Mastering the iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera

iPhone Photography Guide Taking Pictures like a Pro Even as a SmartPhone Beginner

James Nino

© 2020 James Nino

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Mastering the iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera

iPhone Photography Guide Taking Pictures like a Pro Even as a SmartPhone Beginner

James Nino

Disclaimer

The advice and strategies found within may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is held responsible for the results accrued from the advice in this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Introduction

Hey, congratulation on purchasing Mastering the iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera book. This book is a must-have book for anyone who wants to use his or her iPhone 12 Pro Max to start taking stunning photos.

This book will open your eyes to many of the basic functions that the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera can be used for as well as some advanced functions that may not be too obvious to users of the iPhone 12 Pro Max. For those who already have older versions of the iPhone and have difficulty locating some of their favorite icons, this book will show you where they have been moved to and the most effective ways of using them to take amazing pictures.

Quite often, the manuals shipped with our devices tend not to do enough justice to the subject of the device at other times, they can be overwhelming. Many other “Get Started Guides” are sometimes too thin and do not really solve any problem, which is why this book is a real gem.

This book will get you acquainted with the mobile phone you carry around you that you can also use as your photography device whenever you go on a trip, attend an event, visit a location, or casting a scene. Knowing how to get more from the digital camera in your pocket is what this book is about, after all, after spending so much to get your iPhone 12 Pro Max, you naturally would want to get more out of it.

This book will help you know how to use the camera on your iPhone 12 Pro Max better and help you optimize the camera features in a lot more ways than you have ever imagined.

As you open the pages of this book, you will be exposed to a wide range of fantastic photos and video tools that you had probably overlooked as ordinary symbols to a position where you now know how to use them. Not only that, you will be shown how to use the iPhone to video a full wedding ceremony. Lovers of drones will also find a chapter of this book where using the iPhone 12 Pro Max with drones is discussed. Overall, this book tries to cater for everyone including social media freaks.

For those who order this book while on vacation, this book can help you improve on your use of your iPhone camera, especially for those things you did not know it could do. You will find that this book is quite worth the time and money spent on it and highly recommended to anyone who uses their iPhone 12 Pro Max to take pictures.

You can start using your iPhone 12 Pro Max camera and start taking the kind of photos that nobody will even believe were shot by you with an iPhone. If you haven’t got your copy and are still hesitating, you should be click the “Buy Now” button to get yours now.

