The iPhone has proved that enthusiasts can take professional photos without feeling intimidated by the idea of needing classes in photography with professional photographers. If you browse over collections online on blogs, the photos range from amateur to really professional quality photos, and all from the iphone.

That said, there are ways to avoid being seen to be just a holiday snapper with a phone. You can snap amazing pictures albeit people or landscapes on the iphone if you follow a set of 7 tips to ensure that you are aware of the low quality issues in order to avoid them.

Also feel free to visit Calgary Photographers – Sharpeshots to learn more about shooting images with your iPhone.

Top 7 tips to take great photos from your iPhone:

1. Be careful when in differing lighting situations. You need brightly lit areas for good portraits, and ensure that if it is a portrait picture of your family, check that there is no strong lighting behind them. This will darken the image taken.

2. How many apps? There is a never ending choice of apps to help you with your iphone photography. There are fun ones like Snaptime which allow you to distort and add effects to images for some funny photos. Instagram allows adding filtered effects to your images and then sharing them instantly on facebook. Similar apps like PicPlz and Dermandar allow a range of filters for portraits and landscape panorama shots.

3. Clean your iphone screen and camera lens. You can pick up very cheap microfiber polishing cloths from eBay or your local photography shops. Ensure that you clean any smudges and check consistently. Nothing worse than sizing up the perfect iphone photo shot and then finding later that a smudge smeared the image.

4. Sometimes, lining up subjects in your shot can be tiresome. The iphone has a camera grid to help here. It allows you to use grid lines to line up any parts of the shot properly so you do not have a tilting angle. Open the Camera app, tap the options you want, and slide the grid to ON. Then hit DONE and you have a grid on your screen allowing you to line up each part of the shot.

5. There is no need to leave the flash on AUTO as there are instances where no flash may be a better option. If it’s a darkened room like a club or an exterior night shot, the flash is needed. Avoid using flash on moving objects and taking photos near reflective surfaces like mirrors and glass.

6. Who says you can’t approach professional photography with an iphone? Pros are used to taking several shots at once and at differing apertures to ensure they have at least one excellent shot. Well, the iphone has a HDR function allowing you to do just that and much quicker than on a standard camera. HDR (High Dynamic Range) takes 3 shots at different exposures so a great option for complex lighting situations.

7. Get used to focusing on the subjects with manual focus. It’s easy to just point the iphone and tap a shot, but don’t forget to tap for exposure and focus too. For example, if you have someone standing against a background and that person is the main subject such as a graduation shot, then focus on that person by tapping him or her. Usually, depth of field will have enabled your background to be in focus too but get the main subject of the focus sharp.

Add these tips to your iPhone Photography snaps and enjoy a phone that can be capturing the very best of your holiday, events, birthdays, and other activities.