A Beginners Guide to iPhonography
Looking to take your social media content to the next level? Complete beginners to social media might wonder how other people get their pictures looking so good. Well the truth is, you only need one simple piece of equipment to take amazing images - you iPhone!
Here are a few tips and tricks to taking great pictures on your iPhone for use on social media.
1. Focal point
Once you've found or set up the perfect shot, try tapping the screen where you want the camera to focus. Not only will the quality be better but you'll already set yourself up for success on social. Did you know that images with one focal point get better engagement than images with multiple focal points?
If you tap the screen and hold down on the point of interest it will lock the focus - better for those with a shaky hand!
2. Brightness settings
If you tap once on the screen, you'll notice a yellow square appears with a sunshine icon to the right of it. If you keep holding and slide your finger up and down the screen, the image will get brighter when you swipe up, and darker when you swipe down.
3. Set up your shots straight
Taking great pictures takes practice, but learning to take and set up your pictures so they aren't wonky will help you on your way. If you head into your camera settings - settings> photos & camera then you'll find a more detailed options menu for your camera settings. Now most of us don't need to play around with these, but if you're not very good at holding a camera straight then turn on the 'Grid' setting and go back to your camera. This will now have set up some lines on your camera so you can line them up with vertical or horizontal lines that are in the shot e.g. horizons (horizontal) or buildings (vertical).
Straight images not only look better in the photo itself but it also looks better on an Instagram grid when viewing all of your images together.
4. Lighting
Lighting is one of the most important elements of good iphonography as well as actualy photography. Photographs (much like our eyesight) takes pictures of objects when the lens takes in the light that is reflected from said objects. Using this theory, it's not likely that bad lighting, dark lighting, or artificial lighting is going to be good for taking photos.
With this in mind, make sure you always have good, natural daylight when taking photos. In the morning or a few hours before sunset when the sun isn't as harsh is the perfect time of day to get pictures.
Of course, if you can't get good natural day light then consider investing in some box lights which mimics natural day light. Who knew so much effort went into taking pics for the 'gram!
5. Editing apps
So you've got the perfect picture - or have you? If you don't know the basics of Photoshop then it doesn't matter because there are so many brilliant editing apps available in the app store these days! Ones to download to begin with are VSCO Cam for filters and Snap Seed for general editing.
6. iPhone plus
It might be time to upgrade to the iphone plus if you're getting really into this whole photo thing. it's got 12mp wide angle and telephoto cameras, optical zoom at 2x and digital zoom at 10x as well as portrait mode which gives the object of your image focus, giving the background a blurred effect which you would only otherwise get with a professional digital camera with a portrait lens.
7. Don't give up!
It's easy to look at other Instagrammers photos and ask yourself why your pictures don't look like theirs. They have had loads of practice and you will get there in time. Keep practising and keep going!
What are your tips for better photo taking on your iPhone? Leave a comment below...
More resources: