I am glad I switched to iPhone. She's been talking, writing about, and tinkering with Apple products since she was old enough to double-click. Or you can refocus the image on the darker area of the photograph by tapping and holding on the viewfinder while in the default camera app. New York, To do this, take one photo while focused and exposed on the background, then take a second photo while focused and exposed on your subject. Id rather do my processing afterward in a software program like Lightroom. It has no "off" switch, and runs down in around 2 weeks of no use (so it'll often be out of batteries when you do go to fetch it.) Next, open the camera app. For truly dark shots, you need the shutter open long. My most used feature from this menu, for selfies. Sometimes the default Camera app just isn't cutting it for low-light pictures and that's okay. A fun feature that brings in seconds of video for your stills. But yeah, without Photos for Mac it can be a pain. For slower footage, just use Slow Motion at 1080p at 120 frames per second, which looks fabulous. Pretty cool, right? @LozzBlanko Unfortunately until Apple releases the mythical Photos app 'sometime this year' the only garaunteed way of getting post-processed photos over to your desktop (on iPhoto or otherwise) is to select them in your phone's album and email them to yourself. You will receive a verification email shortly. If there are other photo-related tips you want to see on the site, let me know and we'll put it on the list. Consider that youre walking around with a 12-77mm lens, when most photographers have a 24-70mm as their go-to, all-purpose zoom lens for street and event photography, and a 16-35mm for landscapes. This is an automatic setting that only kicks in once it gets dark, (really! The ultra-wide (.5) is equivalent to a 12mm and this is great for wide vistas. So it's email or lose pretty much. Sucks? Portraits will always look better with the bigger numbers. The iPhone offers so many choices on frame rates and speeds. I, as a rule, dont like taking photos with filters, because if you dont like the look later, youre stuck with it. You can make do with DIY versions of this white paper and tinfoil will bounce some light onto your subject's face, and you can juryrig a flashlight to brighten up your picture but the best tools are the ones built for your iPhone. You can reframe the photo to exclude the light source from the image. I default to Studio Light for the best overall, most pleasing look, and High Key Light Mono for headshots. Thanks! Leave it off. flip If an image is too dark or light, you can adjust it here with the exposure slider. Our ultimate guide to the Photos app offers a lot of great tips on adjusting color, exposure, and light within Apple's default app; on the third-party side, I'm particularly fond of Afterlight (opens in new tab), though there are many photo-editing extensions available for download. last updated 18 April 18. Also an iPhone 13 exclusive, you can get way, way closer than ever before with the macro feature. This negates the point of using Bluetooth to trigger it, and means a long time delay before any shot is taken. I couldn't match the light indoors. congress iMore is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Your HomePod now speaks several new languages, T-Mobile now has a brand new way to buy an iPhone for business, Read everything from iPhone to Apple Watch, Mags delivered straight to your door or device. This should be obvious to anyone whos ever used a smartphone camera before, but the big white button is the shutter and the circle is for switching to the selfie camera. Thank you Serenity. Thanks for your input! Sadly, I'd have been better off with a cheap LED panel light (or for someone to make a light that switches on for 20 seconds or so when you tap a button.). You can ask your subject to move, so that they're no longer backlit, or you can adjust the angle of your image to shoot them from a different side. If you have a late model iPhone, you get three lenses to work with. DxO ONE is a 20MP DSLR-Quality Camera That's Used with Your iPhone, Tric is the World's First Professional Flash Trigger for iPhones, Apple Acquires LinX, A Camera Maker That Promises DSLR Performance in Phones, Oops: HTC Unveils its 24K-Gold One M9 with a Photo Taken with an iPhone, The Nocturne App Uses an iPhone's Camera to Reveal Celestial Objects, Woman in Random Act of Kindness Video Says She Feels Dehumanized, James Webb Telescope Breaks Record for Oldest Galaxy Ever Observed, Photographer Waits Eight Hours to Capture Dream Lion Shot, The 0.5 Selfie is the Latest Photo Trend Taking Over Instagram, Clueless Cameraman Causes Chaos at World Athletics Championship. Apple TV+ to spend $95 million on just three actors, can you guess who? The iPhone lenses arent as tack sharp as the pro lenses, but they sure are versatile. Thanks for sharing your comments. Night Mode opens the shutter to let in more light, as long as 30 seconds, which many of us pros do with our expensive cameras for taking night skies and the like. Whether outdoors or indoors, the image your camera sees isn't necessarily always the image you want to end up with. Only on the iPhone 13 Pro models so far. NY 10036. Cinematic, widescreen 16:9, like on flat-screen TVs, square for Instagram, or 4:3, the standard, like the TV sets of the old days. Thatll work, but there happen to be so many settings and features hidden within these phones that stump way too many people, even some of us pros sometimes. You can make little loops and bounces, and theyre fun, but the best feature is long exposure.

