
How to shoot on iPhone 7 - waqasaday
https://www.apple.com/iphone/photography-how-to/
======
swah
I'm an Android user for 10 years now but.. every time one of those
websites/ads appears its always from the same company.

Apple is so ahead of the other companies on actually promoting their stuff.

~~~
gordon_freeman
I am happy Android user as well and own Nexus 6P. One thing I tell everyone is
that N6P takes as good photos as iPhone7/7P but Google is doing so poor job in
communicating that through their marketing.

~~~
TaylorAlexander
I had my 2013 Nexus 5 until it died, even after that one software update
killed performance with no change in features.

I wanted to buy a Pixel XL. They weren't available. I live and work near
mountain view. They were sold out even if you sign up for Google Fi (a trick a
Googler friend suggested). I'm already on Google Voice so Fi would be awesome.

Could not get them for weeks.

I got tired of waiting and bought an iPhone 7 Plus. I love it. I dislike the
closed software interface but don't want Samsung bloat so I saw it as the best
other option. The hardware is great and I found out a lot of my friends are on
iMessage. iCloud doesn't try to do creepy things. I like the fingerprint
scanner.

I would have loved to try the Pixel.

~~~
peteretep
Sometimes feels like Communism vs Capitalism. I love the idea of an Android
phone, but the "Samsung bloat" and the rest terrify me. Conceptually I hate
Apple's closed ecosystem but it's secure, they seem to take privacy very
seriously, and it Just Works Really Well, almost all the time.

~~~
currywurst
The "Samsung bloat" is a thing of the past .. The new phones come with more
restrained and thoughtful touches that enhances the phone.

~~~
jonaswi
The reason I switched to an iPhone from a Samsung S6 was that one day when I
woke up I got a notification stating something like "We've installed you some
microsoft apps". The same day I went to my local Apple store and bought an
iPhone. What stops them doing this kind of things in the future?

~~~
asjo
Like Apple installing some U2 album on your iPhone?

~~~
magoon
Not dissimilar, but I wouldn't put them in the same league. U2 was added as a
purchased album to iTunes accounts.

~~~
evilduck
Right, unless you had auto-download of purchases explicitly enabled, nothing
was pushed onto phones. And with the backlash it received, I doubt they'll
ever do that again (they even stopped their 12 days of Christmas giveaways).

------
robertwalsh0
These bite-sized video that show the real UI are a great idea. It seems
obvious now in retrospect for them to execute something like this - I know so
many iPhone shooters that will love this resource.

~~~
andyfleming
Part of me really likes it, but part of me hates it. The visual is beautiful
and elegant, but I find myself wanting to read the text while seeing the
image.

~~~
wapz
I really hate the UI they used for this for the same reason as you. When I
hover over an image I can't see what that image is about. I have the move the
mouse _away_ from what I want to _focus_ on. That seems like poor design IMO.

~~~
seanp2k2
Exactly. Too many people in software thing that "design" is the paint brush.
They think design is CSS. It can be part of it, and certainly _visual design_
deals with these things sometimes, but _design_ is the way something works,
NOT JUST HOW IT LOOKS. Something can be a fantastic design but text-based, or
use grey forms and white text boxes. Great design helps users intuitively use
software quickly and efficiently. Conversely, terrible design can _look_ good.
There are tons and tons of apps + sites these days which look cool / modern /
fun while being absolutely awful to use. Some of them are almost on purpose,
like Snapchat with hidden features that you'd have to discover by randomly
swiping, tapping, holding, shaking, etc. Oversimplification can also be bad
design. See: Google's recent phishing happening where the malicious authorized
app appeared as "Google Docs" with a legit logo everywhere including in the
"authorized apps" section in your account, with the actual publisher hidden in
a small grey arrow drop-down menu item (
[https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/05/google-docs-
phish-w...](https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/05/google-docs-phish-worm-
grabs-your-google-app-permissions-contacts/) ).