Contents to Expect

Chapter 1

Introducing the iPhone 12 Pro

Design of the iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera

iPhone 12 Pro Max Cameras

Ultra-Wide Camera

Wide Camera

Telephoto Camera

Versatility of the Camera System

Augmented Reality (AR) for Innovative Camera Usage

iPhone 12 Pro Max Tech Specs

The iPhone 12 Pro Max’s Technical Specs

The iPhone 12’s Pro Design and Display

iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera

iPhone 12 Pro Max HDR Feature

Utilizing the HDR Mode On iPhone 12 Pro Max

Technically Defining HDR

Chapter 2

About the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera

Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera Features

Relevant Camera Settings to Know

Focus

Exposure

Filters

Self-Timer

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

Rule of Thirds

The Golden Ratio

DSLR VS iPhone 12 Pro Max

Who is the iPhone 12 Pro Max Suited for

Chapter 3

Capturing Photos on iPhone 12 Pro Max

iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera Modes

Photo Mode

Portrait Mode

Pano Mode

Video Mode

Slo-Mo Mode

Time-Lapse Mode

Exploring The iPhone 12 Pro Max Lenses

Switching Between the Lenses

Switching to the Standard Wide-Angle Lens

Switching to the Ultra-Wide-Angle Lens

Switching to the Telephoto Lens

Fine Tuning the zoom in and Out

To zoom on the iPhone 12 Pro Max

Another way to Operate the Zoom Feature

Zoom Out Photos After Shooting

Expanding your Photoshoot Scene

Introducing the LIDAR Sensor

Using the Volume Buttons as a Shutter

Quick Take Using the iPhone 12 Pro Max Volume Button

Taking Pictures with the Rear Cameras

How to Record Videos

Recording a Video Between Photos Using QuickTake

Taking Burst Photos

Setting Up Photo Capture Outside of the Frame

Taking Advantage of Outside the Frame

Scanning QR Codes with your iPhone

Expanding the Capability of the Front Camera

Mirroring Front Camera

Chapter 4

Manipulating Images on iPhone 12 Pro Max

Editing a Photo or Video

Before and After Effects of Photo Edits

Take Screenshots

Knowing the Different Cropping Options

Straightening and Adjusting Perspective

How to Use Filters Correctly

Taking a Photo with a Filter

Applying Filter Effects on a Photo

Marking Up a Photo

Trimming a Video

Reverting to an Original Photo or Video

Changing the Aspect Ratio

Shooting with the Ultra-Wide Lens

Indicator for Camera Rolling

Chapter 5

Additional Controls on the Camera App

Learn to Take Great Selfies All by Yourself

Selfie Cameras

Taking a Selfie

Taking a Slofie

Switching Between Close and Wide-Angle Selfies

Utilizing the Night Mode

Live Photos and Having Fun with Them

Taking a Live Photo

Editing a Live Photo

To Edit Live Photos

Viewing a Live Photo

Viewing Custom Effects of a Live Photo

Types of Live Photo Effects

Live

Loop

Bounce

Long Exposure

Taking a Panorama Photo

Slow Motion Video

Recording a Slow-motion Video

Understanding iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera Focus

Adjusting the Camera Focus

Manually Adjusting the Camera Focus

Understanding iPhone 12 Camera Exposure

How to Adjust the Camera Exposure

How to Lock Camera Focus and Exposure Separately

How to Use the Self-Timer

Steps to Accessing and Using the Self-timer

Having Fun with Your iPhone 12 Pro Max

How to Create your Own Memoji

To Edit, Duplicate, or Delete a Memoji

Sending Animated Animoji or Memoji Recordings

Chapter 6

Configuring Other Camera Settings

Accessing Hidden Camera Controls

Using the HDR Feature

The Portrait Mode on iPhone 12 Pro Max

Blurring Photos Backgrounds with Portrait Mode

Adjusting Portrait Photos

How Not to Include the Blur

Low-Light Photography

Low-Light Photos with Night Mode

Chapter 7

Getting the Most of Your iPhone 12 Pro Max

Best Practices for Smartphone Photography

i. Always Look for Light

ii. Focus and Exposure Adjustment

iii. Making Use of HDR Mode

iv. Turning on Grids

v. Burst Shots

vi. Try Close Focusing

vii. Get Used to Your Default Camera App

viii. Try Add-On Lens

ix. Editing Photos

Chapter 7

iPhone 12 Videography

Video Quality

How to Shoot Videos with your iPhone 12

Time-Lapse Videos

Professional iPhone 12 Pro Max Videos

Image Stabilization

Dolby Vision

How to Turn-on Dolby Vision in Video Recording

Drone Photography with the iPhone 12

Wedding Photographs with the iPhone 12

Chapter 8

Third-party Camera Apps

Camera+ 2

Obscura 2

VSCO

Halide

ProCamera

Caring for Your iPhone Camera

Conclusion

Chapter 1
Introducing the iPhone 12 Pro

Apple in October of 2020 announced its iPhone 12s’ line up, ranging from iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. All these smartphones are the best phones you are going to find in the market.

Apple is known for its quality products and they have not disappointed their fans this time too. Everything in the smartphone is at its best. Though Apple had to face critics for not giving a charging adapter along with the smartphones, Apple still managed to satisfy their fans with the awesome design and quality.

The build of the iPhone 12 series reminds us of the iPhone 5s. The sharp cut edges that seem to have been abandoned in subsequent releases after the iPhone 5s was reintroduced in this iPhone and has been the talking point of the phone since then and appreciated by millions of iPhone fans all over the world. It is hard to get your eyes off the attractive form of the phone and the camera set up that characterizes all three phones.

Apple announced everything regarding the cameras in the official event held in October. Guess what; this time, iPhone cameras have added more features than ever experienced in an iPhone.

The stunning features and quality capture have even impressed professional photographers. If you are already from an iPhone family, then you might be aware of the quality of pictures. This time in iPhone 12 series, the inclusion of telephoto lenses has made fans crazy for it.

Figure 1: iPhone 12 Pro Max Lenses

Even though the whole lineup of the iPhone 12 series has got the best of the cameras in their respective segments, however, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has got such remarkable features that serious lovers of photography admire. Being a photography enthusiast, I tend to prefer the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera among the three, mostly because of its size and shape.

The camera setup is incredibly better than previous iPhones and best suits the design of the smartphone body. Be it tapping the low light photos or zooming the street captures; everything is up to mark.