You can use Night Mode handheld, but for best results, you want the camera on a tripod. You wont see it during the day.) That being said the same is not true of third party editors. If storage is an issue, switch to 1080p at 30 frames, or go for 60 frames if youd like to either speed or slow down the footage.

Serenity Caldwell Dont forget that you have the option of a wide or portrait lens, 1x and either 2.5 (on the 11 and 12) or 3x on the 13. There are going to be times when, no matter what you try, you won't be able to get good lighting for your shot. To begin, lets assume youve updated to iOS 15, the latest operating system. I've had good luck with My Photostream as well as AirDrop from iOS to Mac. Additionally, since I make videos that are also 16:9, its way easier to insert photos into the timeline this way. You missed adjust the exposure in the iOS camera app: http://www.imore.com/how-quickly-adjust-exposure-ios-8-camera-app. If you've ever found yourself in a tricky lighting spot as a photographer and want a few aces up your sleeve for dealing with it, read on. Thus, I was inspired to jot them all down and explain them one by one, with tips on what I think are the best settings for each one of my top 13. Try it by coming in tight on a strawberry or something else rather small. If you do iPhone photography, common sense may say you pick up the iPhone, open the camera app and just start shooting. The 1x is a normal wide-angle, equivalent to 26mm while the telephoto on the iPhone 13 clocks in at 77mm, compared to 65mm on the iPhone 12 series. Sure does but at this point in time that's the deal. Indoor and artificial lighting can aid you from shooting in the dark, but, well not all indoor lighting is created equally. I'm finding that often the images exported are the originals, rather than the edits, even using Apple's own software. Thanks for the tips. To boost colors and lighting, you can use iOS's built-in editor or a third-party extension. Elsewhere on iMore, Ally recommended a whole mess of great apps for this purpose, but I'm partial to Manual (opens in new tab); the app lets you set both ISO and shutter speed, which can help boost light levels in your photographs.

