Ever wonder what a professional photographer sets their iPhone camera settings to?

Today I'll show you.

Three things I do:

#1 - I set my camera to shoot Most Compatible and not High Efficiency.

#2 - I turn my Grid on.

#3 - I turn my Level on.

Let me show you why (and how).

First, go to settings on your iPhone.

#1 - Go in "Formats" and set your camera to shoot Most Compatible and not High Efficiency.

By default, the iPhone is set to take photos in "High Efficiency" format. This creates compressed photo files with .heic at the end.

When you switch to "Most Compatible", the iPhone will create JPG photo files with .jpg at the end.

Although High Efficiency .heic files take up less space, the file is not universally recognized. For example, when moving image files from Apple devices to PCs, .heic files are not supported. The .heic files need to be converted to JPG to be accepted by PCs, complicating the transfer process.

For this reason, I prefer having my photos created as JPGs, to avoid running into unexpected compatibility issues.

JPGs do take up more space than .HEIC files, but I'm ok with that because I regularly backup and delete my photos off my iPhone as part of my file management process.

Which file format offers better quality?

High Efficiency image files have better quality, but when you do a side by side 100% zoomed-in comparison, you can't see any quality difference. For this reason, I'm ok to stick with JPGs.

Where it does matter is if you edited and re-edited a jpg over and over again. JPGs degrade, while .heic files retain their quality much better.

I don't edit and re-edit jpg files (my Lightroom Mobile editing process prevents this!), so I'm safe to stick with JPG files on my iPhone camera.

Case in point: I tried uploading my .HEIC photo to my email program, and I got an error message. Not even compatible in ConvertKit!

#2 - In camera settings, scroll down to Grid, and turn it on.

Turning on the grid adds a rule of thirds guide overtop your camera viewing screen.

The Rule of Thirds is one of the most popular compositional techniques used in photography over the last 200 years. It's one of the most powerful ways to create strong, attractive photos that produce balance and harmony. I apply the rule of thirds to almost all my photos, so having this overlay helps a lot.

In this photo, I placed the pears using the rule of thirds grid to create a stronger composition.

#3 - In camera settings, scroll down to Level, and turn it on.

Turning on the level helps you take photos that aren't tilted and crooked.

If you're anything like me, I have a hard time keeping my horizons level in a photo. The iPhone camera has a built-in level that can detect if you're holding the camera slightly off kilter.

The "broken" horizontal level guide will appear over top your photo when you're holding your camera crooked:

The level guide will turn from white to yellow (and unbroken) as soon as you straighten your camera perfectly level:

Not only for straight-on shots, but this level guide also works for flat lay photos:

If your camera is slightly tilted and not parallel to the ground/surface, a white plus (+) and yellow plus (+) will appear:

As soon as you level your camera so that it's perfectly parallel to the ground/surface, the pluses will align:

I find this flat lay level especially helpful as it can be very hard to see if you aren't completely level when shooting flat lay photos. Holding your camera crooked can amplify the distortion caused by the wide angle lens, which can cause flat lay images to look more amateur. We want to avoid that!

So now you know what settings a professional photographer uses on their iPhone camera!

Do you have any other questions for me?

Reply to this email and I'll do my best to create future articles in response to your best questions!

-Gabrielle