iPhone Photo Tips - Before and After
With our iPhone photo hacks you are now one step closer to the after photos.
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone Photo Tips – New Perspectives
iPhone Photo Tip 1: How to instantly recognize perspectives
You pull out your phone, simply point it at the subject and take a photo. Unfortunately, the photo looks like a typical vacation photo. But if you follow a few of our iPhone photo tips, your photos will immediately look completely different. With a little practice and the right photo opportunity, your photos will look like they were taken by a professional photographer.
Solution: When taking photos, simply imagine that you are walking around the subject in your mind . If possible, you can actually walk around the subject. As you do this, actively consider where an interesting perspective could be created – and pay attention to where the light is coming from. It is clear that the better photo often comes out when the subject is illuminated by light (ideally daylight) rather than when the light falls unfavorably from behind the subject.
If the perspective is right but the photo is a bit too dark, you can still make a very good photo by editing it (brightening it). However, a bad perspective is irreparable. That’s why it always depends on the perspective.
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone Photo Tips – Water Reflection
iPhone Photo Tip 2: How to make the most of reflections in photos.
As simple as it is ingenious: Everything that reflects gives the photo a nice effect. When you take a photo with your iPhone, it makes sense to look around to see if there is a reflective surface nearby. This could be, for example, puddles of water, glass doors, glass buildings, car paint (metal surfaces), mirrors, etc.
Alternatively, it may be useful to proactively look for reflective surfaces and then actively take photos there.
Solution: Find an angle for your iPhone photo where your subject and the corresponding reflective surface are both shown in the photo. The special feature: This may require holding the iPhone extremely low or extremely high while taking the photo. The angle can also sometimes be difficult to achieve, meaning you have to take the photo without seeing the phone display itself. This is known as blind photography. Since you can’t see anything yourself and can only guess what the iPhone camera lens is focusing on, it goes without saying that the shutter button has to be pressed more often to get the subject and its reflection in the photo.
The volume up and down buttons on the iPhone function as photo shutter buttons when the iPhone camera is activated.The buttons are easier to reach when you are at a difficult angle and cannot see the display and therefore the shutter button on the display.
You can see how to hold your iPhone to create new photo perspectives with reflections in our iPhone photography course Module 1 – and it’s completely free.
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone Photo Tips – Color Filters
iPhone Photo Tip 3: How to use Apple’s in-house color filters.
You have now learned how important it is to find an interesting perspective. Instead of taking a normal vacation photo, you have now managed to take a photo with a fascinating perspective. However, the lighting conditions were not ideal and the picture looks a bit dark.
Solution: Now the color filters and the magic wand from Apple come into play. In many cases, Apple’s autocorrection is enough to produce an excellent photo result. The photo is selected in the photo library, then „Edit“ is selected and the „magic wand“ is clicked. In this case, the color controls were used a little to achieve the „glowing effect“. We have precise instructions with video explanations for you in our iPhone Photography Course .
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone Photo Tips – Burst Mode
iPhone Photo Tip 4: How to activate the burst photo function for action pictures blindly.
Capturing the right moment can be a real challenge when there are fast movements or group photos. One person has their eyes closed in the photo and that’s it for the beautiful photo. Especially when children are running or splashing in the water, it is almost impossible to capture the right moment with the normal iPhone photo shutter.
Solution: Now the photo series function comes into play. Attention: The series function is not shown under the normal camera modes. Depending on the iPhone model and iOS version, you will only find the following modes: time lapse, slo-mo, cinema, video, photo, portrait and pano. However, you will not find the series photos option there.
It works like this: As soon as you are in „Photo“ mode, you can activate the burst function with the „Volume button“. To do this, you have to hold down the volume button. Your iPhone will then produce several images per second. The newer your iPhone is, the more photos the iPhone can produce per second. You can then select the optimal image from the many photos. We have created detailed video instructions in our iPhone photography course Module 2 MEGA SHOTS.
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone Photo Tips – Underwater
iPhone Photo Tip 5: How to take photos underwater with your iPhone.
There are a few challenges especially for iPhone photos underwater.
- Is your iPhone waterproof?
- You can’t see anything on the display underwater
- The digital photo shutter does not work well underwater
Solution: The newer your iPhone is, the more waterproof it is. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the built-in seals on older iPhones wear down and become brittle over time, meaning that water penetrates older iPhones more quickly. This also applies to the generations that are described as „waterproof or water-repellent“. Secondly, newer iPhone generations are increasingly built to be more waterproof. The older „non-waterproof generations“ get submerged immediately and are not suitable for taking photos underwater.
The devices are only water-resistant from the iPhone 7 generation onwards. However, this is not enough for underwater photos. The example photo here was taken with an iPhone XS. The photo is undoubtedly beautiful. However, the iPhone XS later developed a display malfunction, as some areas of the display no longer responded correctly to touches. Unfortunately, no waterproof protective case was used at the time. Pool water with chlorine and salt water in the sea are particularly damaging to the iPhone.
We therefore always recommend using a special waterproof iPhone protective case for underwater photos. Use underwater is at your own risk. We accept no liability for damage to the device or loss of data or other damage.
Underwater, you take photos blindly. Focus on the subject and change the angle a little to increase the chance of getting a good shot. Take as many pictures as possible in that moment. Unfortunately, the burst mode does not work underwater. We tested this. We use the volume up/down button as a photo trigger underwater.
For the example photo, we have created a “making of video” as a guide for underwater videos. This is included in our iPhone Photography Course .
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone photo tips – posed photos
iPhone Photo Tip 6: Posed photos are also an option – but please do it right.