Who doesn't love night portraits? The iPhone 12 Pro Max camera is able to take some of the best night portraits ever taken by a phone camera with its portrait mode. The telephoto lens helps you capture scenes with very little detail. Apple is known for its quality products and they have continued their tradition of quality in this iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Well, you all might be thinking that why am I highlighting iPhone 12 Pro Max cameras again and again. Guys, the iPhone 12 Pro Max's camera have got exceptional features. You can record more spectacular videos using iPhone 12 Pro Max, as it comes equipped with a Dolby vision recording that has 60 times more colors. I would be telling you in detail everything that makes iPhone 12 Pro Max's camera the best in the market right now. If you want to make the best of your iPhone 12 Pro Max cameras, then stick with me to the end of this book.

Using the iPhone 12 Pro Max to take pictures is as easy as it's always been in previous versions of the iPhones only that now you can make it do more than those versions if you only knew how to find your way around the interface. Compared to what you may be used to in earlier versions of the iPhone, some controls and settings in the iPhone 12 Pro Max no longer exist while many others have been moved to new locations, including some changes in the layout of the phone’s camera app. The camera app on the iPhone 12 Pro Max is at first glance similar to the old iPhone Camera app only that the new app has a great deal of depth, which makes it able to take crisp photos with minimal effort even when the lighting is limited.

Software and interface changes are not the only things that differentiate the iPhone 12 Pro Max from other iPhone versions. The cameras on the iPhone were already very good at taking great daytime pictures, but the new iPhone 12 Pro Max takes their photography to a whole new level. This is mostly because of the triple-lens setup at the back of the iPhone 12 Pro Max and the supersonic A14 Bionic that enables the phone to expand its capabilities.

To take advantage of these hardware features is an expanded new iOS 14 operating system that enables it to produce crystal clear pictures, among other new functions like the Night mode on all lenses and the Quick Take video. There is also a unique feature that allows users to zoom out on an image even though you had previously captured it with some parts that seem to be missing.

These hardware and software make the iPhone 12 Pro Max to be touted to be one of the best iPhones ever to be produced by Apple when you consider the ingenuity in combining technology with the phone’s high-level photography. The majority of the iPhone’s 12 Pro functions involve knowing what and how to tap, which is what helps to ensure that the photos shot with the iPhone 12 Pro Max even if taken by a novice come out crisp, amazing and sharp. This phone runs on iOS 14 with a high-level dual-sensor for the rear cameras and is also powered by Apple’s new A14 Bionic chip.

The four available colors for the iPhone 12 Pro Max for buyers to choose from include pacific blue, gold, graphite, and silver.

Figure 2: Unboxing the iPhone 12 Pro Max

According to Apple, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is made from the toughest glass ever to grace the glass body of a smartphone and offers an amazing resistance to dust and water with its IP rating of IP68, which helps to improve its reliability and durability.

It's rated to be able to stay up to a depth of water of up to 2M or 6.5 feet for a period of up to 30 minutes. Although an IP68 rating can withstand immersion in water, it is advisable to limit the phone’s exposure to water to just splashes, accidental exposure to liquid, and maybe rain.

For sounds, it equally supports Dolby Atmos and Spatial audio, which enables it to offer a truly impressive sound experience.

Design of the iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera

The iPhone 12 series is totally for photos and videos. The sharp design of the device and those three camera lenses along with the LIDAR sensor will surely win your heart. The camera lenses are installed on the top-left corner of the rear side as they were in iPhone 11 pro max.

iPhone 12 Pro Max Cameras

There are 3 cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, including a flashlight and LIDAR Scanner. These cameras include an Ultra-wide camera, a telephoto camera, and a wide camera. These cameras have a 7x zoom and focus lens to make the shots better. Let us have a look at their features and their functions.

Figure 3: iPhone 12 Pro Max Layout

Ultra-Wide Camera

The ultra-wide camera has a 120-degree field of view that helps you in capturing extra-wide-angle shots.

Figure 4: Identifying the 12MP Ultra-wide Lens

Wide Camera

The wide camera has a 7-element lens with Sensor-shift optical image stabilization and 100 focus pixels.

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Figure 5: Identifying the 12MP Wide Lens

Telephoto Camera

The telephoto camera is for taking stunning portraits and square pictures. It consists of a 6-element lens.

Figure 6: Identifying the 12MP Telephoto Lens

The neat and clean design of the iPhone 12 Pro Max makes it look elegant. The cameras are placed in the same position as the iPhone 11 Pro Max, but when compared with the iPhone 11 Pro Max; iPhone 12 Pro Max has a bigger image sensor, a faster main camera lens, and better image stabilization. Autofocus also has an improvement with the LIDAR sensor.

Versatility of the Camera System

The camera hardware is powered by the super A14 Bionic with a new image signal processor, which helps in improving image quality and other popular photography features that are not possible with general cameras. It also includes the Apple Pro Raw, which allows users to exercise better control over colors, details, and dynamic range on the iPhone or other photo editing apps.

Figure 7: iPhone 12 Rear Cameras

The iPhone 12 Pro Max also offers the best quality video shooting through its end-to-end HDR video with Dolby vision up to 60 FPS and comes with better stabilization. Well, more about this will be discussed when we dive more into the video capabilities of the iPhone in the videos section.

Augmented Reality (AR) for Innovative Camera Usage

The new LIDAR scanner measures light distance and makes use of pixel depth information of a view. This helps in faster and more realistic, as well as reliable AR experiences, and also improves autofocus by 7x in low lights for more accuracy and reducing the capture time of the photos. This amazing LIDAR scanner unlocks various night mode portraits, which help in rendering a low light Bokeh effect. This feature has also resulted in programmers creating various apps that take advantage of this innovative feature to create apps that can measure distances between two points.

iPhone 12 Pro Max Tech Specs

Apple has brought a lot of new exciting features and hardware changes in its most recent lineup. If you are someone who is switching from Android to iPhone 12 Pro Max or an existing iPhone user and finding it hard to get used to these newly introduced changes in tech specs and design of iPhone 12 Pro Max, let me walk you through all the new changes - technical aspects and specifications.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max’s Technical Specs

The iPhone 12 Pro Max is the biggest, heaviest, and most expensive iPhone to be released by Apple so far. It comes with a 6.7-inch touchscreen shipped with the iOS 14 and powered by a hex-core Apple A14 Bionic CPU. As at the time of writing this book, this processor is acclaimed to be Apple’s fastest chip in the market which allows it to give the iPhone 12 its superior performance and support for the graphical demands of the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max features dual GSM SIMs for Nano-SIM and eSIM cards.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max is a pioneer in its supports for the 5G technology, which is the fastest technology compared to the iPhone 11 Pro’s support for the 4G LTE network. This is one of the main features with which no other phone can be compared with the iPhone 12 series.

The Intel modem chip that comes with iPhone 12 Pro Max supports Gigabit-class LTE, 802.12 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi 6 support, Band 40 support, Bluetooth 5.0, and UI ultra-wideband chip for better spatial awareness with better indoor tracking capabilities. It also has sensors that it uses for its gyroscope, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, compass/ magnetometer, barometer, and proximity sensor. Not to be left out is its support for face unlocks with 3D face recognition.

Figure 8: Various Colors for Shipping iPhone 12

The iPhone 12 Pro Max has support for Qi wireless charging, including proprietary MagSafe fast charging.

The battery life of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is terrific and is powered by a non-removable 2815mAh battery.

The iPhone 12’s Pro Design and Display

The iPhone 12 Pro Max shares similar physical attributes as its predecessor iPhone 5s but has a noticeable camera bump on its back that houses the triple camera array, which is not present on the iPhone 5s but was introduced in the iPhone 11 series.

Figure 9: iPhone Screen Display with Resolution

Such camera bumps are not entirely new in the mobile phone industry, as a matter of fact, was introduced in the earlier version of iPhone 11 in response to the demands of many iPhone enthusiasts who wanted Apple to improve the quality of the iPhone’s camera, especially when compared to other Android phones. However, unlike the camera bump of Samsung Galaxy S10, Huawei P30 Pro, and other Chinese manufacturing competitors, that of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is considerably chunkier.

The phone comes with a resolution of 2788 x 1284 pixels and a pixel density of 458 pixels per inch (PPI) with a contrast ratio of 2M:1 for its LCD. Similar to the iPhone 11 series, Apple continued the “Super Retina XDR” on its iPhone 12 Pro Max OLED Multi-Touch display. The display equally has support for Apple’s newest advancement in technology that allows for tapping to wake up or activate the screen, Haptic Touch, swipe gesture in place of the Touch ID Home button, a wide color range that enables it to provide a realistic color and a True Tone, useful in matching the ambient light to the display’s white balance.

iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera

If there is one feature that was consistently highlighted as a significant advantage over previous editions of the iPhone, it has to be the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s camera or cameras. The iPhone 12 Pro Max comes with three rear cameras that include the standard wide-angle camera, an ultra-wide-angle camera with a 120-degree field of view, and a telephoto camera lens. Switching between these cameras is, however, remarkably easy and can be executed by flips of on-screen buttons.

