Let’s face the facts: Carrying around a “serious” camera can be frustratingly inconvenient. DSLRs, and even more compact mirrorless models, are big, bulky, and conspicuous. (If you’ve ever tried to take your dedicated camera on vacation, or even just on a day trip, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.)
One solution is to turn to the camera that lives in your pocket: your smartphone. A smartphone camera offers a slew of benefits; not only is it accessible at every moment of the day, but it’s discreet, integrates seamlessly with editing apps, and captures surprisingly high-quality photos.
However, even the latest and greatest smartphone cameras are limited, and for photographers looking to capture eye-catching, portfolio-worthy images, this can be a dealbreaker. Consider the native iPhone camera app: Sure, it lets you tweak a few basic settings, and depending on your iPhone model, it provides access to a variety of lenses and filters, but here’s what it doesn’t offer:
- Manual focusing
- Shutter speed adjustments
- ISO adjustments
- White balance adjustments
- RAW capture (this feature has been added to certain iPhone Pro models, but it’s still not available on most iPhones)
In other words, the iPhone native camera app doesn’t let you do all the things that, as a passionate photographer in pursuit of top-notch images, you should almost certainly be doing. Fortunately, if you like the convenience of iPhone photography but also want manual control over your camera, you have another option: You can ditch your iPhone’s native camera software for a third-party camera app, the kind that’ll let you reach your full potential as an iPhone photographer.
That’s where MIOPS’s Snap Pro Camera app comes in.
Snap Pro Camera gives you DSLR-like control over the iPhone’s camera, plus it boasts a slew of amazing modes for creative photography, such as Motion Blur, Light Trail, Crowd Removal, and more. It’s also remarkably intuitive; even if you’ve never used a manual camera app before, I doubt it’ll take you more than five minutes to learn your way around the interface. (It took me ten, only because I was having too much fun experimenting with the long-exposure modes!)
Bottom line:
Whether you’re a hobbyist photographer hoping to capture stunning shots with your iPhone or you’re a professional shooter looking to transform your iPhone into a fully functioning camera, Snap Pro Camera is one app you won’t want to miss. Below, I take a closer look at Snap Pro Camera’s unique features so you can understand just how revolutionary MIOPS’s app really is – and why it’s the only camera app you’ll ever need!
How to get started with Snap Pro Camera
Snap Pro Camera is easy to use, even for complete beginners. You start by downloading the app from the App Store; then, once it’s up and running, you’ll see this sleek interface:
As with the native iPhone camera app, you simply tap the image preview window to set focus. You can also change the image exposure by swiping upward or downward.
Along the bottom of the screen, you’ll see the shutter button (and if you like, you can go ahead and take your first photo by giving it a tap!). To the left of the shutter button is the Gallery, where you can access the images you’ve already taken. There’s also an icon indicating the exposure mode that your camera is using. By default, the exposure mode is set to A (or Auto), but you can switch this to M (or Manual), as I discuss in the next section.
To the right of the shutter button, you can access advanced exposure and composition tools by tapping on the frame icon:
And by tapping on the filter icon, you can access some cool Filters – such as Chrome, Noir, and Sepia Tone – that allow you to capture photos with different creative effects. (Note: When you select a filter, it’s not just applied to the image file after you press the shutter button; it’s applied to the image preview, too, so you can see how the filter will affect your photo in advance!)
Above the shutter button, you’ll find a row of camera settings, which I’ll explore more in the next section. (If the icons aren’t visible, you’ll need to press the exposure mode icon next to the shutter button.)
You should also see a few standard camera controls: the buttons to switch between different focal lengths, as well as the button to toggle between the rear and front-facing cameras:
Finally, at the top of the screen, you’ll encounter one more row of options. On the left, you can adjust your shooting mode:
And it’s here, in this shooting mode menu, that a lot of the fun happens. By default, Snap Pro Camera is set to Photo mode, which is good for general photography. However, the app also offers modes for creative and low-light photography, timelapse photography, and even tilt-shift videos.
Now, as you switch between the different shooting modes, the settings options across the top of the screen will change. With Photo mode selected, you can tweak the camera’s aspect ratio, file format, and burst settings:
But if you switch to Light Trail mode, for example, an exposure length setting appears:
That’s really about it – easy, right? You can tweak settings and switch modes as needed, but once you’re familiar with the main menus and icons, it’ll be easy to take advantage of the app’s class-leading capabilities.
