The iPhone 15 Pro Camera is very smart, but it can be scary at first. But this phone makes great photos when you learn how to use it. I have learned more about this phone’s tricks since I wrote my iPhone 15 Pro review last year. And since I always have my iPhone 15 Pro Max with me, and I like to take a lot of photos everywhere I go, I thought this was a good time to share some tips.
Keep reading for my favorite tips and settings that help make your photos and videos look awesome. And if you want to know about all the new things that came out last year, check out our guide to the iPhone 14 Pro’s camera.
iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max Camera: A Simple Guide to the Best Tips and Settings
Let’s learn some easy iPhone 15 Pro Camera tricks before we talk about the hard stuff.
First, tap on the screen where you want the camera to focus. This will make your pictures look better, because the camera will know what is important to you. Next, make sure you are holding the camera the right way.
Tap Photo to take a picture, then swipe the word “Photo” away from the button. This will show you some options. The second one from the top is very important. I like to take pictures that are wide and not too tall, so I tap that button (it might say 4:3 on your phone) and change it to 16:9. If you want to take pictures for Instagram, you should choose Square.
Last, turn on the Grid view to help you take better pictures. Some people believe that if you split the screen into three parts horizontally and vertically, you can make your pictures more interesting. This is based on a math idea from a very old man named Archimedes. I like to put the thing I want to take a picture of in the top right corner where the lines cross.
For pictures of places, the Grid can also help you divide the picture into three parts: the sky, the land, and the thing you are focusing on. To turn on the Grid view, go to Settings, tap Camera, and then turn on Grid (under composition).
Snap a photo Open your camera faster with the Action button
You may know how to swipe left to open your camera when your phone is locked, but the iPhone 15 Pro Max camera has a special button that can help you take better pictures. This button is called the Action button, and you can choose what kind of picture you want it to take. This way, you can open your camera faster and not miss any important moments.
How to do it:
Go to Settings, then tap Action Button. Next, tap Camera and then tap the menu below it. You can choose from Photo, Selfie, Video, Portrait and Portrait Selfie. You can also pick a different camera app that you like better (I like Halide).
Use the iPhone 15 Pro’s different zooms
You may think the iPhone 15 Pro Camera is the same as the iPhone 15’s main camera because they both have 48-megapixel sensors, but they are very different. The iPhone 15 Pro’s main camera has a 24mm focal length, which means you can see more things in your picture than the iPhone 15’s main camera. It also has three more zooms that help you take better pictures, the 28mm and 35mm options, without making them look bad.
Some people who like big cameras may not like digital zoom, which can make your pictures look fuzzy. But all three of these zooms make 24-megapixel pictures, so it’s hard to say Apple is wrong to use some of the megapixels in the sensor to make your pictures look clearer.
How to do it:
Tap on the 1x button to change between the 24mm, 28mm (1.2x) and 35mm (1.5x) zooms, which will make your pictures look smaller but not worse than the normal 24mm zoom. Don’t be scared to tap the 1x button to zoom before you take a picture.
Turn off Night mode for more real pictures The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s Night mode is too bright. Turning Night mode off makes your picture look better and more true. The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s Night mode is too bright. The iPhone 15 Pro Max camera Night mode is too bright.
Turning Night mode off makes your picture look better
The iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Night mode is too bright. Turning Night mode off makes your picture look better and more true. iPhone 15 Pro Max camera has a Night mode
This can help everyone, even on older and non-Pro iPhones. One night, I was walking on Sixth Avenue in New York City and I saw a library that looked like a castle. I wanted to take a picture of it with my iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera, but it turned on its Night mode, which made the picture look too bright and not like what I saw. I turned off this mode and took another picture, and it looked much more natural. Night mode can be good sometimes — like if you are in a dark place and want to take a sad picture of someone — but it is not always the best choice.
How to do it:
Go to Settings, tap Camera and choose Preserve Settings. Now, turn Night Mode off. Or, tap the yellow oval icon with a number next to it in the camera app.
Get the best quality with these iPhone 15 Pro Camera settings
You may be confused that Apple’s 48-megapixel main camera makes 24-megapixel pictures, and we understand: It sounds like you are using a big hammer to hang a small picture. But Apple has options to let you take pictures in 48MP with its own ProRaw and HEIF Max settings. The second one is a better format, while the first one will work better with other devices and apps. Most people don’t need to change these settings, but if you want to edit your pictures in apps like Lightroom, these options will give you more details by changing how bright or dark your pictures are later on.
How to do it:
Go to Settings, tap Camera and tap Formats. Under Camera Capture, choose High Efficiency for HEIF or Most Compatible if you don’t care about how big your files are. Then tap Pro Default to choose a normal mode for your Pro pictures, but you can also press and hold the Pro button in the Camera app to change it.
After you take a picture Make Portrait mode work in normal pictures
When you take pictures of people, cats and dogs, you might want to remember what I said about tapping to focus. When you are taking pictures and see the f-stop symbol (ƒ), your iPhone knows that your picture can look better with portrait mode’s bokeh effects, which make the background of your picture look blurry and the thing you are focusing on look more clear.
How to do it:
Tap on the person or pet you want to focus on when you take pictures normally. Then, in the Photos app, tap the Edit button. Then tap the small Portrait button, which is in the same row as Adjust, Live, Filters and Crop. Next, tap the big gray Portrait button to make it yellow and turn on Portrait mode.
Video tips and tricks Use Log video for professional editing
A new option for those taking ProRes video, Log video on the iPhone is a dream come true for many filmmakers. But you should not use it unless you are ready to spend some time changing your video’s color and other things in editing. That’s because Log video gives you a color profile that’s not very bright more like dull. These video settings also make very big files.
How to do it:
To take video in Log, go to Settings, choose Camera and then Formats. Under Video Capture, turn on Apple ProRes, choose the ProRes Encoding option and tap on Log.
Action mode
The iPhone 15 Pro Camera Action mode came with the iPhone 14, but you may not know what I mean if you don’t buy a new phone every year. When you turn on this feature, you’ll make smoother videos when you record, which is very important for those of us following a moving thing or trying to get different views.
How to do it:
In Video mode, look for the button of a running person in the top right corner. Tap it to turn on Action mode.
The Camera app may tell you that you need “more light” when you take video in dark places. If you can’t make it brighter, go to Settings and choose iPhone 15 Pro Max camera and then Record Video to turn on the Action Mode Lower Light setting.
Final Words
Finally, yes, the iPhone 15 Pro Camera, including the cool 5x zoom that the iPhone 15 Pro Max has and its smaller brother doesn’t, are very good. Apple wants to make photography easy to start, but you need to work a little harder to find those hidden features and use your expensive new phone’s great cameras.
I use the different zooms in the iPhone 15 Pro’s main camera a lot. It’s probably the most surprising feature of this new set of cameras. I can’t wait to find a time when I can use action mode a lot too. I’m sure it will make videos of my favorite animals even more fun.