They say that the best camera is the one you have with you. For a lot of us, that’s our iPhone camera. The iPhone camera has come a long way and allows you to access professional photography capabilities right at your fingertips. But, not everyone knows just how powerful this little camera can be. This post dives into iPhone photography tips and tools that will help you improve your iPhone images. 😉
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iPhone Photography Tips and Tools for Beautiful Images
As a professional photographer who has experience with a variety of cameras, the iPhone cameras continue to impress me which is why I’m excited to share some game-changing iPhone photography tips with you. I actually started taking pictures with my iPhone and natural light from my apartment window when I first became interested in food photography… so in a way, the iPhone camera inspired me to get more into photography.
As I developed a more serious interest in food photography, my curiosity about learning about other cameras and equipment developed naturally. My professional cameras include the FujiFilm XT4 and the FujiFilm XT5. But, as I mentioned earlier, the iPhone camera is also really, really good. And, the truth is, the quality of your images is not about the camera, it’s about the technique.
I don’t use my iPhone for client work, but I still take a ton of pictures with it personally and I even developed an online course called Mastering iPhone Food Photography to help food businesses and hobbyists improve their smartphone food images.
Through all of this experience, I’ve learned a lot of tips and tricks about the iPhone, so let’s discuss some iPhone photography hacks to help you start improving your images! I’m using our cherry tomato plant (which is growing fast) for visual examples.
iPhone Photography Tips and Tools: Part 1
Clean off your lenses
This iPhone tip may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s very easy to forget how dirty the iPhone lenses can become. They’re constantly exposed and they can easily pick up dust, smudges or other particles. If your images ever look sort of “hazy or fuzzy” after taking a picture, it’s probably because your lens needs to be cleaned. Be sure to wipe the lenses off gently so nothing is interfering with you capturing a clear image.
I have used my shirt sleeve to do this, but I also have these cloths on hand that are microfiber, so they’re safe for sensitive surfaces and work great for smartphone lenses, computer screens and eye glasses.
Turn on the grid
When trying to improve your iPhone images, it’s important to be more intentional about how you frame your subject, which is also considered your image composition. One of the best iPhone photography tips to help you practice your composition technique is to turn on the grid in your smartphone’s settings.
When you turn the grid on, it will appear as a subtle overlay on your screen. The grid will display two vertical lines and two horizontal lines creating nine rectangles. Where the grid lines intersect is where you could consider placing your subject. This is known as the Rule of Thirds and is a great starting point for practicing different ways to frame your subject.
To turn the grid on, go to your Settings / Camera / Grid and make sure that it’s activated (green).
READ MORE ABOUT: FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY COMPOSITION TIPS
Adjust your focus & exposure
FOCUS
Have you ever taken a picture to later realize it’s not in focus? It’s the worst, right? To ensure that your image is in focus, tap the screen where you want your iPhone camera to focus. A yellow box will appear indicating where the phone is focusing. I call this the focus box and you’ll see this on the image on the far left.
EXPOSURE
You’ll also see a sunshine icon next to the focus box. Moving this icon helps you adjust your exposure.
If you move the sunshine icon up, you’ll make your image brighter, like the middle image example. If you move the sunshine icon down, you’ll make the image darker, like the far right example. This is a very easy way to start adjusting the exposure of your images. The goal is to find a nice balance – you don’t want your image to be too bright or too dark.
Lock your focus & exposure
Manually tapping the screen to adjust your focus and exposure is easy and convenient, but if you don’t want to do this each time you take a picture of the same subject, you can lock your focus and exposure.
To do this, tap and hold your finger on the screen. You’ll see a yellow block called “AE/AF Lock” at the top of the screen, which means your focus and exposure will be locked while you take pictures. To undo the locked focus, just tap the screen again and it will unlock.
Switch Between Lenses
Switching between your lenses can give you different perspectives and variety in your images. I have the iPhone 13 Pro and it comes with three lenses, which you’ll notice along the bottom of the screen in the image below labeled .05x, 1x and 3x. I took the same picture using each of these lenses to show you the difference. You’ll notice the image starts off far away, then gets a little closer and then gets a lot closer.
Experiment with the lenses when taking pictures, because the variety of perspectives of the same subject can be really beautiful to see.
