Grid
If you want to frame a professional looking photo, composition is everything. It just looks better if the horizon is either a third or two thirds up or down the picture. Another tip is not to have the subject of your photo bang in the middle – it looks more interesting to the eye if it is offset. To help frame your shots, you can turn on the grid in your main settings, under Camera, and the grid will always show on the camera screen to help you frame your photos more professionally.
Bounce 😊
If you have taken a photo in live mode, it is in effect a mini video. There is a drop down menu in the top left of your screen with options for lopping, bouncing or long exposure. Bounce will just repeat a portion of the shot, so you can make a gif of yourself endlessly waving for example.
Long exposure
One of the other options in live mode is long exposure. You can use it on moving water for example to create a smoothed, tremendously professional looking shot. These 2 photos were taken like this, it’s also a really good effect to use with waterfalls.
Portrait mode f stop
If you take a photo in portrait mode it has a depth of field, blurred background. In the top left of the screen is the f stop button. Click on that to show the slider where you can change the depth of field, or level of blur.
(Dave is the keen photographer in Simpatico. He has the iPhone 14 pro, which the attached photos were all taken on, and loves both the convenience and the capability of the phone camera compared with carrying a conventional camera and lenses. He always takes time to frame the picture to its best, and has a natural eye for what makes a picture stand out. But he always takes the time to just move the screen about and see what looks good where before he takes the shot. He also likes being able to edit the photos straight away and will often remove shadows, change the colour saturation, or try the auto enhancer.) To read more about Dave, see our interview here.
For more mobile phone tips, see our article here Top five genuinely useful smartphone features.
