The iPhone comes with easy-to-use buttons and a touch-screen interface that takes no time to learn to operate.

As soon as you get your iPhone home, you’ll want to turn it on. To do so, you hold down the Sleep/Wake button (the button on the top right of the phone) until you see the white apple on the screen.

After a few seconds, the screen will change to show a big picture of the Earth with the current local time on top and a message that reads Slide to Unlock, as shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1. The iPhone needs to be unlocked to operate.

Using your index finger, touch the screen at the right-pointing arrow and move your finger horizontally across the text that reads Slide to Unlock.

To shut down your iPhone, press and hold the button on the top of the phone for a few seconds.

After you’ve unlocked your phone, you’ll be taken to the home screen, where there is a list of applications that are available to you. One of those applications is the camera, and another is for your photos. You can see the Camera and Photos icons in the first row of icons in Figure 1.2. These two applications are standard with all iPhones.

Figure 1.2. Tap Photos to see your photo albums or touch Camera to be brought to the camera interface.

The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS have internal flash drives with the following capacities:

Without anything else in the 16-GB internal flash drive, an iPhone 3GS can hold about 1,500 images. The 32-GB iPhone 3GS can hold about 3,000 images. Since the files of the 3G are smaller, its 16-GB internal flash drive can hold more photos than that of the 3GS—more than 2,000.

The iPhone 3G has a fixed-focus 2-MP camera. The iPhone 3GS has an auto-focus 3-MP camera with touch-screen focus.

To use the touch-screen focus, all you do is frame your shot and then touch the screen on the subject/object on which you want to focus. There are different effects you can achieve using this built-in app. (To learn what effects you can get, see Chapter 2, “Using the iPhone Camera.”)

The lens on both types of iPhone is located on the back (the white or black part, depending on the phone) on the left side as you’re looking at the back of the phone.

There are two different kinds of iPhones: the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS. The former comes with a 2-MP camera, and the latter with a 3-MP camera. Although that might not seem like much, the technology of the iPhone is so fine-tuned that you get pretty good image quality at these low resolutions.

The image size for a 2-MP photo is 1200×1600 pixels, or 16.667×22.222 inches at 72 dpi. This size photo is more than adequate for publishing your iPhone photos on the web. They’ll remain sharp even when they appear large on a website. If you want to consider blowing up your images, you have to look at print resolutions that are about 300 dpi. At 300 dpi, 2-MP iPhone images are 4×5.333, which means you can print that size photo and get sharp results. Probably the biggest photo size to which you could blow up an iPhone photo from a 2-MP camera is 6×8 inches. Anything bigger than that, and you’ll find yourself with a print that contains pixelization, or tiny colored dots all over the image.

Another way to examine the image you get from an iPhone is to look at it on your computer screen. When a photo is open on your computer screen, you usually view it at a size smaller than its actual size. To see exactly what’s going on with your photo in terms of sharpness, you have to view it at 100-percent resolution on your computer screen. To do this in Photoshop or Elements, you just type in 100 for the value in the box in the lower-left part of the window in which the image is displayed. Figure 1.3 shows how you’ll see an image taken with a 2-MP iPhone camera on your computer screen. The image looks incredibly sharp—much sharper than images taken with other types of cell-phone cameras. Blow up that same image to 100-percent resolution, and you’ll begin to see pixelization like that which shows up in the hair of the model in Figure 1.4. However, there is only a small amount of sharpness lost at full resolution (100 percent).

Figure 1.3. A 2-MP image as seen on a computer screen at 50-percent resolution.

Figure 1.4. A 2-MP image as seen on a computer screen at 100-percent resolution.

You can see the various sizes of iPhone files in Table 1.1. The image size for a 3-MP file is 2048×1536 pixels, or 28.444×21.333 inches at 72 dpi. Just as the images from the 2-MP model are perfectly good for publishing your images to the web, so are those from a 3-MP camera. At 300 dpi, 3-MP iPhone images are 5.12×6.83 inches. In Figures 1.5 and 1.6, the images are relatively sharp with little pixelization. The image at 100-percent resolution has less pixelization than the image in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.5. A 3-MP image as seen on a computer screen at 50-percent resolution.

Figure 1.6. A 3-MP image as seen on a computer screen at 100-percent resolution.

There are several variables at play when you take a picture with an iPhone. As you look at these specs and settings, you’ll find that the iPhone is in a league of its own. The camera’s sensor, aperture, shutter speeds, ISO speeds, and focal lengths work in the same way as they do on any camera in that there are specified values/measurements for each. It’s just that with an iPhone, some of these values remain constant, whereas others constantly and automatically change according to what the camera sees through its lens.

As you would probably expect, the sensor of the iPhone camera is very small. It is only 0.25 inch wide. That would be about 6.35mm. When you consider that a strip of negative film and the sensor of a full-frame camera is 35mm, you roughly have one-sixth the space of the full-frame sensor to imprint the image. You’d think that this sensor size combined with a reduced number of megapixels could not produce a good picture with an iPhone camera. For many images this is true if you consider the images in terms of traditional photography.

iPhone specs at a glance:

So what does the iPhone use for an aperture and shutter speed setting? You can find this out in the image capture program when you download your photographs from your camera to your computer. (See the “Transferring Photos” section later in this chapter.) Both the iPhone 3G and the 3GS shoot with a wide aperture of f/2.8.

