Do you find yourself wondering how some folks get their Instagram to look so cohesive? Their photos are always bright and airy, but they seem to just be using their iPhones…

So what’s the deal? How do they do it?

A lot of it has to do with knowing how to override what your iPhone is doing to the photo when you don’t like what the screen is showing you.

The camera is pretty smart, but if you know a couple small hacks, you’ll be able to get even more amazing images to post.

Here’s how to easily control your focus and image quality on your phone.

Make sure the focus is where you want it to be.

Yes, the camera autofocuses but not always correctly. You can override the autofocus by touching the screen where you want the focus to be.

Double plus, is that also tells the camera to adjust the exposure to be as well.

Not sure what exposure is?

Exposure is the amount of light hitting the sensor to give the correct amount of light for a well-balanced brightness to your photo.

If the photo is too dark, it’s underexposed because it didn’t get enough light.

If it’s too bright and there is no detail in the brightest parts, then it’s overexposed

You want the photo to be exposed to your liking, and by touching the screen where you want the focus to be, you are also telling the phone where the important part is in the photo, and to adjust the exposure (or brightness) to make that area look the best.

When you are shooting, do you ever see AE/AF pop up on your screen and wonder just what AF/AE means?

AF = Auto Focus

Meaning the camera will auto-detect where to focus

AE = Auto Exposure

Meaning the camera will auto-detect the correct exposure (brightness of the image).

Here is how you hack the AE and AF when the camera is not doing what you would like it to do.

• When you are about to take your photo, touch the screen where you want it to focus/expose for.
• If the image still doesn’t look how you want, then you keep your finger on the screen for an extra couple of seconds.
• A yellow box will pop up and you will see in a yellow box at the top of the screen AE/AF LOCK.
• What you’ve just done is told the camera that it should not keep adjusting for changing conditions, and you want the focus to stay where you told it to be as well as the exposure (brightness).

Now the phone won’t readjust. It will keep the settings locked there.

Now here is the fun part… where you can override it to make the image brighter or darker.

• Look for a little sun icon to the right of the yellow box.
• Next, to the sun icon (but outside of the box) make a small swiping up action.
• The scene will now get brighter!
• If you swipe down the scene will now get darker.
• Now you are controlling the exposure of your photo and overriding what the phone thinks you should do!

A super simple hack, but a very useful way to make sure the photo looks the best it can right when you take it.

When you do it this way, you aren’t trying to change something that is already there, but creating the image how you want it to look in the first place, which will always make it look better!

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