Owning a cellular phone with a built-in camera is now considered an indispensable tool. It gives you the opportunity to take pictures using your phone whenever and wherever you like without having to carry and drag along a bulky camera. The convenience of a phone’s camera and its continued sophistication make it a tool you want to become familiar with.
Before you venture off into the wonderful world of picture taking, allow yourself to first understand the basics of your iPhone camera. Here are some terms and explanations that will begin to help you understand the incredible tool you have acquired.
Quick Camera Access
There are easy ways to access the iPhone camera every time you need it. These methods are specifically helpful when your device is locked, or if you set a passcode. First, you can access your camera by going to the home button located under the screen or the On/Off button on the top. You can also find the camera icon and touch and hold it. Another way is to simply slide up to see the Camera app.
Camera App
The camera app is the default way to capture images using your mobile device. It is built-in, and when you tap the camera button, you will end up in the camera app. To use or launch it, you just need to go to your home screen and then tap the camera icon. Once you launch the camera app, a live view screen will open, and you will gain access to the controls. These controls will allow you to capture an image, set the flash, switch to the front-facing camera, or access the advanced options.
Geo-tagging
This is another iPhone camera feature that allows you to tag the photos you have taken with your present location. This feature typically appears when you launch the camera app, and it will ask for your permission to tag your present location. You will be presented with two buttons: one is “Don’t allow” and the other is the “Ok” button. If you tap on “Ok”, your device will store the GPS coordinates of all the images you capture. This makes it easier for you to keep track of vacation spots especially if you like posting pictures online.
AE/AF Lock
In iOS 5 and higher, the iPhone camera offers the AE/AF lock feature—a component that allows you to lock in the auto-exposure or autofocus settings. To use this component, tap the screen and hold your finger down until the AE/AF lock appears in the bottom part of the screen. Tap again and the feature will turn off.
AutoFocus
To activate this feature, all you need to do is tap twice with your finger in the area of the screen where you want to focus your photo. A square will appear on the screen to show you what part of the image the camera is focusing on. At the same time, this feature will automatically adjust the exposure and white balance of your image.
Camera Flash
Thanks to this feature, your iPhone camera can now shoot beautiful images even in low light. When you tap the camera icon, you will see a flash icon at the top left section of your screen, symbolized as a lightning bolt.
When you see this, you can either turn the feature off, use the auto option if you want to use the flash when necessary (this is determined by the iPhone itself), or click on when you want to use the flash when you take a picture.
Camera Zoom
Your iPhone camera has the ability to zoom in and out—simply by pinching and dragging your fingers on the screen to zoom in. Place your thumb and forefinger on the screen and then slowly drag them apart. When you do this, a slider bar will appear in the bottom part of your screen, indicating a minus sign at one end and a plus sign at the other. Once this slider is visible on your screen, you can slide your finger back and forth along this slide to zoom in or zoom out on an object.
Grid
For iOS 5 or higher, you will see the grid feature when you click the option found at the top part of the screen. Just tap to turn on and tap it again to turn off the feature. This aspect will help you in composing your picture as it breaks the image up into nine equally sized squares. Do not worry, though because it will not appear on your images. It is simply there as a guide.
High Dynamic Range (HDR)
This feature was added to the iPhone when Apple launched the iOS 4.1. HDR photos snap multiple exposures of the same scene and then combined them so they produced a better looking and more detailed photograph.
To use this feature, open your camera app. You will now see the HDR button at the top middle of the screen. If you are running iOS 5 or higher, you will see the option button at the top of the screen. Click on this button and you will see the HDR option.
Using the iPhone camera can be very easy and you just need to learn more about its basic functionalities and features. Once you utilize everything that it has to offer, you will not just have a great use of your device, but you will also produce good quality photos.