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A Travel and Photography Journal
three girls taking a selfie with iphone

How to Take Cool iPhone Photos

The iPhone has a good camera which can be used for much more than taking pictures of shopping lists and parking spots. Here are five tricks to teach you how to take cool iPhone photos and 1 really weird thing to know.
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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

did you take that with your phone?

I do hear this all the time, and sometimes it’s true!

when to use the phone camera?

There are lots of tricks to teach you how to take cool iPhone photos. Even though, I do have a fancy camera, several actually, there are times when the camera is too big and cumbersome, and I don’t have it with me.  On the other hand, my phone is always with me, and it takes very good pictures. [iPhone 11 Pro Max, which has a great camera]

Mostly I use my phone to scout locations and test out compositions. When I am set up at a shoot or on a trip, I will very often take a picture to send out in real-time to the sports fans. The camera phone allows you to very easily share pictures and videos with your friends for immediate gratification. Honestly, there’s a lot to like about that.

iPhones are great for

  • Sharing photos immediately with family of candid snaps, parties, new location, etc. 
  • Scouting locations and test compositions. It’s handy that your phone always knows where you are, so that you can find the place again.
  • Lightening the load when a big camera is too heavy for travel, hiking, etc,
  • Creating shared albums for travel. I set up a shared album and keep my family and friends updated in real-time.
an iPhone photo just before moonrise in Northeast Harbor, Maine
an iPhone snap just before moonrise in Northeast Harbor, Maine

5 cool things

Long Exposure

When you are in live mode, it is possible to convert a picture into a long exposure. To get to the option, select the photo and pull up from the bottom and it will reveal an effects menu. This is great for waterfalls.

iPhone photo of a small waterfall
iPhone photo of a small waterfall using long exposure

Reflections

One of the new tricks we learned in Portugal from Miguel at Lisbon Photo is how to take reflection pictures with a cell phone.

We practiced every time we found a puddle. It’s amazing how little water you need! The key is to hold the lens as close to the water as possible. 

iPhone Reflections at Cabo da Roca

Panoramas

This is so nice to be able to do without photoshop and stitching, and so easy to capture sweeping vistas.

 

Quote: the best camera is the one you have with you
iPhone Panorama of Maine Landscape

3 Dimensional Photos

How to take cool iPhone photos that are 3 dimensional! Take a photo in portrait mode, then import it into an app call PopPic and the subjects appear in 3d. On a phone, the photo moves as you rotate the phone, for this example I turned it into a video.

Time Lapse

I love time lapse! After watching a sequence of time lapse videos taken in Maine, and was hooked. I set them up on the river all the time, trying to get something cool… like storms without raindrops (not easy). This sunny day on the Loxahatchee River came out really well – like a postcard.

this is weird...

Portrait Mode

Using portrait mode is supposed to blur the background to create a beautiful depth of field, but it doesn’t work in every scenario. For example, look what happens when you focus on a group of leaves or flowers. The part of the tree trunk that is visible through the leaves in the foreground is not blurred! It looks very strange. 

iPhone Weird thing in Portrait mode
the trunk of the tree is not blurred when surrounded by the subject leaves
the flowers in this photo were masked and lost all detail around the edge, including the stem, and the background is blurred

iphone and mirrorless... they are both awesome

iphone snap
sunrise picture from the Jupiter bridge of the lighthouse
edited version

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