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Bliss Tips | Using Your iPhone for Blissful Photos of Your Dog

Using the Darkroom In Your iPhone - Taking Dynamic Dog Pictures

This particular series grew a bit bigger than I envisioned. As I discovered more and more too cool not to share tips and hints for not only taking pictures of your dogs, but using your iPhone camera, I could not contain myself. What was going to be one week and a handout grew into three weeks and a photography training series. For those of you who know me, that is kind of how everything ends up. Enjoy!

Your Complete Dog Photography Mini Course includes:

Overview of Capturing Your Dog's Photos (Feb. 15 newsletter)
Preserving Memories - Scrapbook Pages + (Feb. 22 newsletter)
Delving Deeper Into iPhone Photography (March 1st)
Dog Breed Specific Photo Tips and Personality Type Photography Essentials (Don't Miss This One - Includes a Dog Myers-Briggs Test - Mar 8)
Using Props for Dog Photography (includes templates for props Mar. 15)

Tips for Any Phone Photography

These tips are geared toward the iPhone, but the same basic ideas work on any type of photography. Before you scream, "Where are my Android Tips?" I will tell you I know nothing about that format, having been an Apple geek since the mid-1990s.

Download Using Your iPhone for Dog Pictures HERE

Where To Start?

Let’s do a quick run-through of your iPhone’s settings. This info is based on the most up-to-date settings, 12.1.4, at the time of writing this article.

Ready, Set, Go To Settings

Tap on the Settings icon on your home screen. From there you can tweak settings like a pro.

Grid:Turn the Grid that divides the screen into thirds (9 squares) on or off
Scan QR Codes:QR Codes are shortcut URLs
Record Video & Record Slo-Mo:Choose your setting
Formats: HEIF/HEVC High Efficiency or Most Compatible. Photos saved in HEIF are about half the size of jpegs, and better quality
Smart HDR: HDR takes many photos at different exposures and combines them into one
Keep Normal Photo:Allows you to also keep the normally exposed photo from the HDR group

Bliss Tip! Suggested Settings

Turn GRID on and see if you like it or not.
Turn Scan QR Codes Off unless you need it.
Leave video at default for now.
Formats - Go with Most Compatible for now unless you are an early adopter and want to experiment with HEIF.
Smart HDR - Turn On
Keep Normal Photo - Turn on if you have plenty of room on your iPhone and are good about uploading photos and clearing your storage regularly.

Top Two Most Brilliant Bliss Tips

First - Use the Auto Focus feature!

As you are focusing your photo, tap on the most important part, probably your dog’s face. Your iPhone automatically sets that spot as the focus. A yellow square with a starburst will appear (see left). You may have to tap more than once to keep the focus.

But wait there’s MORE. You can also lighten or darken your photo (aka set the exposure) by sliding your finger up, to lighten, or down to darken as you focus.

Next & My FAVE - Get To Know Portrait Mode

Oh yeah, this is how you get the way cool blurred effect you see in high-end pro photos. Now you can do it, too. Download the PDF to learn more about Portrait Mode!