iPhoneography

Welcome back to iDownloadBlog's lessons in iPhone photography. In the past three lessons we explored all the various aspects of creative exposure. We've learned how to control the overall brightness of your image in Creative Exposure, how to take your exposure/focus to the next level in Advanced Exposure, and how to get beautifully balanced exposures using HDR.

What I'd like to touch on next is a discussion surrounding composition. In future lessons, we will get into more academic approaches to composition. However, for this lesson I want it to be a fun and less stuffy. With this in mind, I thought it would be fun to explore a few easy ways to make more compelling images by simply changing your perspective...

I hope you enjoyed making images using the creative exposure techniques we learned in our last iPhone Photography lesson. I had a great time following those that shared their work using the #iDBCreativeExposure tag on Instagram, and I share a few of my favorites at the bottom of this post.

In today's lesson, we are going to learn more about exposure and focus liberation...

Taking a picture with the iPhone is easy. All you do is touch the little camera icon and voila, you instantly have a photo you can share with the world. There is nothing wrong with the spontaneous snap. However, in today's lesson we are going to explore a technique that allows you to flex your creative muscle.

Before we get into the lesson, there are a couple of terms we need to cover first. They are "exposure", "highlights", and "shadows"...

I don't know if it's because I recently had a baby, or maybe because I'm just looking for an excuse to spend even more time on my iPhone, but I've recently found a new interest in iPhoneography.

Up to a few months ago, I wouldn't think twice about snapping a picture with my iPhone. I would pull it out of my pocket, launch the camera app, and take a picture. The result would usually be decent enough, but nothing amazing.

Then I came across Justin Balog's blog which was like an eye opener about what you can really do with your iPhone. I devoured his short tutorial, and decided to get in touch with him to see if we could meet, since he appeared to be traveling to San Diego from time to time. When we finally met a few months ago, we talked about the iPhone, photography, and how we could work together to bring some awesome iPhoneography tips to iDB readers.

That's why we decided to launch this mini series focused on iPhone Photography. To start, we'll just test the water and see how you react to it, if you like it or not, and if you ask for more. This will be a good way to gauge the interest iDB readers have in iPhone photography. My feeling is that you will love it!

So, what is the goal of this series?

If you're like me, you don't know jack about photography in general. Aperture, focal length, ISO speed might not mean anything to you, although they are some of the basic terms and principles of photography.

That's why we thought it would be a good idea to start with the basics of photography applied to the iPhone and go from there, so that whether you're a beginner or an expert, we can all learn together at the same pace.

Let me hand you over to Justin for a minute so he can tell you more about our photo series...

My name is Justin Balog, author of the critically acclaimed iBook 'Big World Little Lens - The Complete Guide to iPhone Photography'.

I'd like to start off by thanking Sebastien for inviting me to join the iDB team.

In this series, we will not only be exploring the world of iPhone Photography together, we will unearth the creativity in all of us. My goal for this series is simple: to teach you how to make a great photograph with your iPhone that you are excited to share with your friends and family... heck, maybe the world. The series will include app tutorials, technique tips, as well as general principles of photography. All of which are intended to increase the awesomeness of your iPhone photos. Now grab your iPhone and let's get started!

As you may be able to tell, Justin is pretty excited about our iPhone photography series too!

If you haven't yet, I highly suggest you download Justin's iBook called Big World Little Lens - The Complete Guide to iPhone Photography. It's available in the iBook Store for $4.99 and is a goldmine of information for iPhoneography beginners. When I first got my hands on Justin's iBooks, I thought that the content would be too "light" for me as I already knew the very basics of iPhone photography. After reading a few pages, I found out that although I did know a lot about what he was touching on, there were still a bunch of tips and tricks I learned from it. As I said to Justin after reading his iBook, I believe Big World Little Lens is a must-have for every beginner out there. Of course, if you already are an experienced iPhone photographer, your mileage may vary.

Watch for our very first iPhoneography post sometimes this week. In the meantime, if you have any question or request, please leave a comment below.

And don't forget to follow me and Justin on Twitter and Instagram. We are @JustinBalog and @SebastienPage. If you're already out shooting and sharing awesome pictures, make sure to use the #iDownloadBlog tag so we can find them.