And the chances are that they don't always work out as you wish they did.

Now, here's the good news.

If you really understand how your iPhone camera works, you can use it to take photos that are so great that nobody will even believe they were taken with an iPhone.

My name is Emil Pekarclis.

I'm the founder of iPhone Photography School.

And in this video, I'm going to reveal seven little known tricks for taking incredible iPhone photos that leave everyone speechless.

Now, if you want your photos to stand out, your goal should be to show the world to people like they've never seen it before.

And the easiest way to do that is by simply changing the angle you shoot from.

Now, the vast majority of photos are taken from the height of a standing adult, just like this, but that's almost never the best angle to shoot from.

For example, if I were to take a photo of this grass right here, and if I do it from a typical angle, it really doesn't look all that great.

But what I can do instead is simply get lower to find a more interesting and more unique angle.

And now, I can take more interesting and more unique photos that look so much better.

Now, if I were to take a photo of this skateboard, the easiest thing to do would be to take it while I'm standing.

But if I instead get lower and shoot the skateboard from a perspective that we don't normally see,

I can take a photo that's so much more interesting.

And finally, if I wanted to take a photo of this forest park, instead of shooting it from a regular angle, what I could do instead is get to the top of that bridge.

And now, I can shoot the same view from a more interesting point of view, and thus create a better-looking photo of the same scene.

The bottom line is that if you want your photos to stand out, you should never just shoot them from the typical angle.

Instead, try to find a unique point of view that people don't normally see, and your photos will get so much better.

So right now, you'll see that I've already framed the shot, and I'm taking the shot through the front wheel of a bicycle, which makes it more interesting.

But right now, I haven't set the focus myself.

So the auto-focus of the iPhone has picked somewhat of an average focus for this photo, but that's not what I want.

So for an image like this, it's much better if I set the focus myself.

So if I simply tap my finger right here on the foreground, you'll see that this square box appears and the focus is now set on the foreground.

But if I'd like to change that, I can do it as well.

And for that, I'd have to set focus here on the background, and you'll see how different the two resulting images are.

The bottom line is this.

If you don't set focus yourself, you're leaving your photos up to chance.

Sometimes it will work out, at other times it won't, but you will not be in control of the camera of your iPhone.

The next technique I'd like to share with you is setting exposure in your iPhone photos.

So let me show you how that works.

So the photo you're looking at now has some interesting exposure features.

For example, the background is much brighter than the arc in the foreground, and because of that, we have to make a creative choice whether we're going to set exposure on the brighter background or on the darker foreground.

Now, how do you change exposure on the iPhone?

Actually, it's really simple.

All you have to do is tap your finger on the screen, and this not only sets focus, but also exposure.

So if I tap on the darker foreground, you'll notice that the image got brighter because the iPhone adjusted not just focus, but also exposure.

Now, what if I wanted to set focus on a bright background, but I wanted to make sure that the foreground was properly exposed?

Well, I can do that, and for that, I'd simply tap on the background to set focus there, and then I can swipe my finger up or down the screen to adjust exposure.

So I can make sure that the foreground is well exposed and take a photo then, or alternatively, what I can do is

I can make the foreground darker and then take another photo.

And this is how you control exposure on the iPhone camera.

Now, the next technique I want to share with you is really important, and that is locking focus and exposure.

So you already learned how to set focus and exposure in your photos and how to then adjust exposure by swiping your finger across the screen.

But what then happens is that if something changes in the scene, or if you just take a photo, the iPhone will automatically revert to automatic focus and exposure.

And if you're someone like me who puts a lot of thought in focus and exposure, and then you take a photo and it immediately resets back to the default, it's just no good.

And that's why you want to lock focus and exposure.

So in order to lock focus and exposure, all you have to do is tap and hold your finger on the screen and then you can lock focus and exposure.

And then you can tap and hold your finger on the screen and you hold it down for a couple of seconds until you see the letters AE, AF lock.

And now focus is locked.

And I can then go ahead and adjust exposure.

And now, no matter what happens in the scene, both focus and exposure will remain unchanged.

