Posts Tagged HDR

With a few tricks and tips you can vastly improve your iPhone photographs, photos and pictures. In the past year Ive used both the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4 – and its surprising what can be done with these smart phone cameras.

Best iPhone Camera Tip
Unlike standard cameras, the iPhone takes the photo when you release the on-screen shutter button. Set your shot, frame the image, press and hold the camera button and then just release the button when you’re ready to shoot.
This helped me remove shake and movement from dim indoor shots and results in a more clear and crisp photo.

Focus / Light Sensor
The iPhone 3 and above have a built in feature that works like “Focus”. Its actually a light sensor, that will brighten or darken the the portion of the image that you touch. When in the Camera mode – simply touch the screen where you want the focus of the photo – the camera will “adjust the aperture” to compensate the amount of light in the image.
The light sensor works really well when inside. Hot spots like windows will make the rest of the room dark – however touching the dark area will help adjust and improve the image.

HDR
High Dynamic Range imaging Is really cool. Its a feature built in to the 4.0 and higher iPhone OS. This tool is worth the iPhone’s weight in gold.
Simply touch your iphone camera screen and touch the HDR at the top middle of the screen. This turns HDR on.
In HDR mode the camera comes to life.
HDR photographs bring out colors and depth between darkness and light. It will automatically store an HDR image and a non HDR image so you may compare and select.
Compare the 2 photos of my desk. Note the washed out hot spots vs depth of color.

Zoom
The iPhone has a built in digital zoom. Its very easy to use.
Touch the screen and a slider bar with a – on the left and a + on the right will appear on the screen. Simply slide the circle on the bar to the right to zoom in.
Be aware that the zoom feature should be used sparingly if at all. The quality of the image reduces exponentially as you zoom in.
A positive – the zoom can be used to properly frame a photo quite nicely.

Flash
The iPhone 4 has a built in LED flash. Its perfect for taking close up photos of babies, still life fruit baskets and the inside of small dim closets – it will not light up a bedroom.
Remember to turn on all the lights in a room prior to photographing.

Lighting

As mentioned above – flip on all the lights in the home prior to photographing. If possible, photograph large rooms during daylight hours with the windows at your back. Use HDR mode when facing windows.

Stability
In poor lighting conditions stability becomes an issue. Several friends have recommend various tripods and brackets to hold the iPhone. Ive had success using what I have to work with – like chairs, shelf’s, mantles etc. I set the iPhone on a level surface and press the shutter button. (iPhone 4 has flat sides, so you can set it on edge and walk away…if you don’t mind the risk). That said, a tripod would make for better shots – however seems to defeat the purpose of using your pocket sized device.