As the old adage goes, the best camera is the one you have with you. People will fight about which smartphone has the most impressive camera specs or whether it’s worth picking up a dedicated DSLR for more professional shots, but if you have an iPhone, it’s undoubtedly your most reliable shooter. You always have it on you; it takes great photos out of the box; and it makes it easy to store and share your results with others. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make it better.
Over the years, I’ve tinkered with my iPhone’s Camera app to push it to its limits, so it can return the highest-quality photos and videos possible. If you’re interested in doing the same, try these 10 hacks, tips, and tricks to get more out of your iPhone’s Camera.
Adjust Your Video Settings to Shoot in the Highest Possible Quality
If you’ve never changed your iPhone’s default video settings, you’re not taking full advantage of its capabilities. iPhones have supported 4K video since 2015, but Apple likes to keep the default to 1080p to prioritize storage. That goes for Slo-mo videos as well, if your iPhone supports 4K in this format. If you also value storage above video quality, you may want to keep things as they are. But if you’d like to record in the best possible quality, you should change this setting.
To do so, head to Settings > Camera, then choose “Record Video.” Here, choose 4K at whichever frame rate you prefer: 24 fps, the frame rate used for movies, uses the least storage, while 4K at 120 fps will use the most. I also like to disable some features while I’m here: “Enhanced Stabilization” isn’t my cup of tea, since it slightly crops the image to stabilize it, and “HDR Video” looks too oddly bright for my tastes. Head back one page, then choose “Record Slo-mo” to adjust this setting as well. You may be able to change the resolution and frame rate directly in the Camera app too, by tapping the menu in the top left (or bottom left, if holding your iPhone in landscape).
Shoot in ProRAW to Make High-Quality Large Prints
Similarly, Apple tries to balance image quality with storage needs in its default photo settings. As such, your iPhone’s camera likely isn’t taking as high-quality images as it can, especially if it can shoot in ProRAW. ProRAW is Apple’s RAW format, which saves more image information in each shot than a standard JPG. That can increase the quality of your photos, but also give you more detail to work with in editing or to print your images out in large sizes.
If you have an iPhone 12 Pro or later, you can shoot in ProRAW, and if you have an iPhone 14 Pro or later, you can shoot in ProRAW Max, which contains even more information. You might be able to shoot up to 48MP per image, which gives you a ton of data to work with, but comes at the cost of storage. Apple says ProRAW images are 10 to 12 times larger than standard JPGs, and even larger if you shoot at 48MP. Just be aware of that if you decide to start shooting at this large a format.
To try out ProRAW, head to Settings > Camera > Formats, then choose “ProRAW & Resolution Control.” If you have an iPhone 14 Pro or newer, you’ll change your megapixel setting in the Camera app itself, by tapping the format button in the top left (or bottom left) corner. On other compatible iPhones, you’ll find those options in this Settings pane.
Change Your Settings to Make It Harder to Accidentally Launch the Camera
I have an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and, as such, Apple gives me five different ways to launch the Camera by default. I can open the Camera app on my Home Screen; launch the app from its Control Center tile; long-press on the Lock Screen shortcut to open it; swipe left on the Lock Screen to reveal it; or press the Camera Control on the side of my iPhone to take a picture. I could also ask Siri for help, if I wanted to. That’s too many ways, especially when some of them make it easy to accidentally open the Camera in your pocket.
Here are all the ways to disable each of those options, in case you need to reduce the chances that you’ll drain your battery by launching the camera by mistake:
- Home Screen app: Long-press the app icon and choose “Remove App,” then choose “Remove from Home Screen.”
- Control Center tile: Launch Control Center, tap the (+) in the top left corner, then hit the minus next to the Camera tile.
- Lock Screen shortcut: Open the Lock Screen, then long-press on an empty space to open the editor. Tap “Customize,” then tap the minus next to the Camera shortcut. You can replace the shortcut with a different app or function, or lock in your settings to keep the space blank.
- Lock Screen swipe: Open Settings > Camera, then scroll down and disable “Lock Screen Swipe to Open Camera.”
- Camera Control: Open Settings > Camera > Camera Control, then choose “None.”
Change Your Camera Control Setting to Launch a Different Camera App by Default
If you followed the advice above, you might have noticed something interesting in the “Camera Control” settings pane: while the Camera app appears on this page, so too will any other photography app you happen to have installed on your iPhone. That’s because this setting can be used to change the default app launched by the Camera Control button, allowing you to open a third-party camera app directly from the side of your iPhone with a single press.
