Sure you can tweet, text and update your status on the keyboard but the camera is the real business end of your smartphone. Instagram and Pinterest are the two fastest growing social media sites meanwhile Facebook is getting left in the dust by young people. So it’s time to amp up your photo sharing game.

72% of Americans are walking around with high definition cameras and high-speed internet connections in their pockets. Is your brand photo ready? Is your brand even photo friendly? Do you still try to communicate with your audience with words? Do you think of visuals as just decoration for your copy?

Six second videos on Vine, fifteen second videos on Instagram, or even a single powerful image can dramatically increase your social footprint. Short videos and photos are micro content that’s naturally optimized for social media.

The content gurus always talk about making great content to attract audiences but they never tell you how to do it exactly. They skip a step. Make great content… get a big audience. The step they skip is how. Where are the examples? How do you actually make a great video or photo? Here’s how.

First of all your gonna need some toys. Fortunately there are a lot of toys designed to make your videos and photos great. Everybody knows about Instagram filters. But there are a lot of photo editing apps that can do way more than make your photo look old.

Photography iPhone Apps

My favorite is Snapseed. It’s easy to use. Gives the user almost total control over the image and can make every photo look great. I never post a photo that hasn’t been retouched in some way. Two minutes of Snapseed and I look like Ansel Adams or Irving Penn.

I also use the Tiny Planet app frequently to make some crazy images that always get commented on.

Old Video Pro is a great way to make any video look like an old Super 8 home movie. It’s kinda like Instagram for video but better.

Procam actually turns your iPhone into an SLR. The control panel feels very much like my Canon.

MiniatureCam gives your photos the look of a Thomas the Tank Engine set. A tiny village with tiny people.

Time Lapse and Hyper Lapse are great ways to bring some excitement and movement to an otherwise boring shot.

LongExpo leaves the shutter open to create artsy-fartsy blurry action shots.

NightCam is a tremendous app that allows the user to take photos in virtual darkness.

Light Meter turns your iPhone into a professional style light meter, which can come in handy when you’re not sure what the exposure should be when operating your digital camera in manual mode. And it’s a fun practical way to learn about film speed, ISO, apertures and so on.



Now lets move on to the hardware. There are lots of accessories that can really improve your photos and videos. From tripods to zoom lenses there are so many new toys, it can be hard to choose.

HARDWARE

Lets start off with sound. A Rode microphone that plugs right into your headphone jack gives you professional sound capturing capabilities.

Izzi gadgets offers an array of fun add-ons. Mini tripods to lock off your camera for a steady camera, gimble rigs to smooth out your hand held shots, not mention their great 3-lense Orbit SHTR bundle.

mCAMLITE offers a billet aluminum camera case with attachable lenses and microphones.

Holga iPhone Lens is a nine-in-one lens set with color gels to jazz up your photos and videos.

Morphie Ouride transforms your iPhone into a GoPro. Mount your iPhone on anything anywhere. And it keeps your iPhone safe in a high-impact, waterproof, wide-angle lens housing.

Sony makes an attachable zoom lens that clips right to your smartphone. Get 10x closer to the action with your phone. You can also detach the lens for hard to get shots.

The Galileo iPhone mount allows the user to Pan and tilt a full 360º on both horizontal and vertical axes.

Steadicam Smoothie is a mini version of the infamous Hollywood Steadicam that makes every camera move silky smooth.

Joby Gorilla is a super versatile tripod that goes anywhere.

Studio Neat makes the Glif. The perfect attachment to connect your iPhone to a standard tripod.

Kogeto Panoramic allows users to capture immersive panoramic video.

FOM 8x Zoom Telephoto is the longest lens I’ve found for iPhone that snaps on this easily.

Once you find which apps and hardware work for you, you’ll need to take lots of pictures and videos. Practice, practice, practice. The good news is, it’s cheap.

The real key to great photos is lighting. Lighting is a subject that would take up another blog. But be on the look out for great lighting wherever you go. Like the when the sun is going down, or a beautifully lit room, that’s when you need to shoot. And remember to turn that flash off. Nobody looks good with a flash in their face.

All of these photos were taken with my iPhone – the greatest content generating machine ever.