How to use your iPhone camera to take great pictures this summer

So... let's get started and take a look at a few useful tips and tricks for better photos and videos on the iPhone X:

Did you know that the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 series support very sloooow motion video recording? The option is right in the camera menu: open the camera app and swipe right twice to enter Slo-Mo. If you want the slowest and best looking quality, make sure to first:

1. Visit Settings

2. Scroll down to the Camera app

3. Select Record Slo-mo

4. Make sure that you record in "1080p at 240fps"

Selecting this camera mode slows down the action 8 times, so that backflip that you did indeed looks epic. Or that you failing to do it will look as an epic failure that you would still want to show to your friends and have a laugh.

I also used the slow motion mode to better understand and perfect my free throw shot, you can really see what particular movements are you doing right and wrong in this mode.

Finally, the same goes for my outdoor gym workout. Perfecting the chin up requires control and good movement, and you can see whether you are doing it right with slo-mo videos.

 

While you are shooting some epic slo-mos, you can also experiment with the Portrait mode option, available on the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus. In the camera, one swipe left brings you to portrait mode, where you will notice that the iPhone switches to the secondary, tele camera. This is done because of unflattering effect that a wide-angle camera can have on human facial features: take a portrait from up close with a wide-angle camera and your nose would look bigger and facial features appear different. That's why having the tele camera gives pictures a more flattering look.

Here are some photos that we took with the Portrait Mode, capturing some epic sports moments:

There is a new Stage Light effect available for portrait shots that can light up your face and make it seem like there is a studio light illuminating you.

This is particularly useful for those times that you can't have perfect light (which is so often when you shoot outdoors). We used the Studio Light effect extensively, improving the quality on many shots that would have otherwise been wasted.

Here is how to use Stage Light:

1. First, take a photo using Portrait mode.

2. Open it in the Photos app.

3. Tap on edit.

4. Wait for a second until a few icons appear in the central bottom part of the image.

5. Move the icons to select different lighting effects.

Take a look at some before-and-afters with Stage Light:

Next up, shooting sports is all about capturing the action in the right moment.

To help you with that, the iPhone comes with a very fast burst mode that captures tens of pictures easily. To use it, simply hold down the camera shutter button when you are taking a picture and a rapid-fire progression of images will be saved. You can later picked that one moment that looks best and save it. Here is an example of how this may be useful when you want to take pictures during a pickup basketball game:

The more we shot with the iPhone X, the more we realized how useful the secondary, telephoto camera is.

Many times you just cannot go close enough with the main, wide-angle shooter. 

So when we say that we used the 2X zoom lens a lot, we did not over-exaggerate. A lot of the shots above were only possible thanks to the secondary, 2x camera and you can see that while the quality is not quite as amazing as on the main camera, it's definitely good.

Another impressive video recording feature that the iPhone X and iPhone 8 series support is 4K video recording at 60 frames per second, or simply 4K60.

How do you turn it on, though?

1. Go into Settings

2. Scroll down and tap on the Camera field

3. Tap on Record Video

4. Select the 4K60 option! Voila!

This is double the frame rate that previous iPhones supported, so that these newer 4K60 videos look way smoother and this type of recording looks particularly good if your record sports or fast-paced action.

Take a look at the smooth motion you get with 4K60 videos:

Also, 4K60 is an excellent format for super high quality slow motions. To make use of that, you would need a separate computer with a powerful video editor, something like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro, where you can import the 4K60 video and export it in 4K24 for 2.5 times slo-mo, or export to 4K30 for 2 times slo-mo effect.

Last, but not least, you should play around with the Time Lapse camera shooting mode.