And in the next few sections, I explain how you can use specific modes and settings to achieve amazing results.
Snap Pro Camera’s impressive manual controls
If you want to capture portfolio-worthy iPhone photos, you’re going to need to take control of your camera exposure settings. Fortunately, that’s one of the areas where Snap Pro Camera shines.
By default, the exposure mode will be set to Auto, and you’ll see an A:
Tap the A, however, and the exposure mode will switch to Manual. With Manual mode active, you can tap the row of icons above the shutter button to adjust:
- The shutter speed
- The ISO
- The white balance
- The focus point
In other words, instead of letting your iPhone make all the settings decisions for you – which often results in images that are blurry, grainy, or spoiled by color casts – you can make these decisions yourself and get results that are much, much better.
If you’re familiar with standard camera settings, you already know how revolutionary this is. But in case you haven’t worked with manual controls before, here are just a few cases where you can independently adjust your iPhone’s camera settings to get the kind of photos you envisioned:
- If you’re photographing action, you can manually boost the shutter speed to 1/500s or above. That way, you can ensure that your subjects remain sharp, even if they’re in motion.
- If you’re shooting landscapes, cityscapes, or architecture in low light, you can put your iPhone on a tripod, set the ISO to its base value, then choose a slow shutter speed that gives a good exposure. That way, your shots include plenty of detail – but you don’t have to worry about high-ISO noise ruining your files.
- If you’re photographing small subjects – such as flowers, insects, or even grains of sand – you can get in close, then use the manual focus slider to carefully select the ideal point of focus. (Why is this necessary? When working at high magnifications, your iPhone’s autofocusing capabilities deteriorate, and you’ll struggle to capture sharp shots – unless you have access to manual focusing tools!)
- If you’re photographing portraits, but you notice your images are looking unnaturally yellow or blue, you can manually tweak the white balance setting until the colors are accurate.
These DSLR-like controls offer so much potential for serious photography. No longer will you need to rely on your iPhone to determine the “right” settings for each photo; you’ll finally be free to make the tweaks needed for consistently great images.
(Plus, if you use both your iPhone and a dedicated camera, you can transition back and forth without missing a beat, simply because the settings are so similar!)
Snap Pro Camera’s sophisticated manual controls don’t stop there. As I mentioned above, the app offers advanced exposure and composition controls, where you can:
- Turn on composition grids, including the Golden Triangles overlay, to help improve your framing
- Activate the Tiltmeter to ensure your images are always level (this is a huge deal if you like to photograph landscapes or cityscapes!)
- Turn on a histogram overlay so you can consistently avoid over- or underexposure
You even get access to a Zebra Stripes feature, which overlays red and blue stripes across overexposed and underexposed areas of your image:
As well as a Focus Peaking feature, which helps you consistently nail focus by outlining the portions of your frame that are sharp:
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the new RAW Photo shooting mode, which allows you to photograph in RAW instead of HEIF or JPG. RAW files contain far more image data than HEIF and JPG files, and, as a result, you can use a RAW editing app to recover overexposed highlights, bring back underexposed shadows, tweak the colors for artistic effects, and more.
Most of these features are nowhere to be found in the native iPhone camera app. But download Snap Pro Camera, and you’ll gain access to all of these settings – so that your iPhone photos are sharper, better composed, and better exposed than ever before.
Snap Pro Camera’s amazing long-exposure shooting modes
Snap Pro Camera’s manual controls are outstanding, and they certainly make the app a worthwhile download for anyone hoping to capture high-quality photos.
But it’s the creative shooting modes that take the app to a whole new level.
Now, I don’t have enough space to delve into each and every shooting mode – that would take a whole book! – but I do want to spend some time exploring two of my favorites: Motion Blur and Light Trail.
The Motion Blur mode
Capturing beautiful long-exposure photos is tough, especially on a smartphone. Even on the newest iPhones, there’s no reliable way to capture images with silky-smooth water, streaking clouds, ethereal skies, and other artistic effects – not in the native camera app, anyway!
