iPhone Photography Tips: 4 Easy Changes To Improve Your Photos

Nowadays, with the power of our phones, everyone’s a mini photographer.

Let’s face it: Pictures are a part of our life! Today, I’m excited to share some quick and easy iPhone photography tips that will help your snaps to look significantly better. Whether you’re a daily documenter or someone who only takes photos on special occasions, I think we can all relate to that feeling of wanting the perfect snap to capture a moment. (Plus, who hasn’t had that time where we look at a photo in hindsight and think, “Gah I wish that photo had turned out better!”)

I promise, these tips are super simple and quick, so don’t be intimidated! There are so many things to note for better photos that I want to share, but I know that it can be a bit overwhelming when too much is thrown at us in this realm, especially if you’re newer to photography. So for today’s post I’m going over 4 key tactics to help you, and will follow up with a part II and more advice in the coming weeks. Let’s dive on in!

iPhone Photography Tips: 4 Easy Changes To Improve Your Photos

Pay Attention To Camera Angles

…AKA, how you’re holding your phone while taking the photo.

I’ve noticed a common trend that people tend to angle their phone down when taking an image, sometimes very drastically. To angle the phone down essentially means that you’re taking the photo slightly positioned from above, as opposed to straight on or being positioned lower than the subject. This can very quickly create a short and stubby illusion, particularly if you’re photographing people. (I’ve heard it said that it trims off a double chin if you photograph this way, but it actually does the opposite!)

I’ve found that it’s best to position yourself slightly lower than your subject, positioning the phone so that it’s angled up. This helps to elongate the subjects more and creates a dynamic view of the setting.

Of course, there are times when you’d want to angle down, such as when you’re taking an image of a setting from above. My best advice is, when in doubt, focus on your main subject and play around with the angles. Note how taking an image angles up, down, and straight on affects things like their height and the setting around them! This iPhone photography tip is a bit more subjective, and definitely takes some playing around with, but the more you practice, the better!

Use The “Burst” Feature To Your Advantage

To use the “Burst” feature, simply hold down on where you’d usually tap to take the photo. If you hold down, it’ll start to take a series of images, which you can then review afterwards and choose the best ones to work with! This gives you a ton of options as opposed to one-and-done.

Using “Burst” is particularly useful if you’re taking images of a moving subject!

Never, Ever Zoom In

It drives me craaaazzzyyyy when people zoom in on iPhone photos! Zooming in immediately makes the image more pixelated, harder to edit afterwards, and drastically reduces the quality. It’s so much better to either move closer to your subject, or to simply not zoom at all and then to crop the image later on. In my opinion, one of the the biggest ways to mess up a photo is to zoom in unnecessarily — try to resist the urge!

“Tap” On Your Subject To Lock Focus

iPhotos are great because, unlike a DSLR camera where you need to really pay attention to your focal points, the cameras take a great majority of the setting in. This is so helpful in many cases! But let’s not forget that sometimes a great image is one that has a powerful focal point and faded background! One way to better your iPhone camera’s focus is to simply “tap” on the subject. This tells the camera where you’d like your focus to be. This is particularly helpful while shooting in portrait mode!

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See? iPhone photography tips that are super simple and easy to implement! Next time you’re taking a photo in your phone, try out some of these pointers and see how your images differ from what you’d normally take. At a minimum, they’ll help to give you more of a variety to choose from. But hopefully you’ll end up with some images that were better than what you may have taken before!

What other iPhone photography tips do you have? Any pointers that have been game-changers for you? Leave them in the comments below!

PS – 10 Tips For Taking Great Family Photos That Look Professionally Done + 5 Tips For Creating Impactful Photography