So you want to use your iPhone as a DSLR?

There is much debate over this topic. Can your iPhone match the picture quality of a DSLR? Does it have the editing power of Photoshop? Well, obviously the answer to both those questions is a big fat no, but that aside your iPhone does have an amazing camera and you can do 99.9% of anything-- meaning, almost everything with it. I wouldn't recommend using it as your main source for photographing a wedding--but I would say the iPhone can do many things for everyday purposes, like blog photos or facebook photos and even marketing photos, like Etsy--and that it does these things very well. I would argue that if your doing it right only a professional will be able to tell the difference between your iPhone photos and say, someones DSLR photos. Oh, and did I mention it fits in your pocket, which is more then I can say for your DSLR.

First thing I would say about your iPhone is that different apps do different things. Many times I will shoot, edit, and decoupage my pictures using a different app for each step. I've downloaded all sorts of different photo apps, and I have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't, and for what.

A DSLR really does one basic things--it shoots pictures. Then you have to edit them on your computer. A iPhone shoots and edits, all in a few moments. So, how can you use your iPhone as a DSLR? Very carefully, of course, and utilizing the apps I show below.

When I am taking a picture I use the basic "Camera" App that comes on every iPhone. If I am shooting a self portrait, I use a tripod and an App called King Camera. I use King Camera because it has a timer function built in. This means I can set my tripod, hit the timer, pose, and have it take a picture. King Camera has editing parts to it also, but I've never once used them. I only use it for the timer, and its the only app I've found that has a timer. You can set the timer from 5 to 30 seconds.

For editing a picture I use two apps depending on what I'm looking for. I use VSCOcam and Mystic App. These two apps have all the filters and light-and-texture tweaking functions you could ever want this side of photoshop. The only downside is that Mystic App will only allow you to create square photos. VSCOcam allows any size. 

After I've filtered the bananas out of my photo, sometimes I want to add text. The best text adding apps are Piction and Textmask. Textmask is unique in that it obscures the photo and shows only the text. Piction has the most amazing fonts, and you can add/change shape/size and color of the font(s) of your choice.

To frame my photo I use Moldiv. It creates these lovely square/framed photos you see above and below.

And that, my dears, is how you use an iPhone as a DSLR. It really can take amazing pictures and do almost anything with the right apps. What apps do you use? Please tell me--I'm like a photo-app-connoisseur. Seriously. They should pay me for this.