#iPhoneography ~ Tips and Tricks for taking Better Smartphone Pictures

G'day sweet friends! Welcome to my bloggy home, Natasha in Oz. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have had a fabulous week.

As many of you know, I am rather fond of Instagram and I love sharing my photos with you each weekend at my Say G'Day Saturday Linky Party. I love it because it makes anything and everything look fabulous! I also love it because with just a few clicks, I can share your amazing image to Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks. So I thought that since I haven't done an iPhoneography post for a while I might share my tips and tricks for taking better smartphone pictures and a few more of my favourite apps that I use when posting pictures.

Tips and Tricks for taking better smartphone pictures!

1. Don’t use the camera that comes with the Instagram app.

Instagram is a great tool for filtering photos to make them look fabulous but the camera isn't the best. Use your own iphone camera to take the picture then filter it via Instagram. Here's an example of what I mean.

This picture was taken with my iphone. The colours are fine and the resolution is good.

#iPhoneography ~ Tips and Tricks for taking Better Smartphone Pictures

This was taken using the Instagram camera. It's flat colour wise and the clarity isn't as good as when using the in-built camera.

This is what the picture looks like after going through the IG filter. The resolution is still good and the colours are just as vibrant.

2. Slow & Steady!
Just like you would when using your normal camera, it's important to remember the same thing when using your iphone and keep it as still as possible. Stop and pause for a minute before shooting. Make sure the angle is right, the lighting is good and that you are not shaking!

3. Be careful when zooming!
Use your iPhone’s digital zoom only when absolutely necessary otherwise you will be compromising on resolution, clarity and sharpness. Take the picture as normal then resize and crop.

4. Always use the back lens to take photos.
The front-facing lens on your phone, which is the one you use to take selfies, has a lower resolution so the photos are not as clear. I love this photo but as you can see it's grainy and looks unfocused.

5. Let there be Light!
There are obvious rules when it comes to lighting for all types of photography so it's really important to follow the rules of lighting and composition in order to optimize your picture quality. It’s always best to use natural light so if you need to move things around to get the best light then so be it. And, if you are using natural light, turn off any artificial lights and whatever you do, never ever use the flash! Also, try to avoid taking pictures when sun is shining directly into your room as it keeps certain areas from being brighter than other areas.

There are also many apps out there to make your pictures even more amazing than they already are! These tools will help you make easy adjustments to your photos, effects to enhance them and text to help you watermark them or embellish them. I've actually found that I don't even use the Instagram filters when I use some of these apps!

I've posted about some of my favourite free apps already and today I am sharing some more FREE iPhone apps that will make your photos pop!

VSCOcam

VSCO Cam is an easy to use iPhone camera app with minimal processing options. VSCO co-founder Joel Flory said that VSCO Cam was for editing, and Instagram was for connecting with others around photos. The latest updates now make it even easier to share your pictures to all your favorite social media outlets. Its camera mode allows for manual control, from focus lock to a two-finger tap that allows you to adjust your exposure and focus separately.

VSCO Cam™ from VSCO on Vimeo.

Pro HDR.
HDR photography is a technique used to achieve a balanced exposure in high contrast scenes. With the free app Pro HDR, you determine what areas of the scene you would like to meter as the bright and dark areas. Pro HDR captures an image exposed for the highlights and another exposed for the shadows. It then aligns and merges the images, giving you a gorgeous HDR image at native resolution (up to 12 megapixels).

Snapseed
Snapseed allows you to enhance, transform, and share photos with ease and now it has built-in Google+ capabilities to make it so simple to share your images with your bloggy friends! It is designed for both iPhone and iPad with a layout that is very easy to use and understand.

Instaframe
Instaframe is free and it helps you combine your photos creatively with text to make great-looking collages that you can share with your friends on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr.

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Bookemon
Bookemon isn't an app that will help you take better pictures but it will help you to make your own e-books, quickly and easily. You can make and publish books to preserve memories, photos, drawings, family recipes, and stories to share with family, friends, and future generations.

I recently learned a little more about this app and 'published' my recipe for Jam and Coconut Slice as an e-book recently. If you would like to see my e-book just click the picture below.

#iPhoneography ~ Tips and Tricks for taking Better Smartphone Pictures, Recipe e-book

These next few apps are not free but they are worth buying if you take a lot of photos with your iPhone.

Camera+
Camera+ can help you shoot better images than with your iPhone camera. This quick 2 minute video shows you how easy it is to use this app. You might never use your P & S camera again once you see how easy it is to edit your photos with Camera+!

A Beautiful Mess
A Beautiful Mess allows you to add new life to your favorite photos with custom filters, fun fonts, and hand-drawn doodles by Elsie and Emma, creators of the lifestyle blog, “A Beautiful Mess”. You can share your creations via email or by publishing them directly to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post and that you will experiment a bit more with taking photos with your iphone. Who knows, you might end up being like me and ditch your hand-held camera for blogging forever!

If you liked this post please feel free to share!

I will be sharing this post at a few Linky Parties.

If you haven't heard my Tuesday Tune this week please check it out. I've featured Elizaveta, the most amazing Russian-American pianist, singer/songwriter and opera singer who sounds like Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Bjork, Tori Amos and even Lana Del Ray all in one! Just click her gorgeous picture to have a listen!