As Christmas attracts nearer and lights, timber, shows and all kinds of festive actions (together with snow within the UK!) start to look, you may be tempted to seize the second in your cellphone. However whereas iPhones (and most Android telephones) are first rate point-and-shoot cameras, there’s extra to capturing the proper winter pictures than merely pointing and taking pictures.
From framing to digital camera modes, there are numerous methods to show a really common snap into one thing that appears prefer it was shot by a professional. Whether or not you’re taking images of your Christmas tree, a snowy scene on the park or your loved ones sporting matching Christmas jumpers as they tuck into Turkey on the large day, these dozen suggestions ought to assist enormously.
So, with out additional ado, right here’s tips on how to get probably the most out of your iPhone’s digital camera this Christmas, together with some suggestions and tips from Tech Advisor’s resident professional photographer, Dominik Tomaszewski.
In abstract
- Clear your digital camera lenses
- Body your shot nicely
- Inform a narrative along with your pictures
- Take away any distractions
- Use a telephoto lens the place potential
- Disable the built-in flash
- Use Night time Mode at evening
- Strive Burst Mode
- Use the Professional taking pictures mode or a third-party app
- Shoot in RAW
- Edit your images
1. Clear your cellphone’s lenses
Though a soft-focus impact may be what you’re after, it’s a good suggestion to examine and clear your digital camera lenses earlier than you’re taking any images – not simply these at Christmas. Be sure that they’re away from any smudges, mud or different particles out of your pocket or bag.
They’ll have a large impact on the standard of the pictures taken – particularly if there’s an enormous fingerprint on the lens.
2. Body your shot
Framing is likely one of the most necessary elements, and it’s harder than you may suppose. Think about the topic of the photograph, be it a Christmas tree, lights and even folks in festive jumpers.
When taking group household images, get far sufficient again (or use an ultra-wide lens) so that you don’t reduce folks’s ft out of the photograph. Alternatively, transfer nearer for a waist-up shot.
If taking pictures just one or two folks, put them off-centre for a extra pleasing look.
Additionally, contemplate the background. Is it too busy or distracting? Transfer round till the background seems good. It’s also possible to do that to eradicate undesirable objects from the photograph. Regardless that some telephones can cleverly take away objects or folks, it’s finest to take the shot you need the primary time.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
The identical goes for cropping. Don’t take all of your images utilizing wide-angle with the intention to crop them later. Get the framing proper whenever you take the photograph.
Professional tip: take pictures out of your chest or hip. Taking images from head peak along with your cellphone’s fundamental wide-angle lens usually ends in barely distorted objects, particularly when taking them of different folks. We’re all used to seeing this so it’s possible you’ll not likely discover it, however by altering to hip / waist peak, you may make an enormous distinction to the look of your Christmas images.
3. Inform a narrative along with your pictures
Whereas images can exist in isolation, you’ll most likely take a couple of at Christmas. There’s the work Christmas get together, the household get-together, Christmas decorations (indoor and outside) and – in case you’re lucky – snowy scenes to seize.
The thought is to search for fascinating particulars, equivalent to taking an image of somebody serving to arrange the get together or selecting up meals on the buffet. These assist inform a narrative, reasonably than merely having posed images of individuals.
Ideally, mute your cellphone to silence the shutter sound and take images with out telling folks. That eliminates the difficulty of awkward poses when folks know they’re being photographed. The candid look is far more pure, and chances are high, your family and friends will actually respect the outcomes.
4. Take away any distractions
If you wish to get the proper shot of your LED-emblazoned Christmas tree to share with your folks on social media, take away issues within the background that may distract from the principle focus of the shot.
That might be the nook of a settee, folks or pets standing within the background, or perhaps a rogue plate of leftovers on a close-by countertop. A cleaner photograph freed from distractions will present extra of an impression and look extra skilled.
5. Use a telephoto lens the place potential
The principle digital camera of any latest cellphone – together with all iPhones – is designed for taking pictures in each vibrant daytime situations and low-light situations. But when there’s one potential draw back, it’s their wide-angle discipline of view, which isn’t ideally suited for each shot.
For portrait images and different close-ups, use your cellphone’s telephoto lens – if it has one. As a substitute of capturing numerous stuff that you simply don’t wish to concentrate on, zoom in utilizing a devoted 2x or 3x lens if potential to crop the shot. Simply keep in mind that this may cut back total picture high quality as many telephoto cameras have a decrease decision than the principle digital camera, or don’t carry out nicely in low gentle, resulting in noisy, probably blurry images.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
6. Disable the built-in flash
No matter whether or not you’re taking a photograph of your family members or attempting to take a snap of the snow exterior, it’s finest to disable the flash. Whereas it may be helpful in some eventualities, the sunshine from the flash is all the time apparent in images and barely ends in a true-to-life picture.
