Photography

3D Touch shortcuts for the Camera app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 30, 2019

Whenever an awesome photo opportunity presents itself, I instinctively grab my iPhone, launch the Camera app and press the shutter button.

But boy, way too many times did I find myself in the wrong camera mode. One time, I would realize I was shooting video instead of taking a great picture. Other times I would snap a selfie, whereas I wanted to take a quick photo of my neighbor's dog jumping in the air catching her frisbee.

3D Touch can help avoid such distractions when you're in the middle of your photography moment. With a little help of 3D Touch shortcuts and gestures, iPhone owners will hopefully never miss that important shot again.

3D Touch lets you take a selfie or start shooting video from the Home screen, review the photos you’ve taken without leaving the Camera app, play Live Photos with a press and more. In this tutorial, we'll take you through every 3D Touch-enhanced feature that's available to iPhone photography fans in Apple's built-in Camera app.

How to turn any photo scene into a snowy one with Snow Daze

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated April 3, 2024

Winter may be coming to an end next month, making room for the Spring season, but that doesn't mean you can't keep enjoying the snow!

Snow Daze is a wonderful app that can be had from the App Store for $1.99. The app can turn any photograph scene into a snowy wonderland. With all of the different filters, configurable snow settings, and color options, you can make even the least suspecting photograph look like it was taken in the middle of a blizzard storm.

In this tutorial, we'll be showing you how the app works.

‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign is back with beautiful portraits taken on iPhone 6s

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 1, 2016

Apple has rebooted its successful 'Shot on iPhone' advertising campaign, which now highlights photographs that users have taken on their iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

TIME reports that the new ad campaign features 53 images from 41 amateurs and professional photographers from around the world, with the major focus on portraits, many of which were photographed in “subtle, everyday moments.”

Turn off HDR photo duplicates to save storage space

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is great for making the most from your iPhone's camera, especially in high-contrast situations.

With this feature, your iPhone takes multiple photos in rapid succession, each at a different exposure, and automatically blends them together. You get an image that has optimized highlights and really brings the shadows out of the noise, with way better detail in the bright and midtown areas.

When you enable HDR photography by tapping the HDR icon in the Camera app, your iPhone will save two copies of the image in your photo library: the “normal” image (without HDR) along with its HDR counterpart.

This can put a strain on your iPhone's storage, especially when taking a lot of HDR photos. If your iPhone's storage is low, or you're the type of person who likes to plan ahead, read this tutorial to learn how to turn off HDR photo duplicates and save significant amounts of storage space on your device.

KGI: iPhone 7 Plus will have dual lenses with optical image stabilization and zoom

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 27, 2016

Reliable analyst (if there is such a thing) Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities sent an interesting report to clients, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider.

In it, he predicts that a new, premium edition of Apple's iPhone 7 Plus will be outfitted with a dual-lens system with optical image stabilization and optical zoom, realized through technology Apple obtained from last year's acquisition of Israeli camera technology company LinX Imaging.

Moment Lens takes iPhone photography to the next level

Lory Gil ∙ January 7, 2016

We've introduced you to a number of different lens accessories in the past for our spotlight series. There are plenty out there to cover your iPhone photography needs, from dedicated cases specific to the iPhone 6s to clip on lenses that can be used with any device.

Some of our readers have asked about the Moment Lens. While this particular product hasn't been around long enough to generate a solid consumer review base, we checked out the Moment Lens line and think it looks amazing. We haven't had a chance to test these products in the wild. So, if you own the Moment Lens kit, tell us what you think of it in the comments section.

The Moment Lens kit takes iPhone photography a step further with high-quality ED glass with multi-layer anti-reflection coating that is specially designed to provide a sharp picture across the screen.

Apple Stores to offer iPhone photography and iPad illustration workshops next year

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 11, 2016

As part of a major retail streamlining under the watchful eye of Apple's head of online and brick-and-mortar stores, Angela Ahrendts, the company will be hosting a number of workshops next year at its stores that will take its existing and basic photography workshops to the next level.

The new workshops were designed to teach customers about the tips and tricks concerning iPhone photography, as well as drawing, painting and sketching on an iPad, with the promise of giving customers “at all skill levels” a chance to learn about more advanced image-capturing techniques, CNET said today.

Lightroom for iOS gains iPad Pro & 3D Touch support, camera with real-time presets and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 16, 2015

Adobe today unleashed a major update to its Lightroom photography application for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the App Store.

Both Lightroom for iPhone and Lightroom for iPad apps now feature full support for the iPad Pro's high-resolution screen and iOS 9'2 Split View and Slide Over multitasking modes, in addition to an all-new built-in Adobe camera with shoot-through presets.

You also get split-tone adjustments, a Notification Center widget to launch the Adobe camera, full support for 3D Touch shortcuts on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus and much more.

Instagram clamping down on apps that read feeds, offer auto-following, liking or commenting

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 18, 2015

As part of Instagram's most recent platform update, third-party applications will be no longer allowed to present a user's Instagram feed, a significant change in policy that'll affect numerous mobile applications which pull Instagram feeds.

Going forward, they'll be shutting down services and apps that offer auto-following, liking or commenting.

Photo-editing apps that show only individual Instagram photos won't be affected by this change. All apps must comply by June 1, 2016. The new policies and reviews will go into effect for new apps starting December 3, 2015.

This 3-in-1 lens kit turns you into an iPhone photography pro without breaking the bank

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Getting the perfect shot using a smartphone is not easy. Even though the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have huge improvements in camera technology, there are still times when a little outside help is needed.

The Camkix Universal 3 in 1 lens kit is just the help you need to get in close, or widen the shot and the universal clip makes it possible for you to carry the kit along with you to future generations of iPhones.

Get in the shot with the Accmor Rhythm tripod/selfie stick combo

Lory Gil ∙ November 16, 2015

Selfie sticks may be getting banned all over the place these days, but they are still a useful addition to an iPhone photographer's accessory kit. How else are you going to make sure you are in the shot?

The Accmor Rhythm is more than just a selfie stick. It is also a tabletop tripod and comes with a Bluetooth-connected remote so you don't even have to worry about setting a timer before getting in the picture.

MacPhun unveils new Mac app co-developed with renowned HDR photographer Trey Ratcliff

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 9, 2015

San Diego, California-headquartered MacPhun, the makers of some of the finest photography and image editing applications for the Mac, iPhone and iPad, today announced what's being billed as “the most advanced HDR software in the world,“ a brand new Mac app called Aurora HDR.

Available for pre-order today and arriving November 19, the Mac-only app contains every tool you'll ever need to produce high-quality HDR images and includes handy one-click presets, support for layers, custom textures, native RAW file format and more.