Most Important iPhone Camera Settings

There is always something new to learn from your iPhone camera settings. Some of you may not even know that your camera phone was capable of doing these things. But several of the things we are going to learn will help you achieve better photos with your iPhone. So let’s just jump right in.

Preserve Settings

Do you find it annoying trying to find your favorite settings or filters every time you open your camera app? Fooling around with settings when you want to take a shot might make you miss that perfect shot. I am going to show you how to set your preferred features or settings.

1. Open settings menu
2. Navigate to Camera option
3. Select preserved setting

Once you are here you have a few options.

1. Camera Mode – This allows you to set it to the last mode of use
2. Creative Controls – This allows you to use the last filter, aspect ratio, light or depth settings
3. Exposure Adjust – This allows you to use the last exposure used
4. Night Mode – Exactly the way it sounds
5. Live Photo – Saves those settings

These options vary depending on the model of your iPhone.

Grid Lines

An essential rule of photography, no matter what type of camera you are using, is to place your subject in one of the four intersections of lines on a 3×3 grid. These lines also help with keeping the horizon level.

Turing these settings on:

1. Open settings
2. Navigate to camera
3. Select Grid
4. Toggle on

Burst Mode

Burst mode is great for those fast-action shots. It works well without too much distortion. Basically it is a series of rapid-fire shots & gives you the option to select the best shot.

To enable Burst Mode:

1. Open settings
2. Navigate to camera
3. Enable use – Volume up for burst

All you have to do is keep your finger on the the volume up button while shooting. Burst mode will continue shooting until you release your finger.

Live Photos

Similar to burst photos. This records 1.5 seconds before and after your snapshot. This mode doesn’t clog up your album with tons of photos like burst mode.

To use:

1. Open Camera app
2. Select Live Photo option (top right of screen)
3. Press shutter & stay still

Focus & Exposure

I highly recommend playing around with this option to get a basic understanding of how it works. Simply put, exposure is how much light reaches the image sensor and focus is the sharpness of your photo. You can manually lock both of these, meaning you can customize your shots better.

To Manually Lock:

1. Open Camera app
2. Tap & Hold on your photo’s focus point
3. Wait until you see AE/AF lock banner at the top of the screen
4. Unlock by taping anywhere on the screen

Exposure Bias

This simply means controlling the light. You can brighten or darken your photo. To use:

1. Open Camera app
2. Tap on the screen to bring up the focus box. Beside it you will see the sun icon
3. Tap & Hold the sun icon
4. Slide up or down to adjust the bias

Camera Timer

Using a timer is great for taking selfies for that Instagram account or for trying to fit everyone into a photo. To Use:

1. Open Camera app
2. Tap on ^ at the top of the screen
3. Select the timer icon
4. You can choose 3 or 10 seconds
5. Press the shutter to start

Enable Geo-Location

This setting is great for travelers. It helps keep up with the location of your pictures for memory purposes. This feature is hard to find. It isn’t in your camera settings.

How to Set It:

1. Open Settings
2. Select Privacy
3. Select Location Services
4. Select Camera
5. Select While Using App

You can turn this setting off at anytime and it will not affect your existing photo data.

Hopefully you have learned some new settings. Practice, practice, practice! Then go out and take some great photos.

Check out these other great posts.

• Basic Photography Tips
• How To Use Your iPhone For Long Exposure Photos