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Angela Lang / CNET
IPhone 12 ($ 829 at Amazon) It wowed us during our full review, becoming one of the highest rated phones of all time on CNET. Of the four iPhone 12 models this year, the iPhone 12 is on the more “affordable” side and lacks the camera dynamism of the most expensive. Pro Y Pro Max models, like telephoto lens and lidar sensor. But don’t think you can’t take some cracked pictures.
If you’ve just gotten your hands on the iPhone 12, here are my tips on how to capture great photos. You don’t have to follow all of them, but keeping these ideas in mind will help you think more about your photography and turn forgettable snapshots into memorable works of art.
For this shot, I paid attention to the foreground leaves and the way the alley leads the eye to the scene, and positioned myself so that the castle in the background is framed by the space between the trees.
Andrew Hoyle / CNET
Nail your composition
The iPhone 12 can take vibrant, well-exposed images with little information on your part. But so can most good phones, and indeed most standalone cameras. The most important factor that will differentiate your images from someone else’s is the composition of the scene you are photographing. So take a moment to think about the arrangement of the different elements in front of you and how they will look in your final image.
Let’s say you’ve hiked into the hills and found a nice view. You can point your phone at it and take a photo, and your family and friends will certainly compliment you on the beautiful sight it was. But take some time to observe the scene and think about how it can turn into a truly “wow” image.
Adding foreground interest (like an interesting rock formation, flower patch, or gnarled old tree stump) could help tie the scene together, and using leading lines (like a path or wall) can help attract the viewer’s attention to your scene. The photographic rule of thirds is worth keeping in mind to help you get started, and to help with this you can turn on a grid overlay in your camera settings to precisely align items. Note that despite its name, the rule of thirds is actually just a guide, not a rule. Some of the more creatively striking compositions will deliberately break it.
By switching to the super wide lens, I was able to include these rocks as foreground interest for this shot of the Forth Bridge in Scotland.
Andrew Hoyle / CNET
Know when to go wide
The iPhone 12 has a standard view and a super wide view built into its camera, so it is important to remember to use both angles and to know when it is best to use them. Switching to the super wide view can transform your image, but it’s only worth using when you have a strong composition that requires a really wide angle.
If the subject of your image, say, a church on a hillside, is too far away, a wide angle lens will make the church appear even further away from you and it will get lost in the frame. Instead, zoom in on the church and activate the wide mode and you’ll find that the church is still the dominant theme in your image. But now you can capture more of its surroundings. Again, strong close-up interest helps with wide-angle photography, so look around; maybe there is a nice patch of wildflowers that you can put in the foreground and the church can take up more of the middle.
Control your exposure
While the iPhone 12 is generally successful in selecting the proper exposure for a scene, it sometimes needs a little help. Complex scenes with bright skies and dark shadows can sometimes confuse the camera. For example, when taking a portrait of a person against a bright sunset, you can choose a good exposure for the sky but leave the subject in the shade. There are a few things you can do in this case.
Shooting in a bright sun will always be tricky for a camera, but by touching the sky and darkening the exposure with the slider, I was able to capture a rich scene.
Andrew Hoyle / CNET
First you can try tapping on the subject and telling the camera that it is the part that needs to be exposed correctly. You can also drag the small slider that appears to the side of the box that appears when touched. This will allow you to lighten or darken the scene as needed. If the scene looks too bright, you’ll want to turn it down just one tap.
Shoot raw
If you want more control over your exposure, shoot in raw format and take manual control of your settings. You will need a third-party app to do this, like Moment or Firstlight, as the default iOS camera app doesn’t offer these features.
Taking manual control of settings like shutter speed, ISO, and white balance is useful in those cases where the camera can get confused with a scene and you can’t get the shot you want. A deep sunset, for example, can appear too dark for the camera, so it will overcompensate and raise shadows too much, ruining the atmospheric look you had in mind. By choosing the settings yourself, you can get exactly the shot you want.
Raw images also don’t permanently save image data for white balance and sharpness, giving you more control when it comes to editing images later. If I am taking a photo I know I will want to edit for a more “artistic” look, almost always doing it raw.
With just a few minutes of editing in applications like Snapseed or Adobe Lightroom, you can transform your images from simple snapshots into works of art.
Andrew Hoyle / CNET
Edit your images
Good editing can often be the main factor in turning a dull click into a dramatic work of art. And the best thing about editing is that it doesn’t have to be complicated or boring. Even using the basic edit button in Apple’s Gallery app lets you apply cool filters, control reflections, or remove shadows, all of which take a few seconds and can enhance your shots.
But if you want to go further, there are a host of editing apps on the App Store that can transform your shots. My personal favorite is Adobe Lightroom, which offers the same set of granular controls over exposure and color that I use in my professional photography. Snapseed is great too, with many tools available and it’s free. Both Lightroom and Snapseed are great for adjusting your images for a beautiful, art-style look without transforming the images into something entirely different.
Then there is apps like Prisma, PicsArt Y Photoshop Camera, which allow you to apply wild effects to your images, turning them into wacky pieces of modern art.
Whether you prefer a more natural look or something more quirky and daring is entirely up to your own preferences, not to mention your own imagination. Remember, there is no right or wrong way to edit images and you can always go back to the original and start over if you don’t like what you have done so it is risk free to experiment. Ultimately, my advice is to make a nice cup of tea, sit back in a comfortable chair, and play with the app tools of your choice to find out what you can turn your images into.
See this:
Comparison of the iPhone 12 camera vs the Pixel 5
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