~~~
tudorw
Well said, this is a visual puff piece, could the information have been
conveyed more effectively using a single page magazine style layout,
undoubtedly, that was not the brief, I imagine the designers were led to
create something visually exciting that will show people how great their
iPhone pictures can be.

------
terrywang
I've been an Android user since Nexus S (Android 2.3), Nexus 4, Nexus 5, all
the way up to Nexus 5X (7.1.x).

The LG made Nexus 5X bricked (suddenly rebooted and never boots again) at 13
months old due to a known hardware fault, there is a lawsuit against LG in
California [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/lg-bootloop-
defe...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/lg-bootloop-defect-
lawsuit-expands-to-cover-g5-v20-and-nexus-5x-devices/)

My Nexus 5 had power button issue (it automatically switch off, sigh...) Nexus
4 build quality was bad, too.

I lost 3-4 days worth of photos (was travelling and didn't backup). Luckily I
was able to boot once (out of 40 attempt) after it bricked by giving it some
heat (thermal issue). Backed up the photos before it quickly died again (there
are videos on YouTube to fix the problem using heat gun), finally I decided
I've had enough with crappy Nexus phones (I am fine with Android though).
Pixel / Pixel XL is more expensive than iPhone 7 or plus, really cannot
justify.

Finally I've moved to iOS again, after 6-7 years as I decided not to manually
flash phone OS and root any more (I have my Arch Linux workstations and MBPs).
My requirements for a phone comes down to: \- Reliable hardware and high
quality finish \- Strong hardware based/accelerated encryption \- Fingerprint
recognition and authentication \- Stable and Swift OS (greatly improved with
APFS, regained faith in Apple) \- Good camera - the best camera is the one
with you \- Long battery life (ideally support both fast charge and wireless
charge)

The iPhone 7 Plus meets all. So far I've been on it for 2 weeks. iOS
definitely has better attention to details and better UX at the cost of more
control over the OS, a lot of apps on Android that doesn't support fingerprint
authentication support that on iOS, I was surprised to find out.

The only complains are that 1. there is no HN client as good as Materialistic
(let me know if you know any...) 2. no strongSwan native client (Gboard has
introduced more language support so it's no longer a big concern). Other than
that I am happy.

~~~
koyote
Anecdotally, I have a similar timeline of phones (Nexus 4, 5, 5x) except for
the fact that they are all still running fine (the Nexus 4 now runs as a wifi-
only portable music player paired to a bluetooth speaker).

My SO, on the other hand, has gone through 4 iPhones in the meantime and all
either having to be replaced due to cracks in the glass' front/back or
hardware issues.

That being said, I do like the general feeling of an iPhone in my hands, it
feels well-built and that is what a lot of people are looking for. But as a
hacker I could never own an iPhone. Whenever I've used my SO's phones over the
years (iPhone 4s, 5 and now 6s) I've just been extremely frustrated with the
piss-poor UX. It has definitely improved in the last 2-4 years due to
'borrowing' a lot from Android in terms of notifications and sharing data
between apps but it simply does not even get close to the ease of use of
Android (particularly in the 'doing things' department).

As an example of what I mean: a couple of years ago, if you wanted to upload a
picture you were viewing to Dropbox (or anywhere really) you had to close the
photo viewer, go to the app you wanted to share the picture with, find the
picture you were looking at previously by browsing through the gallery again
and then share the picture. Things like this have improved but the flow is
still often quite cumbersome and I often run into similar hurdles when trying
to perform very common tasks, I believe Instagram still opens up any location
in Apple Maps without an option to choose an other map app for example. The
notification screen, while better than it was before, is also awful compared
to Android.

~~~
terrywang
I agree with most of your points. I'll probably sell the Nexus 5 (running
LineageOS 14.1 now) and get a Mi 6 as a backup phone.

I used to run AOSP (stock) and root because of the camera optimization. I
found it frustrating when Google introduced monthly security update. It has
become a burden (especially when the Nexus 5X randomly failed to boot - that
was in fact a sign of the hardware issue, I didn't realize at that time). root
didn't give me too much other than playing around in Termux plus GNU tools,
Titanium backup, Greenify and ES File Explorer/Manager.