Portrait mode
When it comes to iPhone photography tips, experimenting with portrait mode can be an exciting way to improve your photos. Portrait mode helps you create depth behind your subject, which adds a subtle blurry-ish and dreamy look in the background or foreground of your subject. This is also known as depth of field.
There are a lot of very expensive lenses that create this effect in professional photography for DSLR cameras and Mirrorless cameras. The cool thing about the iPhone camera is that you don’t need a separate lens to adjust your depth of field. You can simply switch to portrait mode and start experimenting with it. The important thing to note is to adjust the amount of blur you see behind the images to get the right effect.
How To Adjust Portrait Mode on the iPhone Camera
To adjust the amount of blur you see in the background, follow these steps:
- Select Portrait mode.
- Click the “f ” in the circle in the upper right corner.
- Use the slider beneath the image to adjust how strong you want the blur to be.
The iPhone lens has a portrait mode range of f1.8 to f16. The lower the number, the more background blur you’ll see. The higher the number, the sharper the background will be. Pretty cool, right!?
You’ll notice the image on the far left is set to f2.8, which adds a lot of blur in the background. The image in the middle is set to f6.3 and the blur is much less intense. In the image on the far right, it’s set to f16 and the image appears a little more sharp in the background – especially in comparison to the image on the far left.
Edit your images
Photo editing is an important part of the photography process. I see a lot of people take pictures with their smartphone and not edit any of them. No matter what camera you use, your images can appear flat and muted without some editing.
You can start experimenting with editing using the standard camera app in your iPhone. It has some basic editing features that will introduce you to the power of editing.
Open the image you want to edit, click Edit and you’ll get three icons sitting beneath your image.
ADJUST TOOL
The first icon on the left looks like a circle with dots around it. This is your ADJUST option which lets you adjust the exposure, brightness, shadows, contrast, saturation, etc. There are a lot of options to play with in the Adjust option, so take some time to make different adjustments and watch how it affects your image.
FILTERS TOOL
The second icon in the middle looks like three intersecting circles. This is your default FILTERS option which lets you scroll through a variety of filters that you can apply to your image.
CROP TOOL
The third icon looks like a square with arrows. This is your CROP option which lets you crop, straighten or rotate your image. Have some fun with each of these, because there’s a lot of ways to edit your images using these three simple features built right into your smartphone camera.
The standard iPhone editing app is a good place to start with editing, but there are a lot of fun, more advanced iPhone editing apps available in the app store. Be sure to check out some of my favorites below. 😉
Take An Online Course
An online photography course is a great way to improve your photography skills quickly and I have a couple of options for you to check out.
Mastering iPhone Food Photography
My signature course, Mastering iPhone Food Photography is a beginner-friendly, comprehensive course that will fast track the learning process behind iPhone food photography.
This course has a full suite of everything you need to improve your iPhone food images including videos, screen recordings and behind-the-scenes demonstrations. The course is currently under 4 hours long and when you sign up, you get lifetime access to it including all future updates that I make. Sign up, take the course when your schedule allows and refer back to it anytime you need it. 😍
iPhone Photography Tips and Tools: Part 2
Now that we’ve covered some iPhone camera tips, let’s dive into some iPhone photography tools that will come in handy while you practice improving your skills.
Control the Light
Diffusers
When taking pictures with your iPhone camera, you are probably using natural light. Natural light is beautiful, but it’s constantly changing which can make it tricky to control without some basic tools to help you.
Diffusors will help you soften strong sunlight and by spreading it out more evenly over your subject. You simply place the diffusor between your subject and your light source. For example, I often place diffusers over my window when shooting food with natural light. It doesn’t block the light, it simply softens it.
Foam Boards
Foam boards are great for shaping the light and bouncing light back to your subject.
White foam boards bounce light back to your subject if one side of your image is getting too dark. For example, if you have a plate of food next to the window, it’s possible the side furthest from the window could appear darker. If you set up a piece of white foam board opposite the window (and next to your food), it will bounce light back from the window and make that darker side appear brighter. It’s a very cool trick that can make a big difference in how well your images are lit.
Black foam boards can help you add more contrast and shadows to your image. You can place these near your subject and move them around to see how different placements can direct and affect the shadows in your image.
Stabilize Your iPhone Camera
iPhone Tripod
Holding the smartphone is a very convenient way to shoot, but I want to push you to try something different. One of the biggest gamer-changers for iPhone photography is being able to stabilize your iPhone on a tripod.