The iPhone 3G has a fixed focus point, which means it will focus at a point in the middle of the frame. (For more about shooting with the fixed focus and the tap focus of the 3GS, see Chapter 2.)

The iPhone 3GS has a Tap to Focus feature, which means you can have the lens focus on any point you tap on the screen. It also exposes the photo using the light available from that point, which brings up a host of capabilities in terms of how bright or dark your photo is. (See Chapter 3, “Better Photos on an iPhone.”)

The iPhone 3GS shoots in Aperture Priority mode.

The iPhone automatically determines a shutter speed and an ISO speed according to the light available in the shot at a fixed aperture of f/2.8. This makes a big determination in the results you get when you shoot in different lighting conditions.

You can easily determine the ISO speed of shots taken with the iPhone 3GS in Photoshop’s Bridge or when you download your pictures in Image Capture (on a Mac) onto your computer. If you’re using a PC, Windows will automatically detect your iPhone, and you can access your photo properties with a simple right-click. (See the “Transferring Photos” section later in the chapter.)

If you take a look at some of the shutter speeds and ISO values for different images, you can get an idea of what shutter speeds and ISO speeds work best for an image.

Take a look at the images in Figures 1.9 through 1.12 and the settings that the iPhone 3GS automatically set the camera to when they were shot.

Figure 1.7. Image taken with an iPhone and manipulated with iPhoto.

Figure 1.8. Kris used the Infared camera setting on the CameraBag app in this photo.

Figure 1.9. 1/320 second, ISO 70.

Figure 1.9 shows that photos can be very sharp. This is because the iPhone uses very low ISO speeds when there is adequate, even light. Figure 1.10, a close-up shot of a ceramic sculpture, shows that the iPhone 3GS does fairly well in terms of sharpness and reduced noise at medium ISO speeds. Figure 1.11 shows that at high ISO speeds (over 500), shots from a distance (long shots) result in blown highlights, softness, and noise indoors, which can be interesting effects. Finally, Figure 1.12 shows the poor results of a shot at a high shutter speed (over 1016, the highest it goes). For more information about ISO speeds, see the “Getting the Lowest ISO Speeds Should be Your Primary Goal When Shooting” sidebar in Chapter 2.

Figure 1.10. 1/15 second, ISO 481.

Figure 1.11. 1/10 second, ISO 589.

Figure 1.12. 1/10 second, ISO 1016.

Even though there’s no way to get camera settings for the iPhone 3G, you get similar results in terms of shooting in different light situations to what you get with the iPhone 3GS.

In Figure 1.13, you can tell the camera shot at a high ISO speed, because the picture contains some noise. (See the bottom of the image.) When there is little light available, the iPhone will compensate by shooting at very high ISO speeds, resulting in a fairly sharp shot but with a lot of noise (see Figure 1.14).

Figure 1.13. Light is muted.

Figure 1.14. Almost no light.

One thing is for sure: Image size affects the look of your photograph. For Internet purposes, you’ll want to resize your iPhone image to send it to others, to display on a website, to use it to sell something on eBay, to upload it via a social networking site, and/or to use it on a blog.

You can change image sizes directly on your iPhone using an app. One app for this purpose is Resizer.

You can also use almost any image processing program on your computer to change the size of your image. When you change your image size, make sure you don’t write over it by saving it with the same file name. Always rename the file so the original high-res image stays intact.

The original sizes of your iPhone 3G photos are 9×6.5 at 177.8 pixels/inch, and those for the 3GS are 9×6.5 at 227.5. A good size to reduce the image size for the Internet to is 9×6.5 at 72 pixels/inch, or 648×486 pixels. This should reduce the file size of your image to about 100 KB.

You can transfer your photos from your iPhone to your computer or from your computer to your iPhone by following some simple steps.

To get your images from your iPhone to your computer on a Mac, follow these steps. (The steps for Windows are given after those for the Mac.)

If you’re working in Windows, the system will automatically detect your iPhone after you connect it using your USB cord.

A window will appear, giving you the following three options: Import Pictures, Open Device to View Files, and Microsoft Office Document Scanning. The first two options are the important ones.

If you click on Open Device to View Files, you can view them without downloading them. To access the images in the window that comes up (see Figure 1.18), all you do is click on one of the folders in the left frame in the window. You can save them one at a time by right-clicking on each image and clicking on Open in the drop-down menu that appears. The image will be displayed in the Windows Photo Gallery. To save it, click on Copy to Gallery in the list of menu items at the top of the window (see Figure 1.19). The image will be copied into the Windows Photo Gallery. To view the file size and camera settings, navigate to File > Properties. In the pop-up window that appears (see Figure 1.19), you’ll see the information.

Figure 1.18. In Windows, you can view the images without downloading them.

Figure 1.19. You can save your images one at a time as well as view the image’s properties in Windows Photo Gallery.