I wouldn't call myself hacker but I am a 15+ year Linux power user and
veteran, I cannot live without root on a workstation/laptop. But I keep asking
myself the question: do I really need root on a phone? My answer is no for
now. I'd rather spend time with family or playing StarCraft: Brood War with
friends than flushing the phone...).

Losing the Nexus 5X for 2 days made me reconsider the phone I really need,
ended up with an iPhone 7 Plus (cannot justify to buy a Pixel XL...).
Reliability, data integrity/security, automatic backup, quality of hardware
(camera) matter a lot more.

I have iPad Air and iPad Pro at home so I've been witnessing iOS making
progress, borrowing lots of Android design to improve UX. I'd say iOS 10.3.1
is a very good one, APFS definitely is a huge plus (it'll make macOS great
again) while the equivalent for Android I don't see it coming.

BTW: All above is personal experience and opinion based on my use cases.

~~~
koyote
> do I really need root on a phone? My answer is no for now.

I very much agree on this point. I started on Android 1.5 (Samsung Galaxy) and
back then and for the next several years you simply always had a better
experience after rooting and putting a custom ROM on your phone. It was fun
and exciting and empowering. Right now my Nexus 5x is not rooted (although the
bootloader is unlocked, just in case) and running stock. I have not seen a
valid reason to use a custom ROM since Android 5 and rooting, although useful
in some cases (AdBlocking is a big one), is just not worth the effort anymore
in my opinion.

------
hprotagonist
Huh. I did _not_ know that you could force touch and slide to manually adjust
exposure.

~~~
51Cards
I can do the same on my Pixel.

~~~
mgcross
Thanks, didn't know I could do this on my Pixel. AE/AF lock is nice too.

------
rubatuga
Wow, these are really great tips for anybody thinking that their photography
is a bit stagnant. Thumbs up to Apple for providing a simple, creative, and
60fps <3 videos that could be generalized to any camera.

------
lflux
I'm missing the "How to shoot one-handed at a concert"[0]. I'd love to have
zoom not be a pinch only

[0] since my other hand is holding my drink

~~~
darkstar999
I believe the answer is "don't record at a concert because it annoys everyone
else and the video is garbage anyway".

~~~
yoodenvranx
I wish that bands would just film every concert they do and then offer all the
concerts for (paid) download. This way a lot less people would actually try to
film the concert because they now can get a much better quality.

~~~
crottypeter
> This way a lot less people would actually try to film the concert

Youtube is already full of good quality concert videos free of charge. People
still film concerts. I don't know how to 'fix' this.

~~~
yoodenvranx
But I don't wanna see _a_ concert, I wanna see _my_ concert, e.g. the one I
actually visited.

~~~
zelos
You could always put the phone away and actually watch the concert live,
right?

------
nsxwolf
I love Portrait mode and have taken some photos with it that I am happy with,
but really, it would be nice if they also showed us how they professionally
lit that cafe, because you are never, ever going to take a photo that looks
like that in the real world.

~~~
mirkules
That's the secret sauce that makes professional photographers professionals.
90% of the work is setting the lighting and composing the scene, and I know at
least one pro photographer who doesn't let his clients snap photos with their
iPhones while he works, precisely because it's not the camera that makes the
photos beautiful but rather the setup.

~~~
wowtip
I am just a happy advanced amateur photographer, but I wish I had been given a
dollar each time someone complimented my Pentax dslr of taking great images.
:D

------
custos
The title made me think it was someone shooting an iPhone with a firearm...

~~~
sundvor
Likewise, my scan was like this: "How to shoot [an] Iphone" -> (Apple.com) ->
"ON!" (doh).

------
philipjoubert
In case anyone is curious - these videos were shot in and around Cape Town,
South Africa.

------
sideproject
Is there a technology to.... say.... zoom-out more? For example, when you take
a selfie, sometimes things are too close.. I wish I could 'somehow' zoom-out,
but I wouldn't have a starting clue how that would be achieved.

