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How To Take a Good Park Picture With Your iPhone

OK.  You’ve found a good park photo opportunity and want to capture it well. Don’t just point and click. Here are the steps to take. 

1. Find the Right Natural Light

Forget about the flash. Find the right kind of natural light. 

Plan your park trip to be at the your prime photo locations during the golden hour.  The golden hour is the time of day just after sunrise and just before sunset. Basically, much of the light during those periods comes indirectly. The atmosphere acts as a nature filter for your eyes and camera. 

If you need to take pictures when the sun is bright, try to find an subject or angle so you’re not shooting into direct sunlight. Harsh sunlight washes out colors and removes  many of the image qualities that make a compelling picture.    

Put Your iPhone Camera in HDR mode.

In HDR mode, the iPhone takes multiple photos at once, using several exposure settings. Then, it takes the best elements of each version to create the final photo. 

I like the HDR setting, especially when the lighting is less than ideal.

Shooting in Direct Sunlight

If you have to shoot in bright sunlight, adjust the exposure to compensate on your iPhone camera. 

How to Adjust Exposure on Your iPhone Camera

1. Open your camera app, assuming it’s not already open.
2. Frame your picture in the screen. Basically, get ready to take your picture. Don’t snap it yet.
3. Touch the screen where your subject is. Your iPhone will auto adjust to what it believes is the optimal exposure.
4.  To manually adjust, slide your finger up and down on the screen. You’ll see the sun icon move up and down. The exposure setting corresponds to the sun icon’s position.

   

2. Compose the Picture Well

A picture without interesting subject matter is not going to impress people, regardless of how striking the colors are.

Here are a few basic but important picture-taking rules to keep in mind.

The Rule of Thirds. Basically, don’t put your subject smack dab in the middle of your picture. Pictures are more interesting when the subject is in the first or last 1/3 of the frame, vertically or horizontally. 

Create Depth. It’s tempting to just point and click your iPhone camera in the direction of a spectacular park view. However, the magnitude of that view is lost if there’s no context.  Include fore-ground, middle-ground and back-ground detail to give the picture depth. Depth makes the picture more like what your eyes actually see.

Look for Lead in Lines & Symmetry. The human eye is attracted to both lines and symmetrical patterns. Keep an eye out for subjects in the park where you can incorporate them.

3. Focus the iPhone

There are two steps to focusing the iPhone camera. 

Touch the screen on the object you’re focusing on. However, in doing so, the iPhone may also adjust the exposure in a counterproductive manner. If that happens, consider changing angles or touching a different subject on the screen. Don’t assume every adjustment the iPhone makes on its own is the right one.  

Hold the camera steady. Brace the iPhone against a tree, rock, etc. if needed.

Make sure the camera is done processing before moving camera away. Consequently, that extra .5 seconds of holding the camera still can make a difference, especially when it’s darker out.