Cell phone cameras are pretty limited. But, sometimes, they are the only tool at hand. That’s why I thought it was worthwhile to figure out how to take good pictures with the camera on my iPhone.

GET YOUR MIND RIGHT

The first key to taking good pictures with your iPhone is recognize that’s it not a Nikon or a Hasselblad. Cell phone cameras demand a different technique altogether than precision photographic instruments.

WHY CELL PHONE CAMERAS ARE GREAT

So why bother with a tool that is low res, poorly lensed and lacks all meaningful photographic controls? One word: Spontaneity.

Taking great pictures is often about time and place, capturing a magic moment. Unless you carry your Leica or Yashica everywhere, the cell phone camera is often the only option.

It’s worthwhile to get some skills with cell phone cameras because they provide access to some of the most beautiful and fleeting moments in life.

And, after all: it’s the photographer, not the camera, that makes the picture.

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Top 5 Rules for Taking iPhone Pictures

RULE #1: STEADY HANDS

The iPhone has a pretty slow shutter. And, the touch-screen button is awkward to click. Number 1 tip for taking good pictures with your iPhone:

Pay special attention to holding the iPhone steady while you snap

This just takes a little practice, figuring out best way to hold your iPhone so you can click the shutter button. Using both hands helps. Try it.

RULE #2: GET CLOSE

The iPhone camera lens is very wide. A wide lens makes things bigger in the foreground and teeny tiny in the background.

Go with it. Get close to your subject and fill the frame.

RULE #3 - LEARN TO LOVE WACKY COLORS

The iPhone camera tends to over-dramatize color, especially in low light. Warm, incandescent light becomes positively orange.

You can try to shift the colors around or mute over-saturated tones, but sometimes it’s just better to work with what the camera delivers. Try looking at your iPhone pictures as impressions, not photographic records.

RULE #4: EMBRACE CONTRAST

The iPhone likes situations of high contrast. Muted, soft light produces flat pictures. Remember, this is not a tool of subtlety.

Even in bright light, the iPhone seems to capture a fair amount of detail in the shadows. Strong lines and a sharp delineation between light and dark make for dramatic pictures on the iPhone.

RULE# 5: PROCESS YOUR SHOTS

iPhone pix benefit from some basic processing:

• Cropping - tight up your compositions by cropping out space that is extraneous to the main subject.
• Grading - almost every iPhone picture benefits from deeping the blacks and raising the whites. You can accomplish this by using the Contrast and Brightness tool, adjusting the Curves or other means. The result is a crisper, punchier shot.
• Sharpening - to some extent, you can correct iPhone’s susceptibility to shake by using a the Sharpening tool. On some photos, excessive sharpening can make the picture too grainy, so use your judgment.

There are dozens of photo processing programs out there including Photoshop and Picnik. I used iPhoto to process the pictures in my iPhone Moments Flickr set:

See the entire set  iPhone Moments on Flickr.

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iPhone Camera Wish List

In future post, I’ll list the features I’d like to see for the iPhone. Email me if you have some suggestions.