How to Take iPhone Photographs That Have Mystery

I love mystery. I love images that leave it to the audience to complete the story.

I also love catching interesting photographs with the least amount of equipment possible.

Today’s smartphones have enabled most of us to take advantage of their advanced technology and take great photographs.

Recently, I went on a short holiday to the ocean side and I wanted to take photographs that had a mysterious effect. Like the tide coming in and going out and those short moments in between. I wanted to capture that brief moment in time between solidity and invisibility. Long exposure photography was perfect for this.

If you want to take long exposure photography with your iPhone, without using a tripod, this is one way to accomplish it.

First, set your iPhone camera to LIVE. To turn on the LIVE option, tap the LIVE symbol in the upper right corner of your phone. It looks like concentric circles. This creates a short 2-3 second mini-movie. Usually, this option is turned on to allow the photographer to choose which still image they think is the best shot. For more information on this, go here, https://vocal.media/photography/street-photography-hapsqm0lak. If you are using an older iPhone, I still use my iPhone 6S as a backup phone, the Live option is at the top center and also looks like concentric circles.

I would recommend using the HDR (high dynamic range) option when taking all photographs on smartphones. Although this uses more memory space on your iPhone, it will have much better quality. This will be needed especially if you decide to print your photograph. If you have an older iPhone, you will have to set it manually. You set the HDR option by opening your Camera app, tap your phone screen, tap the HDR letters at the top, and then tap ON.

Now, photograph your subject(s). I’m going to use one of my photographs from the series that I took at the ocean side, The Brevity of Life Series called, Haunted. See photograph below.

I tried to stay very still so I could capture my subject matter, people on the beach, and the tidal waves, movements. It is up to you of course. If you prefer to show movement by moving that is completely up to you.

Next, go to your photo app called Photos. Bring up the photograph that you want to create into a long exposure picture. Tap the screen. This will bring up option icons at the top and the bottom. At the top left, you will see the LIVE option. Tap it. A menu will pop up saying, LIVE, LOOP, BOUNCE, and LONG EXPOSURE. Tap LONG EXPOSURE. It might take a few moments to update your photograph to long exposure. If you are using an older iPhone, this part of the process is the same.

There! You did it!

If you want to adjust your new photograph, iPhone has an app for editing. To go to the photography app, bring up the photograph you want to adjust. Click the edit option at the upper right on your iPhone screen. See picture. There are other apps you can download to adjust your photographs. I like Adobe Photoshop Express, Focos, and Pixlomatic apps. All of these are free and also have in-app purchase options.

Here is the raw photograph and the edited, finished photograph. See the above pictures. For the photograph I created, I changed the image from color to black and white to help create a more somber mood. I did this with the iPhone in-app. I also improved the contrast to bring attention to the textures of the blurred movement and to bring more life to the realization of light.

Enjoy being creative with your photographs. ∞

To view more long exposure photographs visit the online Brevity of Life Photography Exhibition here, https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=ArtistCameronHampton&set=a.108398105082026.

I used an iPhone 12 mini to create this photograph.

This photograph was taken on the coast of South Carolina.