how to take great photos with an iphone - document camera app

Most of us carry smartphones with us these days, so it's important to know how to use a smartphone camera to take great photos!
I only have a smartphone for years and I like to have a decent camera to record what I'm doing or take quick photos to remember what I see I want to recreate.
I still like to use the actual camera on my instructures, but I do like to take good photos of my embroidery with my iPhone's camera, share it on Instagram and post it on Etsy:)
I will focus mainly on iPhone photography tips as this is the smartphone I have, but many of these tips can also be used on Android devices.
: If you are more interested in learning to edit iPhone photos, please check out my basic photo editing instructions. (P. S.
Do you know that the iphone is the most popular camera on flickr? Pretty nuts!
If you keep clicking, you'll see lots of amazing examples of iPhone photography and awesome selfies. )
Update June 3, 2016: I only use the Color Story app as of now!
This is 100% amazing and worth the money.
It can be used on the iPhone and will soon be available on Android!
For most of my iPhone photography I use three apps: The camera has replaced my normal camera app
It has more options, including the image stabilization feature currently missing from the default camera app on the iPhone 4S/5C.
It has plenty of options to enhance your photos, but it's also good to use it without making any adjustments.
Afterlight is perfect for adjusting photos!
I use it to crop, adjust the brightness and color, and add frames.
The app also has a great set of filters that are actually available --
They don't make the photos rough and weird like Instagram does.
Instasize is a great way to post full photos on Instagram and social media without cropping them into squares.
I took pictures many times and liked how they looked and I didn't want to slaughter them by cutting --
This is a perfect solution!
As an extra bonus, you can choose the color of the border around the photo, but I tend to be white. :)Free (and awesome! )
Photo Editing: Pixlr and Photoshop Express are able to create very beautiful and well-edited photos.
I didn't notice any issues with pixelation when the image was enlarged.
: DLitely is not that comprehensive, but it is lovely to add a little emotion and shine to the portrait --
It's basically just a collection of very beautiful movies-style filters.
If you would like to add text to your photos, I would recommend using one of the following apps: one of the main drawbacks here is, most text editing apps are a bit clunky by default for square crop and/or use.
Beautiful Mess is also hard to deal with edited photos
I found that it is pixelated when I enlarge the image.
But if you just use it on Instagram, it might be good for you!
If you want to give it a try before buying, Typic also has a free version with fewer options. :)
You should do something before you take a picture: My iPhone photos don't use a tripod or any other accessories, but they are outside!
If you still have a problem with your photos after following this instructions, then there is no harm in trying other methods.
: DI really thinks the most important thing to take any photo is to make sure you have decent lighting.
This is especially true for iPhone!
To make your images beautiful and clear, you want plenty of light on your theme.
Photos taken with a smartphone will become super rough in case of insufficient light
You lose most of the clarity and depth of field in low light.
You can adjust the lights a little while taking pictures
Tap the screen in different locations to move focus and exposure.
Another great trick is to use AE/AF (
Auto Exposure/Auto Focus)lock function.
Hold down where you want to expose and focus-
A yellow box will pop up and the word AE/AF lock will appear in a yellow box.
Now you can move a little bit and still keep your attention and exposure where you need it.
HDR stands for a high dynamic range and is useful when the light is very low or changes a lot.
When you enable HDR on your iPhone's standard camera, the camera will take three photos instead of one, and then combine them together to provide you with the best of the three images. (
In other words, HDR is not just an area of the photo, where the color/brightness/contrast is very good, but is displayed throughout the photo. )
Check the photo above to get a better idea of its features
The photo on the left was taken with HDR turned off.
The sky was completely blown out and the color was washed off as a whole.
The wall on the right is also very bright!
On the right side, HDR is turned on and the saturation is better for the sky, walls and flowers.
Editing this photo a little bit would look much better than the original HDR off version.
For a deeper explanation, check out this life hack article.
Great, I don't think it's worth explaining it in a new way.
: DHDR is especially useful for portraits and larger outdoor shooting-
I use it indoors with a variety of results.
Life style shooting.
Another thing to consider is that you should not use HDR if your lens contains a lot of movement.
Moving will cause a lot of Blur and pixelation in the finished photos, as you combine the three photos together, and the theme of these photos is not in the same place. Also -
Don't use HDR if you want to take a lot of photos at a time-
It takes longer to process HDR images, so lag can cause you to miss something! Seriously.
I'm not kidding.
Do you know how zooming in on an old point and taking a camera can make the photo blurry and pixelated?
The same thing happens when you zoom in on your smartphone, but it's worse.
Take a look at the photo above and this is a good example.
I set up embroidery on the floor and took the first photo with the camera zoom in at the height of my chest.
The second picture I took on the embroidery.
See how clear the second picture is and how shaken the first one is!
This is a huge difference.
Try to get closer to your theme instead of zooming in.
If for some reason you can't get close to the body, zoom in and crop the photo completely so it can zoom in to the focus you want.
You can easily crop by editing photos in your camera roll or using apps like rear lights. (
My personal favorite! )
Built-in iPhone camera and many other apps (
Instagram and camera included)
Allows you to overlay grid lines on your photos to help you arrange things perfectly.
If you use the built-in camera app, you need to go into the settings and open the grid there.
The grid is very useful if you want to crop photos or add text later, as it will help you explain the changes.
Grid lines will ensure that you do not tilt the camera in a way that will tilt the horizon or other elements.
If you don't already know, I would also recommend reading and using rule 3 to help you compose your composition --
This Wikipedia article is very interesting!
Do you know there are three ways to take pictures technically? BOOM. Awesome, right?
Your headphones are the most convenient
Like a remote.
: DFor more in-depth tutorials on how to improve photos by editing, please check out my basic photo editing instructions.
The above are two examples: I adjust the brightness and saturation of almost all photos, especially those taken inside.
I made most of the adjustments with Afterlight.
When your screen brightness keeps rising, make sure you're editing your photos as well.
In terms of filters-be careful!
Many filters produce a rough color, add contrast in an unattractive way, or add a lot of noise to the photo to make it look "retro ".
Instagram is especially bad about this.
If you would like to try out the filter, please use it in the rear and rear lights.
They are much less intense, but still allow you to change the look of the photo by pressing the button!
To show you how easy it is to take wonderful photos with a mobile camera, here are some of the photos I recently took with my iPhone 6 and edited using the Color Story app.