~~~
modeless
Uncrop
[https://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/sq_photo_uncrop/](https://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/sq_photo_uncrop/)

~~~
i336_
Wow.

It's so infuriating when there's nothing I can download though. :(

------
lifeformed
Nothing happens when I click on any of the play buttons. Is anyone else having
this problem? This isn't the first time an apple.com site didn't work
correctly for me at all...

Do I have to be on a Mac or iPhone to view it or something?

~~~
comex
Are you using a browser that doesn't support H.264, perhaps?

~~~
lifeformed
Just the normal version of Chrome. All plugins off yields the same result.

------
duncans
Should be made more obvious that the _actual useful content_ of the page needs
to be scrolled down to. A more useful link (that scrolls to the content) to
give friends family might be [https://www.apple.com/iphone/photography-how-
to/#section-car...](https://www.apple.com/iphone/photography-how-to/#section-
card-grid)

~~~
jwblackwell
A lot of people have no idea you can take a photo with the volume buttons. I
frequently see people struggling to take selfies with the touchscreen button.

~~~
djrogers
I find it easier to take selfies with the onscreen button, as I can hold the
phone from the bottom where i'm not likely to cover up the camera. It's
awkward (with my hands and my 7+) to hold the phone in such a way that a) it's
pointed at me, b) I have the volume buttons under a finger/thumb, and c) I'm
not blocking the front camera in any way...

------
naviehuynh
Funny how they still use the old iOS theme on their player's seek bar. It has
been years since the introduction of new UI and I still find it suck. Look at
the share button on "Edit selfie" video, it just feels like a toy design
project of some students.

~~~
saagarjha
This is the behavior of all their custom players; I don't think they've
updated them in a while.

------
Tanegashima
Apple always comes up with great soundtracks to their ads/infomercials.
Sometimes made by themselves/exclusively for them.

I wish they would give developers a royalty free library for our App demo
videos.

~~~
remir
If I'm not mistaken, the sound loops and jingles in Garageband are royalty
free.

------
juandazapata
Anybody knows what's the genre of the music used in the videos?

~~~
bluetidepro
I don't know what genre this is considered, but I used Shazam on the music in
the videos, and the artist in most of them is "Electric Mantis". Found 'em on
Spotify. Good tunes.

~~~
juandazapata
Thanks, didn't think about Shazam. Enjoying the artist right now.

------
saurik
In "how to shoot a group portrait" (or all of them, honestly ;P), one of the
steps should be "turn the damned camera 90° so everyone is actually in the
frame".

~~~
Kluny
For three people like in the demo video, if you rotate 90 you have to come in
close to get a well framed shot and then their outfits aren't in the frame.
Not important to everyone, but definitely important to some.

------
dutchbrit
Seems like I don't have the option to choose portrait, nor do I have the
option to change exposure, is this a guide for all iPhone 7's or just the
iPhone 7 plus?!

~~~
narrowtux
Portrait mode is a feature that uses the dual-camera in the iPhone 7 Plus.

EDIT: Everything else in that guide should work on the normal iPhone 7. Most
of the guides work with older iPhones too.

------
rahilsondhi
This is amazing. I wish the selfie video would talk more about angles. My
girlfriend tells me my angles are always wrong :/

Also, Google should do this for Pixel.

~~~
sidcool
Spot on. Pixel has a better camera than iPhone 7/plus, but the marketing
efforts are missing

------
nfriedly
I like that the action shot one has nothing to do with careful timing - just
hold down the button and pick out a good photo later.

------
peterburkimsher
Could the two cameras be used to get 2 different perspectives, and therefore
remove power lines or other imperfections?

~~~
HappyTypist
No, not really. You will never get 100% coverage, meaning you'd have the
synthesis the image. When you're doing that, you'll have better luck
synthesising the removal the whole way.

Quick test: try using your own eyes, close one eye and then alternate, can you
be really see through power lines / poles / whatever?

------
tptacek
I did not know about burst mode!

