Do you consider yourself an iPhone photographer? If you take most of your photos with your iPhone, whether you are posting them on Instagram or sharing them with friends, you can benefit from experimenting with the camera settings on your iPhone.
The camera features available on your iPhone will obviously depend on which model you’re using, but even the older models have a decent camera with cool settings. Here are 10 iPhone camera settings to play around with right now:
iPhone’s newest phone models have some features we’ve never seen until now, including the ultra-wide camera lens and Night mode. If you’ve been using the iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro or newer, check out these features. If you haven’t upgraded yet, skip to the section on features for earlier models.
The ultra-wide camera on iPhone models newer than iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro enables users to capture a much greater field of view than the standard iPhone camera lens and is equivalent to a focal length of 13mm. This lens is useful for shooting landscapes when you want to capture the scale and magnitude of a scene, as well as urban streetscapes, architecture, and building interiors.
Night mode on iPhone is great for shooting in low-light settings where most cameras would produce blurry photos. It will automatically take a series of photos at different exposures for a set amount of time and then pull elements from all of the frames to create one crisp image.
Night mode is an automatic feature that turns on whenever you try to take a photo in less than optimal lighting. It can only be used with the standard wide-angle camera, not the telephoto or ultra-wide lenses.
Tapping the moon icon in the upper corner of your screen within the camera app will allow you to access the Night mode settings, where you can choose to turn the feature off entirely or set the amount of time you want the shutter to remain open for your photo. If you don’t adjust these settings, your iPhone will use its processor to automatically adjust the settings to suit the lighting conditions.
Earlier iPhone models may not have all the latest bells and whistles, but they still have lots of features and settings that you can use to take awesome photos. Here’s an overview of some of the camera settings you’ll want to check out.
Live Photos is a feature that allows photographers to take a short three-second video that captures movement, sound, and still frames on your iPhone. It’s a standard feature on every iPhone model, starting with the 6S, and it is the default camera setting for the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus. Live Photos are great for capturing photos with movement or group photos where you want to ensure that everyone is looking at the camera.
Check out our in-depth iPhone Live photos guide to find out more about this underrated feature.
Portrait mode can be used to take portraits, selfies, and photos of objects that stand out from the background by gently blurring the background and keeping the subject matter crisp and clear. This is especially useful when you are trying to capture a portrait in front of a distracting or cluttered background.
Portrait mode was rolled out with the iPhone 7 Plus and is available on the iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and all newer iPhone models.
If you are shooting with an iPhone 7 Plus or a newer model, you can make use of the optical zoom feature, which allows you to zoom in on an object without a loss of quality. This is a far better way to zoom than using the digital zoom (which you access by spreading your pinched fingers outward across the screen).
The iPhone Camera timer was one of the Camera app’s earliest features and is available on all iPhone models. The timer is useful for capturing selfies or group photos where the photographer is to be included. The timer can also be used to reduce shake when taking photos in low-light settings.
Burst photos allow you to capture and save photos of fast-moving subjects so you can choose the best one later on. In Burst mode, your camera captures images at 10 frames per second. When you are finished recording your photos, you can scroll through them to find your favorite shots.
Burst mode for iPhone works differently depending on which model you have. If you are using an iPhone XS, iPhone XR, or earlier model, all you have to do is hold down the shutter button to enable Burst mode. With these phones, Burst mode will not work if you are also using the timer, HDR, or flash.
If you are shooting with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, or newer, simply slide the shutter button to the left when taking a photo to activate Burst mode.
Did you know you can set gridlines within your Camera app to help you frame a more pleasing composition? Gridlines divide your screen into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. Once you’ve used it for a while, you’ll hardly even notice it’s there.
Your iPhone camera comes with a cool feature that allows you to automatically choose and lock your focus and exposure when shooting your photo. If you do not choose your focus and exposure, the iPhone will do it for you, but the results may not always be what you’re expecting. The AE/AF Lock (Auto Exposure/Auto Focus Lock) feature enables you to set your focus and your exposure and then lock in your settings for the current photo.
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and using it allows you to create properly exposed photos in all sorts of tricky lighting conditions. Your iPhone uses HDR to take a series of photos that highlight different areas of the scene you are shooting. HDR will give you more detail in the shadows and bright highlights that aren’t washed out. It’s great for landscape photography, bright sunlight, and street scenes.
The following instructions are for iPhone models earlier than iPhone X models. Newer models have Smart HDR, which is used automatically in scenarios when it would be most effective:
Using your iPhone camera settings correctly will drastically improve the quality of your photos. Fortunately, these settings are super easy and intuitive to use, even for novice photographers.