If you click on Import Pictures, Windows will import them from your iPhone into a new folder (with the date you download as the name) inside of your Pictures folder. The first thing it will ask you is to tag them. You can skip that step (if you want) and just go ahead and click on the Import button. Your photos will then be imported, but be warned that the downloading is slow.

To get your images from your computer to your iPhone, follow these steps:

Click on any of those that you want to transfer to your iPhone. Then click on Apply. If you want to remove any of those folders of photos, click on the check box next to Synch Photos From. You’ll get a message asking whether you want to remove photos previously copied to your iPhone. Click on Remove Photos. Then click on Apply (Synch in Windows). The photos will be removed.

Resizing Photos for Computer-to-iPhone Transfer

At some point in your work with iPhone photos, you’ll want to make a picture you have on your computer smaller so you can transfer it to your iPhone to manipulate it with the many apps iPhones have to offer.

A good size to make a picture for the Internet is from 50 to 150 KB (as a JPEG file). The Internet only handles JPEG, GIF, and PNG files; most of the time, JPEGs are the name of the game for uploading files to websites. If you’re going to email high-resolution photos, make them about 1 MB to 3 MB.

For the purposes of this book, we’ll work in inches when thinking about resizing a photo. To resize in Photoshop, you navigate to Image > Image Size. (If you’re working in Photoshop Elements, you navigate to File > Resize > Image Size.)

The most important box to check or uncheck in this dialog box is Resample Image (see Figure 1.21). When Resample Image isn’t checked, you can change the values of Width, Height, or Resolution, and Photoshop/Elements will proportion the photo accordingly without changing the file size (the number you see right next to where it says Pixel Dimensions at the top of the box).

Figure 1.21. You can resize an image using this dialog box.

When Resample Image is checked, Photoshop will resize the image according to the values that you’ve put in for the width and height of the document size. When Resample is checked, the photo’s file size will change. Because most of the time you’ll want to make a file smaller, you’ll choose Bicubic Sharper. (Bicubic Sharper is the most efficient way for Photoshop to interpolate the photo’s pixels so that it remains sharp when you downsize it.) The values will be up to you. Just remember that the resolution for most web photographs is 72 pixels/inch. For most print jobs, you’ll want a resolution from 200 to 300 pixels/inch.

Finally, Scale Styles has to do with layer styles. This setting, checked or unchecked, will have no effect on your resizing.

When you’re working with programs other than Photoshop/Elements, resizing is a similar process. For example, to resize photos in iPhoto, you navigate to File > Export. The Export Photos dialog box will come up. If you open the Kind drop-down menu, you’ll have a choice of photo formats. Navigate to JPEG and choose Small if you’re going to use the images on the Internet or Full Size if you are going to print them. You have choices for the quality and size for exporting your files. The smallest file you can make is about 8 KB—that’s if you choose a small, low-quality photo. The sizes go up from there.

After you’ve taken some pictures using your iPhone, you’ll probably want to play around with some apps. Apps are kind of like mini image processing programs that you can tweak your photos with. They are written about in detail later in this book.

In this section, you’ll learn how to sync what you’ve got on your computer with your iPhone. Because we are only dealing with images here, that’s all we’ll use the synching for.

It’s best to have the newest version of iTunes to synch your iPhone to your computer.

To synch your iPhone to your computer, connect the two using the USB cable that came with your iPhone. Next, open iTunes. In the frame to the left in the iTunes window, click on the name of your iPhone in the Devices tab.

A window will come up in which you’ll see all the info about your iPhone, along with tabs at the top to perform specific operations. Figure 1.22 shows the window.

Figure 1.22. You’ll use this window to upgrade your iPhone software.

Your iPhone should automatically sync with your computer once you’ve opened iTunes. If it doesn’t navigate to File > Sync your name’s iPhone.

If you want to get a free app or buy a cheap one (most are cheap), follow these steps if you’re shopping on your computer. (You can also buy apps from your iPhone, which we’ll discuss in Chapter 7.)

Finding and Paying for Apps

You can find apps by searching for them or by browsing the Top Apps sections in the iTunes Photography Store. Note that if you click on any app in the Top Paid Apps or Top Free Apps list, you’ll get a description of that app. On the description page, there will be a Buy App or Get App button to download the app. If you click on any of the Buy App or Get App application buttons anywhere in the store, the apps will be downloaded immediately.

When you choose to buy an app by clicking on Buy App, iTunes will ask you “Are you sure you want to buy and download (the name of the app)?” Below that, it will say, “Your credit card will be charged for this purpose and your application will be downloaded immediately.”

You might ask, “What credit card?” Because when you registered for iTunes, you never gave them a credit card number. Well, it’s the credit card you used to pay for your iPhone if you bought it at an AT&T Store.

You can check which credit card is being charged or enter/change your account info by navigating to Store > View My Account. You’ll get a prompt to sign in again. After you sign in, you’ll get a window like the one shown in Figure 1.25, with all of your account information and buttons to change anything you want, including the credit card you use to pay for your apps.

Figure 1.25. It’s easy to find information about your account.