How to Use the iPhone's Camera App

As long as you have your iPhone nearby, you can use the Camera app on your phone, whether or not you're a skilled photographer. The directions on how to use this Camera app are set forth in this article.

Edit Steps

Part One: Opening the iPhone Camera App

Turn on the device. Push the button to turn it on at the top of the phone. Unlock the device by swiping your finger to the right on the bar containing the words “slide to unlock”, until it doesn’t slide any further.
- If you've used extra security, you'll also need to input a 4-digit pin.

Press the Home button. Pressing this button should, in most cases, take you to the very first page of default apps that are preinstalled on your phone.

Tap the “Camera” app. The camera app’s button looks like a professional camera’s uncapped lens cap.

Wait for the app to initialize and the camera to ready itself for use (thereby showing you the subject to be photographed.)

Part Two: Take a Picture

Look at the screen a moment. Ask yourself “Who or what do I see being photographed in this camera display?” Chances are that you could be looking at either something ahead of you (if you’ve never used it before), or a very nice shot of your face and head (if your device contains a face camera).
- If it’s the latter, see the section on Switching Views below.

Move the camera until the items you want to photograph are completely in the picture. The aim is to bring the scene you wish to capture within the boundaries of your screen.
- Ask yourself one last question “Is the subject and everything you’d like to, completely in view?” If you can answer yes, you're set to go. If not, move the camera until the subject or subjects come into the displayed view.

Locate the shutter button on the screen. This is a square button with rounded corners and has a picture of an older style 35 millimeter camera on it.
- If it has a red dot instead, you’ve switched it to the camcorder/video mode.

Press and release the shutter button. This should take your picture.
- As long as you hold down the shutter button, you can still reposition the camera’s viewing area. Once you release your finger ever-so-slightly from the display, the picture will be taken.

Part Three: Switching Camera Modes

Method One: Switch Camera Modes Using iOS 7

Swipe right above the shutter button. There should be the words Video, Photo, and Square right above the shutter, and swiping these words left and right will switch camera modes. The current mode is always written right above the shutter in orange.
- Note that there is a new mode called "Square". This mode enables you to take square pictures, which is useful when later using apps such as Instagram that require square pictures.

Method Two: Switch Camera Modes Using iOS 6 and Before

Locate the camera's camcorder switch in the very bottom right corner of the app.

Swipe your finger on the bar underneath the icon areas. Swipe until the slider doesn’t move any further.
- To switch the mode to camcorder/video mode from the camera/still photography mode, slide the bar to the right.
- To switch the mode to camera/still photography mode from camcorder/video mode, slide the bar to the left.

Release your finger from the screen.

Wait for the new view to initialize and display your initial subject once again. The icon at the bottom of the screen should now display a red dot.

Part Four: Take a Video

Assure yourself that the mode of the phone’s camera has been changed to camcorder/video mode, as was described in the above subsection. This will be seen on the display as the shutter button changing from a camera to a red-dot icon.

Tap the steady red-dot button, when ready to begin your recording session. The red light will begin blinking when the device is recording.

Shoot whatever footage of your movie you need to shoot. You can use live action, fast-motion action, and, like most movies, use sound (provided only by talking and exterior sounds) in your movies.
- Note that no sounds can be dubbed into the movie from an outside source.

Press the blinking red light once more, when you’d like to stop recording.

Wait for the app to save the work you've just created. It will whisk your work quickly away to the Photo Gallery app (primarily called the default name “Photos” app), in hopes that you’ll make another video soon thereafter.

Part Five: Change Camera View Modes (To/From Face Camera)

Locate all the buttons on your screen. In the top right corner of the screen, you’ll find a square button with rounded edges consisting of a camera and two arrows (one is pointing away from the camera, the other pointing toward, in a style similar to a Refresh button in most Internet browsers.)

Press and release this button to switch the camera’s view modes.

Wait for it to switch modes. You’ll know when it’s ready, when you see other stuff appear in the display, whether that be your face, or the stuff ahead of you.

Part Six: View Saved Photo-Gallery Pictures (From Within Camera app)

Locate the button on the bottom left of your screen. After taking a picture or movie, it’ll be filled with the most-recent picture taken.

Press and release this square graphic. This is a quick-link button to get to all your photos and videos you’ve taken from directly inside the camera app.

Edit Video

Edit Tips

Due to the fact that the iPod touch (3rd generation and lower) doesn’t have a camera, the Camera app is completely gone. However, the “Photos” app is still usable to any and all iPod touch owners.

You can turn your iPhone’s camera on either of its sides to create wider grouped shots. You’ll need to allow the iPhone some extra response time at first, to reconfigure itself, when the accelerometer notices this change has taken place. But you can still use the same buttons in the same manner, after the adjustment has taken place.

If you turn off the device completely during a recording session of a movie, it will cut the recording session short, but it will save your video clip as its own separate file. So try not to do this while recording a video.

Also available on the “Camera” app is the ability to view a centering grid overlay object. Just tap the “Options” button when inside the Camera app, swipe the bar to the left and tap again inside the other parts of the screen.

Use the same techniques you would for taking good photos on a digital camera, as you would for taking pictures on an iPhone.

Beginning with the iPhone 4/iOS4, the advanced task of zooming in or out of a subject have become available. Make pinch/unpinch movements on the display screen to zoom out/in on the area. A single bar should display. Swipe the bar in either direction to zoom into or out of the aforementioned area. On some older iPhone models, you should be able to just double-tap to access the zoom's slider bar (not yet available on the iPod touch's iOS 4's camera).
- The ability to zoom in/out from the face-camera is not yet available. Zooming in/out on your subject is only available on the main camera looking at another subject. Bringing the iPhone closer towards you and away from you will work to zoom into and out of the face camera.

The most common use of the front face camera is for an Apple-only app which they trademarked “Facetime.” Facetime is installed by default on all iPhones (4th generation and up), iPod Touches (only 4th generation and up), all iPads, and some of the newest versions of the Macintosh OS computer.

The camera of an iPhone, with the help of the ScanLife iPhone app (and some other apps) can also be used to take pictures of, and interpret some barcodes (including UPC/QR and data-matrix codes). ‘’’A super-steady hand is required at holding your phone completely still to get the best results.’’’ Look within the app, to see if the app you’re using, provides this functionality or not.

Some apps you use can even access your camera (with your permission) for features designed into the app directly itself. Most designers of iPhone apps know how to have an iPhone access the Camera app, and have become adept at doing so, to make it super-easy on the user in real-time. Therefore, some apps (especially those of photo-editing) may have additional features not listed here, or slightly revised features that change the look and feel of the Camera app.

When taking a picture, it's sometimes helpful to take a step back, to get a good shot of most of the required elements and the nearby scenery for reasons of posterity.

If you have a massive amount of photos and videos to clear out from your iPhone, your iPhone has its own link to the gallery app placed directly onto the main home page location (as a default app called “Photos”). Photos aren’t the only thing that is stored here; videos you took are also stored in this app (from within the “Camera Rolls” folder.)

Starting with iOS 5, there is a feature for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows the user to access the camera without having to unlock the device. Follow the directions in this article to learn how to access this feature on your device.