Smartphone News

We’ve all been there: You’re out and about running errands without a camera and come upon a striking scene that deserves to be photographed, so naturally you pull out your phone. But if you always shoot in Auto mode the images you capture won’t be as awesome as possible.

In the video below from MountMedia, an instructional site with up-to-date camera reviews and shooting how-tos, you’ll see how to dramatically improve your mobile photography by using powerful iPhone features that you’ve ignored in the past. By the end of this episode you may even think of your iPhone as a “real” camera after all!

Instructor Werner Plank covers a lot of ground, so we recommend having pen and paper handy to take careful notes for future reference. He demonstrates what he calls “15 amazing tricks”—many of which you’ll find yourself using over and over again from now on. Plank refers to Apple’s iPhone 14 and 14 Pro (Max) in this demonstration, but much of what you’ll learn is appropriate for shooting with other models too. And he provides links to more helpful information in the description beneath the video.

The “magical” tricks in this episode include everything from controlling the iPhone with Siri voice commands, and convenient hidden features of the shutter button, to capabilities of the robust iPhone Photos app. There’s also an interesting tip for using Live Photo to create impressive long-exposure effects.

Plank provides powerful advice for those interested in capturing motion. You’ll see how to create a gif from a burst, an easy way to convert a Live Photo to a video, and how to take photos and videos for the shared library. There’s also a quick method for shooting a Hyperlapse with your phone.

Several tricks are geared specifically for improving the quality of iPhone photos, including those for enhancing depth of field and taking the “perfect” portrait with the help of Live Photo. This is only a smattering of what you’ll learn, so grab your iPhone and note pad, and hit the “play” button now.

There’s much more of interest on the MountMedia instructional YouTube channel, so pay a visit when you have time.

You’ll also want to check out the tutorial we posted last month, with more mobile photography tips and tricks.