How To Take Great Photos With The Apple iphone X

With superior cameras on the front and back, the iPhone X takes high-quality snapshots and selfies. But there are a few tricks to picture-taking with Apple’s newest smartphone.

- Lance Whitney

First, some technical specs: The iPhone X boasts rear 12-megapixel wide-angle and telephoto lenses. The wide-angle lens has an f/1.8 aperture and the telephoto lens an f/2.4 aperture. The wider aperture on the telephoto lens helps take photos in low-light conditions. The telephoto lens offers an optical zoom of 2x and a digital zoom of up to 10x. Both lenses come with optical image stabilization to steady handheld video. The 7-megapixel camera in front uses an f/2.2 aperture and can take shots using Portrait mode.

Many of the features, such as the high-quality dual cameras and Portrait mode, are available with the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus as well as the iPhone X. So some of what I cover here applies to all three phones. But I’ll use an iPhone X as the test subject, and review the other photo options for those of you who may not be familiar with them. Let’s check out how to take photos with the iPhone X.

UPDATE TO IOS 11: First, make sure you’ve updated your phone to the latest iOS version. To do this, go to Settings > General > Software Update. Your phone will either tell you that your software is up to date or download the latest version.

CAMERA APP OPTIONS: Open the Camera app to see several options for photos and videos: Time-Lapse, Slow-Mo, Video, Photo, Portrait, Square, and Pano. To take a regular snapshot, select Photo, and tap on the Shutter button. Hold down the Shutter button to take multiple shots in burst mode. Tap on the 1x button to zoom in. To use the digital zoom to get even closer, hold down the 1x or 2x button. Move your finger along the curved line until you reach the zoom number that you want. You can also simply pinch on the screen to zoom in or out. (Note that digital zoom can reduce resolution and quality.)