needed, depending on the quality and brightness of the conditions available for the image.

2. AVOID ZOOMING IN

The iPhone has digital zoom capabilities instead of optical zoom in the camera lens. This translates to blurred and patchy images when the camera is zoomed in into the subject. While absolutely necessary for distant non-reachable objects, the usage of digital zoom should be avoided in cases where the photographer can go closer to the subject for a detailed image.

Also, on the topic of detailed photography, if the subject being clicked is a person, always prefer taking the picture from an angle below the chin. This gives the subject a stronger and bolder personality.

3. USE THE CAMERA GRID LINES

Grid lines are present in the iPhone camera app for a better aligning of vertical and horizontal angles to the image being clicked. You can toggle them by going to the Photos and Camera menu in the Settings App. Once switched on, they offer an ease of usage by placing all the important subjects on the intersection of the grid lines.

Doing so results in increasing focus towards the objects and providing a better and clearer image than usual. Mostly evident in landscapes, camera grids can be used while capturing a scenery, helping focus the main objects towards intersection of the grid. It helps make your pictures more interesting and guides the viewer towards the actual elements of it.

4. TRY PANORAMA MODE

Apple first implemented the addition of a Panorama capturing mode to their camera app, way back in 2012 with iOS 6. What the feature does is basically put together simultaneous image shots to stitch together a bigger scene than the one limited in a single shot, from the iPhone lens. If you have a great scene or landscape in front of you, just power up the camera app on your iPhone and switch on to the Panorama shooting mode.

Choose the direction from which you wish to start the actual shot and click the shutter button. Now, slowly pan vertically or horizontally across the location you wish to embed into the image. Once the whole landscape is captured, the iPhone will stitch together the final image comprising of the whole scene taken through the several photos.

5. EXPERIMENT WITH 60 FPS VIDEO

With the launch of the iPhone 6 in 2014, Apple paved the way for smoother and faster video recording by introducing Full HD video at 60 Frames Per Second or FPS. Usually shot at 30FPS, images appear much smoother and less shakier when shot in 60 FPS. Increasing frames per second means that the rate of still images clicked during the video will increase.

If you don't have a tripod or any other stabilizing device with you, just head on to Settings>Photos and Camera>Record Video and select the 1080p HD at 60FPS option to enable the mode. Recording videos will be a much better experience after this, trust us on that.

6. USE APPS FOR IMPROVING IMAGE QUALITY

There are a lot of applications available on the App Store that will help further enhance the quality and contrast ratios on the raw images that you click via the camera app. Starting from basic features like filters on Instagram, you can customize the picture by using complex tools on apps like VSCOCam, SnapSeed and ProCamera.

In terms of shooting options, these apps have gotten a large number of manual controls available with an intuitive and no-frills interface. You can set ISO, shutter speed, white balance, exposure and focus controls giving you a much strogner hold over the looks of your photograph.

7. MAKE USE OF ACCESSORIES FOR THE PERFECT SHOT

If you are into casual photography and have just the iPhone as your companion, worry no more because a lot of accessories are available in the market that offer professional-level techniques for the iPhone in order to produce stable and quality shots from its camera lens.

Starting off with a tripod, the best option out there is the GorillaPod. A miniature-style tripod, the Gorillapod is especially made for the iPhone and comes with adjustable legs to maneuver the iPhone in various angles for clicking the image. You can also use accessories like the OlloClip that have different camera clips, helping the user take macro, telephoto as well as wide-angle images with the iPhone camera.