Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The default mode of the camera is to take still photos
but make sure the selector mode here is set to photo.
You can also tell you're shooting still photos when the shutter
button here is a white circle with a white ring around it.
In video mode it becomes a red circle. Just like with a regular camera, you can shoot
in portrait or landscape mode. Notice how the camera button in the lower
right hand corner, and the buttons above it rotate to indicate that the
iPhone knows that it's rotated. Previously, to take a photo, you could hold
your finger down on the shutter button, frame your shot, and then
lift your finger to take the shot. But in iOS 7, less than a second after you
touch the shutter button, the photo will be taken.
Not only that, but if you continue to hold your finger down on the shutter button,
the camera will go into burst mode, meaning it will start taking a rapid succession of
shots. Burst mode is actually great when your taking
photos of subjects that are moving at a high speed, which
traditionally will frequently result in blurry shots.
But with Burst mode, you can take multiple shots at the rate of
about one every half second, which increases your chances of getting the shot you want.
Now, if you have an iPhone 5s, it has a unique burst mode that intelligently
tries to select the best photos, but we'll look at that in its own movie.
Another way to trigger the shutter in the camera app is
to use either of the volume buttons to snap your photo.
Making the experience a little more like using a traditional point-and-shoot camera.
Notice the yellow box that appears in the center
of the screen when I hold the phone still. That's the iPhone telling me where the point
of focus is. Meaning the area in the box is what the camera
is using to determine the overall brightness
and color cast of the photo. But your subject is not always going to be
dead center in the frame. And using this default value, could make your
picture too dark, or too bright. You can manually let the camera know what
the important part of the picture is, by simply tapping
on the screen. For example, maybe this area is the focus
of the shot I'm taking. I just tap it with my finger.
And instantly, the camera reevaluates the scene based on its
measurements of that area. And then, I can take my photo.
Basically, what this boils down to is, just tap the
important part of the picture before you take your shot.
If necessary, you can also lock in the exposure and focus
by holding down on the subject area for a second or two.
Notice it says AE/AF LOCK in the display now. This is useful if you want to lock in the
exposure and focus, but then play around with the framing without your
phone constantly trying to readjust for the lighting.
You can unlock the exposure and focus by tapping anywhere else on the screen again.
The camera can also detect faces in your shots. So it can tell when you're taking a portrait
of a single person or if you're taking a group
shot. The camera automatically focuses on the more
prominent face in the frame and adjusts the focus and exposure
settings accordingly. But you can still tap anywhere on the
screen to change the settings if you need to.
And there are a couple of other options available, if you're shooting still
photos. You can change to shooting your photos in
a square ratio by switching over to the square
mode. And, by the way, you can switch modes by swiping
anywhere on the screen. You're not limited to just using the dial
area to do so. The camera app in iOS 7 also comes with a
selection of built in live effects. Many camera apps give you ability to process
your photos after you shoot them. But here you can tap the Effects button to
see live previews of each effect, select one and you'll see
exactly how your photo will look with that effect
applied. Effects can be applied in either the square
or regular photo modes. Once you choose an effect in either mode,
that effect will continue to be applied until you switch back
to the none setting. To review the photos you've taken, you can
tap the tiny thumbnail image of the last picture
you took. This takes you into your camera roll, which
you'll look at more closely in an upcoming movie.
But here you can swipe side to side to review your shots.
And pinch open and close to zoom in and zoom out.
When you are done reviewing your photos, you can tap the screen once
to reveal the interface buttons and then tap done to return to the camera.
I also want to mention here that the iPhone is actually
quite good at macro, or super close up shots, as well.
If you get the camera within four to eight inches of your subject, it goes into macro
mode. You can get surprisingly detailed close ups
with your iPhone, since you can tap the area of importance to improve your exposure
and focus. If you can't quite get the camera to focus
on a certain area, move a little further away from your
subject and try again. There are a couple of other options available
here to check out as well. If you have a device with a flash, by default
the flash is set to auto, which let's the phone determine
when the flash is needed. If it determines the scene is too dark, the
flash will fire. You can also tap the flash button and choose
off or on. When you choose on, the flash will always
fire with each shot. This might be useful if you're shooting someone
who's back lit, maybe with a sunset behind them, and you need the
flash so your subject doesn't become a silhouette. If you choose to turn the flash off, it won't
fire until you turn it back on. Turning the flash off is useful when you
want to capture more of the natural lighting of
the scene you're shooting or when your subject is too far away for the flash to matter.
So, just because you have a flash doesn't mean you have to use it.
Also remember that you have a front facing camera.
You can toggle between the main and front camera by pressing this button.
This is great for taking self portraits since it takes all the guesswork out of whether
or not you're framing yourself in the picture. Now obviously there's no button for the flash
when you're using the front facing camera since the flash is on the other
side of the phone. Also, this camera has a slightly lower resolution
than the main camera, but it's still great to have the second camera
for still shots as well as for using FaceTime, which we looked
at earlier, and for shooting videos of yourself, which we'll
look at later in this chapter. The last think I'd like to show you here is
a really useful feature introduced in iOS 5.
Sometimes you need to get to your camera quickly in order to catch a shot.
But it's really time-consuming to unlock your phone and locate and tap the camera app.
By the time you get through that you might have missed your shot.
So instead, when your phone is locked press the home or lock
button, and notice the little camera icon in the lower right-hand corner.
To quickly access the camera, drag that icon up, and the camera app opens right away.
So that's shooting photos with the camera app.