~~~
djrogers
OMG - I have been using burst mode forever, it's the only way to get decent
shots of my kids! It does burn up storage fast, but at least the UI for saving
and discarding pics from bursts is decent.

------
mandeepj
Shooting a panorama on iphone is neither easy nor intuitive. Unfortunately,
they did not even explain that in these series.

------
jamesmccann
Do you need a video to tell you to switch to the front facing camera to take a
selfie?

~~~
caryhartline
Some people just never notice certain parts of UI. There are millions and
millions of people with iPhones and there is likely going to be someone who
just learned about the camera-switching icon for the first time.

Plus, that same video showed people that you can use the volume buttons as
shutter buttons which is something most people likely don't know about.

~~~
madshiva
it's not they don't notice, they don't care and don't use all the
functionnality. They are quite stupid. (feel free to downvote me) but I think
the same, "how to do simple" things is useless. If the user don't want learn
something new, why they will see a video about it?

~~~
i336_
I agree with your sentiment, in the same way that people are described as
stupid in here:
[https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/misused.html](https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/misused.html)

At the end of the day, UIs are unnatural interfaces. Skeumorphism only makes
things worse. So UX design can only meet the user half way; intelligence must
be employed to get the most out of an interface.

I see these videos as akin to using a TV remote instead of getting up to
change the channel: people are lazy, so appeal to that laziness (along with
the whole "here have some pro resources" thing as well) as a form of sales.

It's brilliant.

~~~
iamcreasy
> Skeumorphism only makes things worse.

To unlock an iPhone you had to slide the lock, which is similar to how you'd
open (old) doors. Isn't in this case skeumorphism helpful?

~~~
i336_
Very useful, I really liked that design. (If anything, I wish there had've
been a little "notch" cut above the right edge, so that once you move the
slider over and the top and bottom parts animate out the edges of the screen,
it would look like the slider was moving through the notch. Hopefully that
made sense. I do realize that such a visual design would have been just
confusing enough that it would never have been approved, though.)

This is sort of what I was getting at - I just found this article, but it's
quite balanced.
[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/11/...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/11/scott_forstall_fired_skeumorphism_the_design_concept_that_s_tearing_apple.html)

------
qrbLPHiKpiux
All vertical shots. Communicating to the masses. Market to the masses, live
with he classes.

------
wand3r
Look; I'm a long time Apple user and they have a great camera...But seriously;
this is like their core thing for several years. They need to implement a rule
that requires scaling performance and battery life at parity with camera
improvements...

------
ShirsenduK
There was a time when Apple products were user friendly but now we need
guides. They said technology would ease our lives. I'm disappointed with this
shift at Apple where they want to look and sound cool rather than be useful.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
I'm an Android guy, but a camera is not a photographer. It's not reasonable to
expect it to make decisions about lighting, angle, composition, and so forth
for you, no matter how high-tech it is. Those are things the user needs to
know how to do.

~~~
ShirsenduK
Technology should take those decisions for you. Others like Google will show
how to do that.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
You want your phone to, what, grow legs and scuttle around to find the best
angle and composition? You're not being reasonable.

------
dustinmoris
Luckily I have a Google Pixel, the only thing I need to know to shoot a
perfect photo, in fact an even better photo than an iPphone 7 could ever take,
is:

1\. Open Camera app

2\. Take photo

It is really that simple, no jokes :)

Maybe I should create a website with these instructions.. mhh..

~~~
Sharlin
"Your photos are great! You must have a good camera."

~~~
setq
My father thinks this. £10,000 of Nikon kit later it still looks like shit.

------
phdify
This is a stellar example of marketing gone wrong by a company that's out of
touch with a vast number of their customers [https://phdify.com/essay-
types](https://phdify.com/essay-types). Yet it simply doesn't matter. Apple's
massive revenue stream and its astronomical cash hoard makes them impervious
to various failures here and there. It's great to be Apple

