Do you want to learn to shoot great pictures with your iPhone camera? Do you want to learn to create spectacular images quickly and easily? With some basic photography skills and the help of some really fun apps, I’m here to tell you that the iPhone photography is here to stay!  I’m a professional photographer, teach on location workshops in beautiful places and online. Jansen Photo Expeditions teaches iPhone classes in person in Ventura County, CA. Here is a sneak preview of some of the things you will learn.

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iPhone Photography Starts with Basic Photography Composition

First and foremost, basic composition and photography rules apply if you want to get the best quality
image from your iPhone. The most helpful composition tip when using any camera is the rule of thirds. This basic composition aid will take you into the realm of amazing pictures fast. You can even shoot a trash can and it will look great using this tool (but we like to get WAY more creative!)

Add New fun features of the native camera app.

The native app (the camera app that comes with the phone) has a new feature in the iPhone 6s called Live Photo.  Basically, Live photo takes a 3-second video along with your picture. You don’t need to do anything technically, just be sure this feature is turned on. There’s a little button at the top of the screen on the iPhone 6s that allows you to toggle it on and off. You can get creative with this feature, but you need to think about it a bit first. Some of my favorites that I’ve done with this feature are my dog playing with a stick on the beach. I caught the still image as he was jumping in the air, but the 1.5 seconds before and after showing him jumping and running after the stick.  A moment in time caught in a 3-second video!

My Favorite Shooting App

My favorite app to shoot with is called Camera+. I like Camera+ because it separates your focus and exposure points allowing you to create the sharpest and best correctly exposed images. You can save these images to your iPhone camera roll and edit them with other apps. It also saves the more editing-friendly TIFF format.

How to pick and choose the best features in the apps

I use a variety of different apps but I don’t use every feature in every app. I like to pick and choose the features of each app and use different ones for different purposes. It’s fun and easy to pick and choose and get great results from using a variety of apps. In our Jansen Photo Expeditions class, I go over 10+ apps and talk about combining effects with several different apps.

Learn the importance of editing.

My favorite editing app is Snapseed. Editing is the secret of good pictures. While you might be able to create something nice right out of the camera, it is only really going to pop if you add some saturation, exposure control and sharpening to the image. Once you start editing, you will see how important this is and use it regularly to create great images.

This image of half dome in Yosemite was edited in Snapseed’s black and white filter. Snapseed has a variety of fine-tuning adjustments and my favorites are brightness, ambiance, saturation, and shadows. Using these techniques will make all the difference in the quality of your images.

If you’d like to learn more about how to create incredible iPhone photography, join us for an iPhone Photography Class at Jansen Photo Expeditions.

We also teach in-person group and private photography workshops throughout California and Iceland for DSLR and iPhone and are taking a group to Yosemite in the Fall just to shoot with their iPhone! How fun is that? Learn more information about this trip at www.JansenPhotoExpeditions.com.