Once again, however, Snap Pro Camera comes to the rescue. When you select Motion Blur from the shooting mode menu, you can extend the exposure time to 10 seconds, 20 seconds, and beyond, which means that you suddenly have the opportunity to create breathtaking long-exposure landscape images using only your phone.
What’s especially revolutionary about the Motion Blur mode is that you can use it in all types of lighting. With Motion Blur, you can capture all the classic long-exposure shots – evening seascapes with waves rolling up the beach, nighttime street scenes as people blur past, boats streaking across the ocean at dawn – but you can also create motion blur photos even when the sun is high in the sky.
In other words, you don’t have to wait for twilight to capture long-exposure landscape photos. If you come across a waterfall in bright light, you’re not stuck capturing a shot with sharp water droplets. Instead, thanks to Motion Blur mode, you can frame the scene, choose a longer exposure time, and capture an amazing long-exposure shot!
This isn’t just impressive for an iPhone camera app; it’s beyond anything offered on today’s flagship camera models. To capture motion blur in bright light, photographers using conventional cameras are forced to buy neutral density filters, which are highly inflexible, difficult to work with, and expensive. But with Snap Pro Camera, you can capture motion-blur effects whenever you like!
And I should emphasize:
The Motion Blur shooting mode isn’t only for photographing landscapes. You can also use it to capture people, cars, animals, and more – as long as you can include a moving subject in the frame, it can be rendered with artistic blur effects!
The Light Trail mode
At the risk of stating the obvious, light trails are ridiculously stunning. We’ve all spent time admiring a cityscape or landscape image that features a dimly lit scene accented by beautiful streaks of light from car headlights. But can you really use your iPhone to capture light trail photos of your own?
With Snap Pro Camera’s Light Trail mode, you can! As the name suggests, Light Trail mode is great for photographing light trails (though you can also use it to create photos that include cool light-painting effects).
Now, light trail photos require bright light sources that are on the move, and for the best results, you’ll want to find a vantage point that offers a solid view of your moving lights. For that reason, I often recommend doing light trail photography from a bridge or a balcony overlooking a high-traffic road – the high vantage point will make for a compelling composition, and the vehicles will provide plenty of light sources. Additionally, you’ll want to shoot after the sun goes down. Otherwise, the cars won’t have their lights on (and even if the lights are on, they’ll be overpowered by the ambient lighting).
Once you find a good scene, get in position, then just spend a few moments watching the flow of traffic. Think about your exposure, and try to evaluate how quickly the cars are moving through the scene. If you choose an exposure that’s too short, you’ll only capture partial light trails – but if you choose an exposure that’s too long, the light trails might overwhelm the rest of the shot.
Once you’re ready, activate the Light Trail shooting mode, and make sure your camera is as stable as possible. Check that the previewed image looks reasonably bright on your iPhone screen, then select an exposure time, bearing in mind the considerations I mentioned above.
Finally, wait until cars are about to enter the scene, press the shutter button, and watch as your iPhone creates a light trail photo!
If your first results don’t look how you imagined, don’t give up – light trail photography is pretty hit-and-miss, even for experienced shooters. Keep taking photos, keep adjusting the exposure time, and pretty soon, you’ll end up with a winner!
Want to elevate your iPhone photos? Snap Pro Camera is a no-brainer!
If you’ve made it this far, then you know just how impressive the Snap Pro Camera app actually is – and how it can transform your iPhone into a photographic powerhouse.
Not only does Snap Pro Camera offer the kind of manual controls required for serious photography, but its long-exposure shooting modes are unprecedented. Thanks to Motion Blur, you can capture artistic long-exposure effects in broad daylight, while the Light Trail mode lets you create the kind of portfolio-worthy shots that you never thought possible.
And when it comes to camera settings and shooting modes, this article barely scratched the surface. Snap Pro Camera is chock-full of additional tools to take your iPhone photography to the next level, such as Crowd Removal (which lets you capture people-free shots of busy scenes) and Low Light (which makes it easy to capture high-quality files in the darkest environments).
So if you’re serious about improving your iPhone photography, head over to the App Store and download Snap Pro Camera. Try out a few of the shooting modes. And be prepared to be amazed!
Then, once you’ve spent some time testing the app, come back to this article. What do you like most about the app? How do you plan to use it to improve your iPhone photos? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!
MIOPS is a paid partner of dPS.
