Learn With Me - Iphone Photography - Introduction to Basic Camera

Panoramic View of Kitchen and Family Room using IPhone Camera - didn't know my basic camera could do this - now  I need to improve quality!

I have been a photography enthusiast all my life and always travel with a camera. In order to broaden my knowledge of the camera in my IPhone (4S version), I took a three day (nine hours) course at Chastain Art Center located in lovely Chastain Park in the city of Atlanta - link to website. The course "IPhone Photography workshop" is taught by Marie Matthews, an artist and avid Iphone photography fan - link to website. I not only learned much more about the camera already in my IPhone, but learned about and added a few apps for the class and now need to practice to get proficient at using all this new knowledge. I plan to use this blog as an opportunity to practice and help others learn with me!

Before we started, Marie asked us to add the following apps to our phone (or IPads).  As I explore these apps and practice, I will be discussing more of them.  This posting provides some basic photography tips that I found useful (or provided brand-new information to me) and a link to a good introductory tutorial.

• Camera+
• PhotoSync
• PhotoWizard
• Snapseed
• Hipstamatic 
• ProHDR 
• Jazz
• Pixlr Express 
• Touch Retouch 
• Superimpose 
• PhotoSize

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS   

1. Keep the lens clean - use special cloths or soft fabric to clean the lens each day.
2. Get close to your subject - best photos are 4-19" from subject.
3. Hold phone with two hands close to chest to keep the camera still and avoid fuzzy images.
4. Use focus feature on camera by tapping smaller area of image to "set" the area of emphasis and waiting for it to become clear before shooting (I was amazed by this feature).
5. Set the "grid" option on to help create more balanced compositions and straighter photos.
6. Use Panorama feature by engaging (options) and tapping camera to start and again to stop - moving slowly with the camera and holding at same level (again holding with two hands in front of chest helps with this).
7. Use flash by moving to left for software flash and right for built-in flash - practice this to see if you want to use at all - most pictures look best in natural lighting (I agree with this).
8. IPhoto images are about 1600 X 2000 pixels - ideal for enlarging to 10X10 but may be able to get as large as 20X20.
9. Earplugs for IPhone have a remote clicker/camera button on the volume setting (I need to practice this one).
10. You can access camera button without unlocking your screen - look for camera button on lower right hand side.

This was a good refresher for me and I plan to check out some tutorials to add to my knowledge.  link to a good introductory tutorial.  There are a TON out there!  Good luck!