About the author: Jefferson Graham is a Los Angeles area writer/photographer and the host of the travel photography streaming TV series Photowalks. Its softer. Photojojo also offers a $15 Pocket Reflector to bounce ambient light and a $30 Pocket Spotlight which connects to your headphone jack and provides constant LED lighting on your subject. Try using the flashlight from a friends phone instead. Traditional tungsten bulbs can cause horrible yellow tints; fluorescents can make your photo too blue; and LEDs can make everything look washed out and pale. Please refresh the page and try again. I've heard great things about (though haven't personally used) the Nova Off-Camera Wireless Flash (opens in new tab), a $59 Bluetooth-based LED remote Flash that provides ambient off-camera lighting for your images. Another new feature for the iPhone 13 series brings Portrait mode like background blur to video. I could not tell from their website and pictures. Your subject could be standing in front of the sun or a lamp, backlit; you could be accidentally including the light source in the frame and getting terrible lens flares; or you could have just tapped-to-expose on the wrong aspect of your image. Heres what youll see, and what I personally recommend. (I usually drop contrast, apply a filter, then raise contrast again to make the blacks in an image pop.). If the sun isn't cooperating and existing artificial lighting just isn't up to snuff, it's time to think about packing an external flash or lighting source. And Im singling out the iPhone here because 1) Im an iPhone user, and 2) I think the 13 Pro is far and away the best smartphone camera on the market. But Id still rather shoot normally, and do my edits in Lightroom after the fact. You also have studio lighting choices. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. You can always mess around with the app's Exposure slider and lock focus, but if those tools aren't doing what you want them to, it might be time to pick up a third-party manual camera app. Thank you. Do you have any great suggestions for getting good lighting from bad? Its hard to get a "good" light from it, as it doesn't have a great range of colour temperature options. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. In a photo editor, bring both photos into a single document with the subject layer on top of the focus later; erase the background on the subject layer, and you'll have your photo. By Youre given a choice. Whatever the case, you can solve a lot of these lighting conundrums by movement. Ally recommended a whole mess of great apps, New Eve Motion gets light sensor, Thread support, and more. But it's not the end of the world: That's what post-production is for, especially if you're planning to only use the image for social media sharing rather than for printing and hanging. Otherwise, Apple wont let you go to the full 30 seconds; it will just give you a second or so exposure. In the photos above, the image on the right was taken with Manual using 1/640 shutter speed and ISO 240. My usual trick involves boosting the image with brightness, exposure, and highlights; lowering contrast and shadows; then applying a filter and re-adjusting contrast accordingly. Its people like you who help make an already good camera and phone do even better. Get the best of iMore in in your inbox, every day! This article was also published here. Thanks for your suggestion. Just slide the shutter to the left, and youll get a 1080p video instantly. Just take the shot, and afterward, click the tab above the photo, and select Long Exposure. Bumper is the version I have; cover is just a plastic backing that has the same sort of coverage as the Apple Leather Cases. HDR not quite giving you the result you want?

Heres what I use: 4K at 24 frames per second, which is great for a cinematic look. iMore is supported by its audience. Heres why you can trust us. The smartphone flash, when used in dark situations, generally looks like youre lighting someone with a blow torch.

Just click the camera icon on the home screen and it will take you straight there. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab).

Keep your finger down on the volume up or down button and youll be able to stop action by taking many photos in a row. The Nova looks very interesting. Sun Strategy is an amazingly powerful Sun / Moon ephemeris, surveyor, planning and weather tool for photographers.

Styles will give your image a different look, similar to a filter, with Rich Contrast, Vibrant, Warm and Cool.

Oddly photo stream images on aTV or iPad retain their iPhone edits it's only iPhoto that won't retain them as the edits are 'non destructive' and thus kept in a separate 'side file' to the photo that at the moment only iOS can read. You can only take pictures from their camera app. Thank you for signing up to iMore. Maybe I will wait for the next version:). There was a problem. But Apple reminds me that you can take the filters off by selecting the Edit tab in the Photos app after youve snapped the shutter and bring it back to normal. No, iPhone photography isnt 100% automatic. I got a Nova Bluetooth Flash a few weeks ago, and was a little disappointed The sun may give us light and life and all good things, but it's around precious few hours when you want to spend time taking good photographs. Just open the Camera app and tap the HDR button, then select On. You can edit in something like CameraPlus and export to Camera Roll for a fixes version of your edit that will transfer. Sound off in the comments. I shot these shots below in total darkness. Sent from the iMore App. In her spare time, she sketches, sings, and in her secret superhero life, plays roller derby. Dont wait for the camera app to open. A fantastic way to blur the background on portraits. The flash length is quite long, so the camera can set exposure etc. What's the best way to export adjusted images off your iPhone?

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If you insist on shooting a backlit picture maybe there's an exquisite sunset you want to capture you can use Apple's HDR feature to try and balance out the exposures between your subject and your background. You can get long, milky flowing water by using the Long Exposure trick here, and no tripod is needed here. To do this properly, however, I'd suggest using a tripod or other camera stabilization device for your iPhone; otherwise it can be much harder to match the two images.