Insider tips Phone snap it with style
Brook Sabin shares tricks for taking a perfect holiday snap with your phone.
Iwill never forget attending a lecture run by a National Geographic photographer: he wanted to tell us about an exciting new camera. We all leaned in. It had three lenses, loads of new technology, and it was always with you. He reached into his pocket and held up his new iPhone.
Almost everyone knows how to take a basic photo with a phone, but there is one feature that can take your photos to the next level: live photo.
After you turn this function on, the phone takes a 11⁄2-second video before and after your photo, giving you heaps of options. Did you miss the shot of the dolphin jumping out of the water? No problem, head to edit, select live photo (it is a little circular symbol), and you get to pick from a range of photos before and after the one you shot. It is also a great feature if somebody happened to be blinking in the photo – you can just select another one.
But the feature is much more powerful than that. Head back to your live photo and, in the top left corner, you will find a drop-down menu. There you can pick from ‘‘loop’’, ‘‘bounce’’ or, my favourite, ‘‘long exposure’’.
Have you ever seen a picture of a waterfall looking all silky smooth? That is achieved through a long exposure shot, and it is traditionally done with a camera on a tripod. But, with an iPhone, after you take a picture of a waterfall, select ‘‘long exposure’’ and you will have an instant silky shot. Try to hold the phone still to make the photo even better.
If you are serious about editing photos, try shooting in ‘‘raw’’ mode. This captures much more data to enable better editing. However, these photos will take up a lot more space on your phone.