The best tripod setup for your iPhone includes:
Manfrotto Tripod
The Manfrotto tripod with a center column, allows you to position your iPhone at any angle, including overhead shots. You’d be amazed how many iPhone tripods do not support an overhead angle, so this is a solid option to help you capture any angle you want.
Metal iPhone Tripod Mount
A metal iPhone tripod mount will help secure your iPhone to the tripod. It’s made of metal and very secure and allows you to easily position the iPhone camera for a vertical or horizontal shot. It also doesn’t interfere with your iPhone screen at all. Check out the post below for more information about my go-to tripod setup for iPhone photography.
READ MORE ABOUT: THE BEST TRIPOD FOR IPHONE FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY
Avoid Blurry iPhone Images
Bluetooth Remote Camera Shutter for iPhone
Now that we’ve covered getting a tripod for your iPhone, the next tool I recommend is a remote camera shutter release. This tool comes in handy for two reasons:
- Pressing the shutter button on your iPhone could cause the camera to shake a little, resulting in blurry images.
- You may not be near your iPhone to take the picture.
I have this bluetooth remote shutter and it’s compatible with most smartphones on the market. It’s really small and convenient to carry with you and has been super reliable for me.
Improve Battery Power
iPhone Portable Charger
Smartphone batteries can be unpredictable and some run out of juice really fast, especially if you’ve had the iPhone for a while or are running multiple apps. Having a fast portable charger with you will come in handy more often than you think.
Moment Lenses for Smartphone Cameras
Smartphone Lenses
Did you know you can use different lenses with your smartphone? Not only are the cameras improving significantly, but now you can use different lenses to capture a variety of different perspectives. The newer iPhone models have between 2 and 3 lenses, so you may not need any separate lenses. However, it can be a really fun way to step up your iPhone photography game with extra lenses to play with.
I’ve tested a variety of smartphone lenses on the market and haven’t been impressed with most of them. The “clip-on” lenses are really hard to position perfectly over your smartphone lens and will interfere with the lens if it’s not juuuuuuust right. Clip-on lenses may be more affordable, but trust me when I say, cheaper is not better when it comes to photography lenses.
The lenses that I confidently recommend for smartphone cameras are the Moment lenses.
In order to use Moment Lenses, you will need to download a third-party camera app called Pro Camera by Moment from the app store. The lenses will work easily when using this camera app, whereas if you use the standard iPhone camera app, there may be some glitches.
In order to attach the Moment lenses to your smartphone, you will also need to buy a separate Moment iPhone case. It’s an extra accessory to buy, but they look great and are super easy to use to keep your Moment lenses securely in place.
The Moment lenses twist right into the case when you want to use the lens and they twist right out of the case when you want to remove it. Not to mention, the glass is top-notch on the Moment lenses helping you capture beautifully sharp images from far away or up close. I’m sharing two lens recommendations below.
Wide Angle Lens
If you’re looking for a beautiful, ultra wide angle lens for your iPhone without too much distortion, this Moment Wide Lens is a really great option. It’s great for travel, landscapes and interior spaces. You can see an example below.
Macro Lens
Macro lenses let you get super close to your subject so you can capture every little detail with impressive sharpness. If you’re interested in getting up close and personal with the details of your subject, this Moment Macro Lens is a really good one to check out.
Keep in mind, you have to be about an inch away from your subject to capture a sharp, up close image. It’s really stunning what it can do, but it won’t work well if you can’t get that close to your subject. See the example below.
I hope you found these iPhone photography tips helpful! Honestly, I’m just scratching the surface with all the fun options you have to improve your iPhone photography. Remember, photography is not about what camera you have – it’s about knowing how to use the camera you have. Take the time to learn more about your iPhone camera. You’ll be amazed at what you can do with it.
Reach out with questions anytime and be sure to follow me on Instagram!
NEW COURSE! The doors to my signature course, Mastering iPhone Food Photography are open! This is your one-stop-shop that includes professional guidance through a variety of videos, screen recordings and behind-the-scenes demonstrations to help you learn how to improve your iPhone food photography quickly!
Happy Creating!
This post may contain affiliate links which means if you click or make a purchase through my site, I might make a small commission (at no extra cost to you). I only promote products and equipment that I actually use for my photography business. Your support helps me continue to produce educational content about photography. Thank you!
All images ©Regan Baroni 2025.
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