Introduction - iPhone 4S Camera Basics Part1

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iPhone photo example

In this blog, I would like to share tips for creating and sharing beautiful photos with the iPhone or the iPod Touch. The iPhone is now one of the most widely used cameras in the world. The lens and 8MP sensor in the iPhone 4S produces great images, but the thing that sets it apart from dedicated cameras is the ability to chose from thousands and thousands of camera and imaging apps which enable you to do more than you can ever imagine with your photos. My goal is to make this blog as friendly as possible for beginners while keeping it interesting for enthusiasts. I plan to cover basic camera shooting tips, image editing with a variety of apps and sharing photos on social networks such as facebook and Instagram.

 In this first post, I will cover the basics of using the in-built camera app. This writing is based on the iPhone 4S camera with iOS5.1 and may become obsolete when iOS6 and the "new iPhone" comes out probably in fall of 2012.

Launching the Camera App

The camera app can be launched quickly from the lock screen by swiping up the camera icon on the lock screen. Even if your iPhone is locked with a pincode, you can take photos without entering the pincode which is very handy when you only have a moment to take the perfect shot.

The Shutter Button

I'm assuming you have figured out that the shutter is the rounded button on the bottom of the screen. What I have experienced a lot when asking people unfamiliar with the iPhone to take a photo is that they would press the home button instead of this shutter button and end the camera app :-). Since then, I try to tell them about this button just in case.

 An alternate way to activate the shutter is through the volume up/down button (iOS5 and later).  Many people praised this feature because it allows taking pictures like a standard camera. However, my personal opinion is that the volume button is a little too hard to press and is prone to causing blur compared to pressing the screen button. The volume shutter works on the buttons of earphones/headphones. If you have a bluetooth wireless headset, this feature can be handy as a remote control to take photos of yourself.

Zooming

To zoom in, pinch out 

To zoom in, pinch out anywhere on the screen. To zoom out, pinch in. A magnification bar will be displayed when you pinch and you can also use this bar to control zoom. Zooming is not optical which means the photo will have lower resolution and be grainier at higher zoom.  This would have been a problem on earlier iPhones with lower resolution. However, with 8 megapixels on the iPhone4S, zoomed in photos still look pretty good especially if you are just sharing on facebook. Some say digital zoom is meaningless because it is essentially the same thing as cropping a photo on your computer. However, I think when you zoom in, you can more easily notice when your subject is a little out of focus.

Flash

Flash settings

The iPhone4S features a backlit CMOS sensor which makes it a good camera for taking photos in low light conditions. It also has an LED flash but I have to say this is one of the weaknesses compared to dedicated cameras and I do not recommend using it unless absolutely necessary.  The flash can be set between Auto, On and Off on the upper left control.  Turn the flash Off if you want to take dark pictures in low light situations. Turn the flash On if you want to use the flash in daytime (for example, your subject is in a shadow). However, like I've said above, the flash is very weak for this purpose and will only work if your subject is very close to the camera. Setting this to Auto will cause the camera to automatically use flash when in dark conditions. I usually keep this setting to Off.

Grid

Option settings for
Grid and HDR

When you press the Options button located on the upper middle area, there are settings for Grid and HDR. I will write about HDR in an upcoming post and suggest keeping this off if you do not understand what it does. 

 As you can see in most of my screenshots, turning on Grid draws two vertical and two horizontal lines on the screens. This helps you keep your photos level and also helps you compose using the "Rule of Thirds" which is one of the rules of the thumb in photography. To state this rule simply, you should try to align important elements of the photo along these lines or on their intersections instead of positioning them in the middle.

Other Controls

On the upper right, there is a button to toggle between the front FaceTime camera and the rear iSight camera. The FaceTime camera is handy to take photos of yourself but remember it only can take photos at a low 640x480 resolution  while the rear iSight camera has  3264 × 2448 resolution.

 On the bottom right, there is a button to toggle between camera and video. If you ever see a red dot instead of the camera icon on the shutter button, it means you are in video mode. On the lower left, you can see a thumbnail of the last photo you took. If you press it, you can switch to the Camera Roll and view your photos. Another shortcut to switch to Camera Roll is to swipe the screen anywhere from left to right. 

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading! This might have been a bit boring for experts, but I hope it was helpful for someone. In my next post, I will write about adjusting focus and exposure. I would appreciate feedback and requests for future articles.