If you happen to do want some form of fill gentle in your shot so as to add additional gentle to the scene, think about using one other cellphone’s torch, an actual torch, or turning extra lights on.
7. Use Night time Mode the place potential
If utilizing a torch isn’t going to work, then change to the iPhone’s built-in Night time Mode, out there on the iPhone 11 and later. This actually shines on the most recent iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Professional vary, however you’ll additionally discover it on many Android telephones.
The Night time Mode, because the title suggests, is for low-light images. This makes it ideally suited for taking pictures of the snow or different outside options at evening, with lengthy shutter speeds capturing as a lot gentle as potential.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Professional tip: use a tripod or relaxation your cellphone on a stable floor. This not solely reduces the shake out of your fingers when taking a protracted publicity shot, nevertheless it additionally means that you can seize extra gentle, with the iPhone particularly providing as much as 30-second publicity on a secure floor in comparison with three seconds when handheld.
It’s also possible to allow a brief self-timer to set off the seize, as tapping on the display screen can introduce a slight wobble to pictures.
8. Strive Burst mode
The issue with flashing LED lights on Christmas timber and outside decorations is that they will change too shortly, making it more durable to nail that excellent shot. The identical can be mentioned of group pictures, with it seemingly close to unattainable to get everybody to have a look at the digital camera and smile on the identical time.
In eventualities like this, it’s finest to experiment with the burst mode, which takes a number of pictures per second and routinely chooses the perfect – although you even have the choice of manually searching and choosing your favorite.
Activating Burst Mode on an iPhone differs relying on the mannequin you’ve; in case you’ve obtained an iPhone X or older, merely faucet and maintain the shutter button, whereas these with an iPhone XS or newer must swipe the shutter button to the left and maintain.
To evaluate the burst pictures, faucet the burst picture within the Pictures app and faucet Choose within the bottom-right to browse and choose the principle picture. It’s also possible to discard all the opposite burst pictures when you’ve chosen, serving to preserve file sizes down.
On some Android telephones you may discover a comparable mode, and it might even routinely choose the ‘finest’ picture.
Jim Martin / Foundry
9. Use the Professional taking pictures mode or a third-party app
If you happen to’re taking pictures in low gentle or different difficult gentle situations, it’s most likely a good suggestion to ditch the cellphone’s built-in ‘AI’ and manually alter your digital camera’s settings utilizing the Professional mode.
You may entry professional instruments in any iPhone built-in Digicam app by tapping the arrow on the prime of the digital camera UI, citing a number of icons that allow you to alter parts like publicity, although we’d suggest utilizing a third-party app like Halide in case you’re critical about your images.
Third-party apps present far more granular management over parts like ISO, permitting you to seize the very best picture out of your iPhone. It’ll take a little bit of experimentation in case you’re new to the world of images, however the outcomes are normally price it.
10. Shoot in RAW
If you wish to seize the perfect Christmas pictures potential, we’d suggest taking pictures within the RAW picture format.
The RAW picture format, out there on choose Professional fashions of iPhone, permits them to seize extra information, making it a lot better for post-processing, notably in darkish areas. With customary pictures, particulars in shadows and highlights could be misplaced, however these could be introduced again with RAW pictures and a little bit of post-processing through the Pictures app.
Lewis Painter / Foundry
You may discover the identical on some Android telephones, however not all can shoot in RAW.
Don’t go too wild with RAW pictures although – they take up far more area than customary JPG or HEIC information. Reserve it for these particular pictures that basically must look their finest.
11. Edit your images
All telephones do their finest to routinely course of pictures to make them look interesting, however you’ll be able to normally enhance upon this with a bit of enhancing to essentially make them pop.
That may be something from including a filter (the iPhone’s Vivid filter makes colors brighter and lights actually stand out) to adjusting the publicity, brightness and different parts to provide your picture a selected look. You possibly can additionally add a black-and-white filter to snowy scenes for a formidable impact.
Lewis Painter / Foundry
Whether or not you’ve an iPhone or Android, you possibly can additionally use the Google Pictures app which provides the same set of enhancing instruments. You may go even additional and alter particular components of a photograph in others apps, such because the free Snapseed, or you possibly can go the entire hog and switch them to your Mac or PC and edit them in Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop.
12. Take an influence financial institution
If you happen to’re headed out within the chilly to take images of native Christmas lights, we’d advise wrapping up (in fact!) and taking an influence financial institution with you.
The chilly temperatures most of us expertise over Christmas can have a detrimental impact on smartphone battery life, and also you may discover it operating out quicker than ordinary – particularly in case you’re utilizing the Digicam app usually.
An influence financial institution can present additional juice when wanted, and relying on the capability you go for, they’re not that cumbersome or heavy. Check out our hand-picked collection of the perfect energy banks in case you’re not sure which to go for.