Your iPhone Camera Settings Explained.
Thanks to the simplicity of the iPhone interface, it is quite easy to take photos or videos with the camera. However, there are many advanced iPhone camera options and settings you can use to enhance your images.
In fact, the iPhone camera is actually quite complex and you may have noticed all the settings in the camera app that are available. Once you understand all that you can do, you can take high quality photos. Many people actually prefer the iPhone for photography over a traditional digital camera due to its ease of use and the number of settings available.
You can also do basic photo adjustments right from your iPhone. If you don’t have the money for expensive cameras or photo editing software but still want to take quality photos, check out the iPhone camera intricacies and photo settings.
iPhone Camera Photo and Video Capture Settings
When you open the Camera app, you are taken directly to the photo option. In addition, there are five more ways to take a photo or video: time-lapse, time-lapse, video, square and panorama. You can select the object you want to shoot by clicking on it at the bottom of the screen.
The time-lapse setting allows you to shoot a video, after which it automatically speeds up. Slo-mo, of course, does the exact opposite. There is also a regular video option to capture live video.
Then, after the usual photo option, there is a square, which allows you to take square-shaped photos, perfect for posting on social networks. Finally, there is Pano, short for Panorama This allows you to take pictures of a larger area, such as landscapes.
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You can also switch to front or rear camera by clicking the icon in the lower right corner with arrows inside the camera.
In these camera options, you also have additional iPhone camera settings for how you want the photo to be taken. These are options like flash, HDR, or timer.
How to change iPhone camera settings
When taking a photo, you will see several different icons at the top of the screen. These are the settings you can change to help you get the image you want.
The first setting on the left is flash. You can set the flash in three ways: Auto, On, or Off. Turning the flash on and off is self-explanatory, but the Auto setting allows the iPhone to determine when to turn the flash on or off based on how dark it is.
Next to it is HDR, which optimizes the contrast of your photos. This is useful if your photograph is taken in a particularly bright environment. The options here are the same as for Flash, so you can choose whether your iPhone will automatically detect situations for HDR use, or you can just turn it on or off.
The middle icon is the live camera parameter. When enabled, the camera not only captures your photo, but 1.5 seconds before and after the photo was taken, so you get a short moving image.
Then there is the timer. You have the option of counting down the time before the photo is taken, after 3 or 10 seconds.
Finally, there are filters. You can choose from several options to change the color and lighting effects of the photo you take to create something more stylized.
You can also play around a bit with focusing and lighting the camera. By touching the inside of the camera, you can make it focus on a specific subject. However, at some distances, you may not be able to focus on something if it is too far or too close.
When you do, an orange square will appear where you clicked. There is a sun icon next to it, and you can move that icon up or down to change the amount of light the camera lets through.
Basic photo and video editing settings
Besides the iPhone camera video and photo settings, you also have the option to edit photos. Once you’ve taken a photo, you can find it in the Photos app. You should see an “Edit” option in the upper right corner, and clicking it will take you to the edit screen.
There’s a stick icon in the top right corner here, which will quickly enhance your photo if you don’t want to edit things manually. However, if you do, you will see editing options at the bottom of the screen.
First, there is a Crop / Rotate option. However, you can rotate the photo or crop it manually, or by selecting the aspect ratio with the icon on the right. The second icon after cropping / rotating are filters that allow you to set a pre-created filter for the photo.
After the filters, the third icon gives you a lot of options for more detailed photo editing. It gives you the ability to tweak the light, color and black and white settings until you’re happy with the way your photo looks. Each of these iPhone camera settings has a drop-down list of effects you can play with.
If you are ever unhappy with how your edited photo came out, you can always click the Revert button to remove any changes you made to your photo.
On the video side, you can click the same edit button to trim clips by dragging the sidebars until you only have the portion of the clip you want. After saving, you can also save it as a new clip to avoid losing your entire video.
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