And now I've framed a shot, I've set focus and exposure, so all I have to do is wait for the perfect picture and then press the shutter.

And I can be confident that both exposure and focus are in the same position.

Next, I'd like to show you how to take stunning silhouette photos with your iPhone.

Now, silhouettes always look amazing.

They're really high in contrast, they're mysterious, and they're actually really easy to capture with your iPhone.

You just have to make sure that the light conditions are right.

So in order to capture beautiful silhouette photos, first, you need to be in a large open space, such as this beach or next to a body of water, or perhaps in a big square in the city.

Then, you need to make sure that the sun is well above the horizon.

In other words, you want to do this either in the evening before sunset or in the morning shortly after sunrise.

And then, you have to make sure that the sun is positioned behind your subject.

So in other words, the sun has to be right behind the thing that's going to be a silhouette.

And when all of these things are in place, you can take beautiful silhouette photos.

So the first thing I'm going to do is position myself lower.

And that way, the subject is framed with nothing but the sky behind them.

Then, what I can do next is carefully frame the shot to make sure the reflection also looks beautiful.

And an important trick here is to make sure that the sun is exactly behind your silhouette subject.

And when that happens, you can go ahead and take beautiful silhouette photos.

And you'll notice that the tiny waves that are really small in real life actually look really interesting as they create these beautiful reflections in the photo.

And this is how you can take beautiful silhouette photos with your iPhone.

The next technique I'd like to share with you is taking burst mode photos with your iPhone.

Now, this is one of my favorite techniques.

Unfortunately, very few photographers use it.

But the way it works is very simple.

Whenever you're taking any type of action shots, when you're doing sports photography, or if you're dealing with moving subjects, you can simply tap and hold your finger on the shutter button, and the iPhone will automatically activate the burst mode.

So let me show you how that works.

So you can see that I've already framed the shot.

And as I tap and hold my finger on the shutter button, the iPhone starts taking photos.

So if you could jump for a bit.

You'll see that the iPhone was continuously taking photos during all of this time.

And this way, I can be sure that I'll be able to capture the exact right moment.

And I can quickly discard all the other photos and keep the photos I'm really happy about.

And these are the type of photos that I wouldn't be able to capture without the burst mode.

Now, my students sometimes say that they have nothing to take photos of where they live, but that's just never the case.

In fact, there are great photo opportunities all around you, and you just have to learn to recognize them.

And the easiest way to do that is to start paying attention to small details that most people never even notice.

For example, as I was walking around,

I came across this maple leaf, and it's just a regular leaf.

But if I take a moment to frame the shot carefully, it actually looks really, really beautiful.

Now, let me show you another example.

Hundreds of people walk through this park every day, but hardly anyone pays attention to the strong patterns in the wooden walkway right under their feet.

But if you take a moment, and if you frame these patterns carefully, you can actually create some really interesting and really unique photos.

So remember, there are great photo opportunities all around you, and one of the easiest ways to recognize them is to pay attention to the small details that most people would probably ignore.

Now, as you can see from the techniques I just shared, the iPhone camera looks really simple on the surface, but as you start digging deeper, it's really not that simple.

There are so many hidden iPhone camera features, camera modes, and camera settings that you probably don't know about, and I could only share a handful of them in a short video like this.

But to make matters worse, it's not enough to simply learn about all the different iPhone camera features.

You also have to understand how to use each one of them in different photography scenarios.

We're talking about different light conditions, different photography subjects, and even different genres and styles of photography.

But the good news is that if you take some time to really learn iPhone photography, you can use your iPhone to take the kind of photos that nobody would even believe are taken with the iPhone.

And because of that, I've created iPhone Photo Academy, which is an in-depth online course teaching you everything there is to know about taking photos with the iPhone.

So under this video, you'll find out more information about my iPhone Photo Academy course.

If you'd like to use your iPhone to take incredible photos that everyone adores and that you'll be proud to look at even years later, and if you'd like to do all of this without having to carry a bulky DSLR with you, then take a look at my full course under this video, and I hope to see you there.