iPhone Camera Features, Tips & Tricks: All You Need to Know About iPhone Camera and Photos

Updated Aug 18,2016 | by Niko

Since Apple released iPhone 4, the first iPhone model to have 2 cameras, iPhone is no longer just a device used to communicate with others, and it plays an important role as a digital camera. Nowadays, iPhone has been becoming one of the most popular and widely used cameras that people use it to take pictures almost every day.

With this in mind, we are going to talk about iPhone camera features, tips and tricks in the following article, which contains all you need to know about iPhone camera and photos. 

Model: iPhone 6 and iOS 9.3.3

Camera Interface

Open iPhone Camera app, you will see the interface of the Camera, as the following shows. Let’s take a look at the features, options and buttons of iPhone Camera.

1.   Camera Switch: with this, you could switch between front-facing camera and rear camera.

2.  Self-timer: this feature allows you to set a countdown timer (3s or 10s) before a photo is snapped.

3.  HDR Switch: turn HDR capacity on

4.  Flash Switch: you can set camera flash between Auto, On and Off.

5.  Viewfinder: it shows you what would be captured when you take photos. Besides, there is a yellow square available to confirm focus. You are allowed to set the focus point manually by tapping the screen.

6.  Camera Mode Selection: you can choose between multiple camera modes, including Time-Lapse, Slo-Mo, Video, Photo, Square and Panorama. Note that different iPhone models or iOS systems may come with different available camera modes.

7.  Filters: this icon gives you an access to several live filters to photos, such as Mono, Tonal, Fade, Transfer, Instant and etc.

8.  Shutter Button: tap this button to take photos or start/finish recording.

9.  Gallery: where you can see all your photos.

iPhone Camera Modes

iPhone 6 comes with 8-megapixel iSight camera with 1.5µm pixel size and 1.2-megapixel FaceTime camera (iPhone 6s/6s Plus ensures higher configuration, with 12‑megapixel iSight camera with 1.22µm pixel size and 5-megapixel FaceTime camera). iPhone camera comes with multiple useful modes. By swiping left or right, you can easily switch the camera modes you want. Now, we are going to talk about these modes in details.

Photo

Photo, for taking normal pictures, is the mode that you might use most often. Normally, iPhone camera will auto-focus, while you can set the focus point manually. Moreover, the Flash and HDR features are available in this mode. Based on your requirements, you can rotate and zoom the screen and then tap the shutter button to take photos. iPhone camera has capability of capturing well-exposed photos with very natural but beautiful colors.

As for Square, it is similar to Photo mode. The only difference is that Square ensures your photo a perfect square size, instead of the standard rectangular. In this mode, your photos would be easier to view on social networks, websites and third-party apps like Instagram. So, if you are going to take photos and share them online, we recommend you to use Square mode.

Panorama

Without buying professional and expensive wide-angle lens, iPhone camera Panorama mode will help you take panoramic photos with ease. Basically, you can take a sweeping shot of everything in front of you, and in Panorama mode, it captures a much wider view than simple wide-angle lens.

How to take panoramic photos in Panorama mode? Open Camera app, switch to Panorama mode and you will see an arrow and a line on the screen. Now, you need to tap the shutter button, keep the arrow aligned with the centre line as well as you can, and move your iPhone continuously when taking a Panorama. Of course, by tapping the shutter button again, you can easily end your shot. Once it’s done, you will get a wide and big panoramic photo. Panorama mode is awesome for taking photos of amazing landscape.

Video

Compared to photo mode, video interface is quite clean and simple. In addition to having Flash feature enabled, the HDR and Filter features are not available for video mode. It’s very easy to record video with your iPhone. 

Follow these steps: launch iPhone camera app, switch from Photo to Video mode, tap the red button to start recording video and tap the button again to end your video. Do not worry, the audio is captured automatically. There is a button available behind the record button allows you to take photos during the recording process.

Popular iPhone models ensure users 1080p HD video recording at 30fps or 60 fps, among them, iPhone 6s/6s Plus/SE support 4K video recording (3840 by 2160) at 30 fps.

Slo-Mo (Slow-Motion Video)

Slo-Mo is the mode for iPhone 5s and later models. Since many of you are still confused with this mode, we now make it very clear and simple for you to understand. If you are interested in taking great clips of slow-motion action, then this Slo-Mo is the mode that you can make full use of.

 Slo-Mo mode works by recording videos. Compared to standard videos, it is almost 4x faster actually. The point is that it will play back at a normal speed when you finish recording, and this makes the footage appear extremely slow.

iPhone Camera Features: Flash, HDR and Filters

Flash

Generally, the natural light will ensure you the ideal shot, so there is no need to use flash light. But if you want to take photos in the low/no-light situation, iPhone camera LED flash can offer help. Just in case, you can set flash feature as auto, and let the system decide when the flash needs to be used.

HDR (High Dynamic Range)

HDR is the feature designed and used to help people take higher quality photos. It will take photos at both a higher and lower exposure, and then combines them to produce a colorful and bright photo. With Photo Mode, you can turn HDR on or off. If you set it as Auto, iPhone will automatically analyze and decide whether your photo needs HDR improvement or not.

HDR helps improve photo quality, and in most of time, it works very well. As you know, photos occupy iPhone storage badly. If you want to save more storage and survive on the iPhone with only 16GB storage, then HDR is not necessary and you can just turn it off.

Filters

iPhone Camera offers you multiple filter options, such as Fade, Chrome, Noir and more. Fortunately, you can see the filter effect before taking photos, so it is quite convenient for you to take many different photos to see which works best. Also, you are able to add filter effect to any photos available in your photo gallery.

Now, you know the interface, modes and main features of iPhone camera, is there some others you can explore?

Tips and Tricks for iPhone Camera

Grid Lines

By using the standard rules of 3 techniques, grid lines align objects as well as subjects with a 3x3 grid. And it can help you take photos that have much better composition than regular ones. Gird lines feature is available in Photo and Square modes. How to enable this feature?

Go to Settings > Photos & Camera > Grid, and turn it on.

Volume Button = Shutter Button

This trick is quite useful when it’s inconvenient to tap the shutter button on the screen. Using vol+ or vol- button to take photos can increase stabilization.

Burst Shot

When you want to take multiple different and rapid photos, burst shot is one of the great feature that you can make use of. By holding down the shutter button (or vol +/- button), iPhone camera can take 10 photos per second until you move your finger away. And you can check them in Photo Gallery and decide which you would like to keep and which want to delete.

Camera Shortcuts

In addition to the Camera icon on the screen, there are another 2 shortcuts available to take you to the camera directly. One camera shortcut can be found in the Control Center, which you could access by swiping up from the bottom of your iPhone. In the Control Center, you can see a camera icon in the bottom right corner.

As for another camera shortcut, it is just in the bottom right corner of the lockscreen. By swiping upwards on the camera icon, you will enter iPhone Camera directly without entering passcode.

Transfer iPhone Photos via IOTransfer

iPhone camera is feature-rich and easy-to-use. With it, you can even take high quality and professional photos. If you need to keep those beautiful moments and memories, then IOTransfer can help.

No matter you want to transfer photos from computer to iPhone or export them to your PC, IOTransfer provides you with two-way transfer works perfect and safe. Transfer photos between iPhone and computer via IOTransfer can be quite simple and fast. The whole process will be completed by few clicks.

Connect your iPhone to computer via USB cable, run IOTransfer, click Photos column, select photos and export. It is easy.

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