The ultra-wide-angle camera can capture up to six times more scenes compared to what the standard wide-angle lens can capture from the same distance from the subject, which makes it a good way of capturing architecture images, landscape photos, tight shots, group pictures, and many other creative pictures.

Figure 10: Triple iPhone Camera Array

The iPhone 12 Pro Max’s camera interface has also undergone some changes that allow users to have that great user experience when trying to capture scenes outside the frame through the use of the ultra-wide-angle camera. The iPhone 12 Pro Max has a 7x optical zoom in and zooms out the range, and its range of the digital zoom is about 12x. It also contains a LiDAR scanner to provide a better night mode experience.

The portrait mode helps you capture photos with a clear focus on the subject and blurred background with bokeh and depth-control.

The addition by Apple of a new Night Mode that takes advantage of the iPhone's high processing capabilities combined with the new wide camera sensor to create crisp, bright, clear photos even in conditions that have very low lighting.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max also comes with Smart HDR 3, which allows for better recognition of people by differentiating them from the rest of the shot. Even though this feature preserves the background elements, it tends to ensure that faces retain their natural-looking skin tones, highlights, shadows, and gestures. The Smart HDR 3 uses machine learning in the capturing of natural-looking images that help improve the highlight and shadow detail.

iPhone 12 Pro Max HDR Feature

The iPhone 12 Pro Max was one of the most awaited smartphones of 2020, quite frankly, all variants of the iPhone are flagships when compared with their competitors. The iPhone 12 Pro Max comes with features and specifications that include, but not limited to; super retina XDR OLED, HDR10, 800 nits (typical), 1200 nits (peak) display, 6GB RAM, and the A14 Bionic chip. DxO mark rating for iPhone 12 Pro Max is 128, putting it in one of the top five phones featured till now.

(It has been tested in every condition possible, DXO mark ratings are reliable because of how much work they put into trying out the different features in a phone. They even take pictures at a different time of day to effectively test a phone.)

As already explained; HDR stands for "High dynamic range" and is a way of how an image is further processed.

While HDR is on, every photo you take on your iPhone will be optimized automatically and will be balanced with a better exposure setup. This iPhone 12 Pro Max can take advantage of Dolby Vision HDR recording.

Starting with Dolby's vision, it is the first mobile to feature Dolby HDR video recording. It can shoot and edit as well.

On iPhone 12 Pro Max, you can record Dolby Vision 4K at 60 fps, but iPhone 12 is limited to 30 fps. We talked a lot about HDR, So, what is HDR? The answer is as simple as it gets.

A common scenario would be if you want to take a photo of someone in front of a beautiful scene and when doing so may mean that they'll be exposed to overly bright backlighting. Rather than choosing between where to focus; the background or image, or vice-versa. HDR makes it possible so you can get both in one photoshoot.

Utilizing the HDR Mode On iPhone 12 Pro Max

HDR mode consecutively takes pictures at different exposures such as normal light that allows adjustment for the darkest and brightest details, then taking advantage of its A14 Bionic chip that is able to apply advanced computational mathematics to mix the different shots and produce a stunning photographic effect.

For a person who shoots outdoors, the iPhone 12 Pro Max provides a technology that is called ‘‘Smart HDR 3’’. Older HDR software was dreadful, at least when compared with the Smart HDR3, which made images look manipulated.

Technically Defining HDR

HDR 3 uses machine learning (ML) technology of the real-world to train its neural engine, a component on its microprocessor A14 Bionic. When you use your iPhone to consistently take pictures of a particular type of scene, after a while it starts to recognize specific scenes and then automatically create the right exposure for each one. So, when you go on your travels, those of mountains, clouds, snow become recognized easily with the help of HDR3.

Putting it in another way, you can shoot something which you have shot before, and it will know by itself what exposure would be better without the need for toning.

There is something called ‘Deep Fusion’ also, which means instead of just combining images and providing final output. It selects the best pixels for the colors, sharpness, highlights, and shadows before telling the engine to combine those pixels into the final photograph.

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