Jo Membery Operations Editor

Discover how to shoot, edit and share better-looking photos on your iPhone

Jo’s been so inspired by our photography feature (page 64) that she now goes around with her eyes to the skies so she can check for available light.

The iPhone is the perfect device for photographers. It is a camera that’s always on hand to capture sudden photo opportunities. It is a digital darkroom packed with tools that can fix problems with colour, tone and composition. It’s a portable gallery that lets you display photos on a high resolution display or share shots to thousands of screens via social media. iPhones are also effective photography tools as they draw less attention when you’re taking a photo (compared to using a bulky DSLR camera). As everybody’s staring at phones these days people won’t give you a second glance when you compose your shot. This low-profile provides more opportunities to capture documentarystyle street photos for example.

Traditional DSLR photographers may look down on an iPhone as it lacks the manual controls and mechanical features that can produce particular effects. For example a DSLR user can choose a wide aperture to create a background blur for a portrait. They can freeze a moment in time using a fast shutter speed, or add motion blur to people and cars using a slow shutter speed. They can swap lenses to capture a wide-angle view or use a telephoto lens for a candid close-up.

The release of the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro has narrowed the gap between iPhones and DSLRs. Thanks to telephoto and wide-angle lenses, iPhone photographers have more control over composition. Using the iPhone 11’s Night mode, you can shoot in low light without needing a flash. The enhanced Portrait mode lets you add a background or foreground blur to any objects. Combined with the photo and video editing tools released in iOS 13, you can use your iPhone to create pro standard pictures that look similar to those produced by DSLR cameras.

We used an iPhone XR and iPhone 11 Pro for this feature, but you can apply many of our tips, tricks and techniques to older iPhone models.