5 IPHONE 5S CAMERA TIPS FOR BETTER PHOTOS

The iPhone 5s is a surprisingly powerful camera to have around, especially considering what its 64 bit processor and the added features iOS 7 bring to it. You don’t even have to be a pro to use them too. In fact, these tips are so easy you’ll be wondering why your dedicated digital camera can’t do a better job.

THE BURST DON’T STOP

Burst mode on the iPhone 5s is so well implemented there’re no settings to fiddle with; simply open the stock Camera app, frame your shot and hold down the shutter. It’s fast too, shooting 10 frames per second for up to 999 full resolution photos. It can do this because it has no buffer limitations, theoretically allowing it to keep shooting till it runs out of memory.

SMART SORTING

Now that you’ve gone burst crazy and shot 300 photos in succession, how do you find the ones to keep? Burst shots are actually grouped into a single image stack, and the app has already gone through the lot to pick out what it thinks are the best shots. You can agree with it, or flip through the stack to choose your own favorites. Once you click done, you can opt to save just the favorites, which discards the rest, or save the entire roll. Simple.

PANORAMIC PALINDROME

You probably know about the panorama mode on your iPhone 5s; it’s a pretty cool party trick. But did you know you could actually start a panorama sweep from either direction? In panorama mode, simply tap on either end of the frame to switch starting side.

EXPOSURE CONTROL

The iPhone 5s uses a sophisticated exposure metering technique called Dynamic Auto Exposure, which does an excellent job at giving you photos with balanced lighting. This is most evident when shooting panoramas. However, you can override this and manually set the exposure or focus plane. Simply tap and hold on the screen to get AE/AF (Auto-exposure/Auto-focus) lock at that point before you shoot. This works in video mode too.

REAL-TIME FILTERS

Most cameras let you preview one filter at a time, the iPhone 5s can show a set of 9 filters in real-time. In the camera app, click on the icon with three overlapping circles at the bottom right. This brings up the filter grid with live effects. Just select your preferred filter before you shoot. Best of all, applied filters are saved in a layer; you can change or remove it altogether by selecting the photo from your camera roll and clicking Edit.