We achieve the most natural photo results in natural situations. But photos are often posed. That can make sense in certain situations. The photo example is of a tourist attraction: an anchor in Dubai Marina Pier 7. The children climb onto the attraction, as is often the case on a family vacation. Children simply stand in front of an attraction. But how do you create the best iPhone photo here?
Solution: Patience is required. Your children are jumping around. It can take a moment until everyone has got into position. In the meantime, use the opportunity to take a few test photos. So that you know exactly which perspective works well and has nice light.
As soon as everyone is in position, you press the shutter button continuously, if possible even using the burst mode.However, the photos in portrait mode often look particularly good here. Unfortunately, portrait mode does not yet support a burst mode. So there is no other option than to press the shutter button manually several times. For a good posed photo, 10 to 20 photos can easily be necessary.
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone Photo Tips – Light
iPhone Photo Tip 7: How to make better use of existing ambient light in seconds.
A typical holiday situation: A photo attraction in a shopping center. Tourists can take a photo of themselves with the attraction.
The obvious is often not the best solution. You or your children stand directly in front of the attraction. Then you take a photo. The photo quickly becomes boring and – as in this example – is simply poorly exposed.
Solution: A few small variations can turn a boring tourist photo into a “super photo”. Like something from a fashion magazine.
Use the ambient light that is available. As soon as you move a meter forward or backward and change the mode, for example to portrait mode, a completely different photo can be created in the same situation. Light suddenly falls on the face as soon as the person being photographed changes position slightly. Even looking slightly downward or upward can make a big difference to the photo result, as in our example.
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone Photo Tips – Lines and Vanishings
iPhone Photo Tip 8: Your iPhone camera loves lines and perspectives.
Something that many people don’t pay attention to – but it’s simple and effective: Diagonal lines that converge to a vanishing point make a photo look interesting.
Your photo is starting to get boring. Take a quick look around to see if you can see any lines that you can photograph.
Solution: Lines can be seen almost everywhere if you consciously look for them. Every table, for example, has lines. It is particularly exciting when the lines light up, such as ceiling lights, or, as in our example, shelf interior lighting.
Feel free to visit our iPhone Photography Image Gallery and take a look at the 60 or so sample photos we took with the iPhone 11Pro and iPhone 14Pro. You’ll certainly find more photos there that show diagonal lines and vanishing points as inspiration.
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone photo tips – Worm’s perspective extreme
iPhone photo tip 9: How to create particularly strong perspectives with the right iPhone position.
The worm’s perspective: In our example, we have used the worm’s perspective in its extreme form . This makes the person in the picture appear larger and the size of the tree is much more apparent.
Solution: You dare! The iPhone is almost on the ground in the „extreme worm’s perspective“ and takes the photo at a steep angle upwards. The iPhone is turned upside down . Don’t worry, the iPhone automatically turns the photo the right way around and adds it to the photo library with the correct rotation.
The iPhone position is important here: We have shown you examples of how you can hold the iPhone sensibly in order to be able to photograph from as many different perspectives as possible in the iPhone photography course free in Module 1.
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone photo tips – perspective, light & format
iPhone Photo Tip 10: How to completely redesign your iPhone photos with Perspective101.
This iPhone photo example uses a special perspective: an interesting incidence of light and the square format complement the effect. So several techniques are combined here. You can do that too, BUT you have to know what you’re doing.
Taking great photos with an iPhone isn’t rocket science. Simply pulling out your smartphone and pressing the shutter button at a random angle rarely leads to good results. Because chance is the opposite of quality.
With a solid foundation in iPhone photography, beautiful photos are reproducible. With our iPhone Photography Course, you will learn the skills in just a few hours that will enable you to take beautiful photos with your iPhone for a lifetime.
Solution: The iPhone photography course from Perspektive101 was created using children’s photos as an example – for the following reasons:
- Everyone will have to deal with children in their lives, be it their own children or grandchildren. There are also many other ways in life to come into contact with the topic.
- You can take landscape photos and food photos throughout your life. As your children get older, this is the time you want to remember the most.
- Anyone who has mastered taking photos of children with their iPhone has already mastered the most difficult part of iPhone photography. Children move and don’t always do what they are told. The basic photography techniques are learned here and are of course also very useful for other subject areas.Especially when a subject is not moving, such as buildings, food, landscapes, etc., it often becomes even easier.
It is precisely the combination of different photography techniques that leads to strong photo results . The example projects here make it clear that several techniques are used simultaneously in several photos.
After our practical iPhone photography course, you will be able to apply these techniques yourself and create high-quality photos with your iPhone. You will be able to create photos like those in our iPhone photography picture gallery.
Typical iPhone travel photo
iPhone Photo Tips – Portrait
BONUS: iPhone Photo Tip 11: Portrait modes with contour light as an insider tip!
Our most popular mode is the “portrait mode” set to the contour light. This often automatically leads to good photo results. If there are colorful backgrounds and clothing in the photo, it is often a winning image.
Solution: If you have an iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus or newer, you can use our insider tip “Portrait modes with contour lighting”.
With the latest models, it is possible to adjust many things afterwards. However, someone has to do all of this and most people don’t have the time for it. So in practice this is only implemented for a few top photos at most.
We often take photos in portrait mode ourselves, because with new models the depth of field from the portrait mode can be removed afterwards. As a result, the effect of the portrait is reversed and we get a „normal photo“, even if the photo was originally taken in portrait mode.
CONCLUSION iPhone Photo Tips
Technology alone does not make good photos.
A good iPhone camera only accounts for 20% of the result.
A good iPhone camera is a prerequisite. But what are the other 80% for good iPhone photos? You can find out all about it in our online course.