Holi Photography Tips: Here's how to get best snaps on iPhone this colourful festival

Apple's latest iPhone 14, 14 Pro and even previous iteration come with Photography Styles, Macro modes and other value-added features to enhance photography experience

Like the festival of lights Deepavali (aka Diwali), Holi is celebrated with great fervour by young and old. People, who have gone far for work come back to their native places to enjoy time with their families.

With so many happy colourful faces and fun around, it presents an opportunity to capture those moments. It is very difficult to carry around bulky DSLR cameras, instead, people now use ubiquitous phones. If you have any of the latest iPhone 14 Pro or even the previous iterations such as iPhone 13 and 12 too, you can get good pictures.

Here are some tips on how to get the best photos on iPhones:

Photography Styles
Step 1: Open the Camera app, tap the arrow, and select Photographic Styles >> You will get five options- Standard, Rich Contrast, Vibrant Warm, and Cool.

Users can customise the tone and warmth with the slider option below the styles. For punchy colourful photos, select either Rich Contrast or Vibrant options.

Macro photos
The latest iPhone 14 Pro and even the iPhone 13 Pro support Macro photos.

Step 1: Open the camera app >> tap Photo >> select 0.5 ultra-wide angle mode >> get close-up shots with sharp focus as close as 2 centimeters distance from the subject.

Portrait mode
With Portrait mode on the iPhone series, users get six options-- natural light, studio light, contour light, stage light, stage light mono and high-key light mono.

They deliver some stunning photos of a human face with a bokeh blur effect in the background.

Just open the camera app >> browse left to find Portrait and select any of the best-suited options.

"Capture stunning portraits of your friends and family and make memories. Portrait mode adds a beautiful depth of field to your image, in simplified words, it blurs the background and creates a separation. This is also a useful tool in crowded places to make your subject stand out. In edit, you can always adjust the depth. Turn to the front camera in portrait mode to create some self-portraits or just simple selfies with your friends and family, the new TrueDepth camera with autofocus shoots fast and detailed photos," Apeksha Maker, proprietor of The House of Pixels said to DH.

Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max. Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit

ProRAW mode
Step 1: Open the camera app >> tap RAW at the top to get high-resolution photos. It enables iPhone Pro models to capture more details. This is available on iPhone 12 Pro or later Pro models with iOS 14.3 (or newer software version)

Apple ProRAW combines the information of a standard RAW format along with iPhone image processing, which gives users more flexibility when editing the exposure, colour, and white balance in the photo. capture images in ProRAW format using any of its cameras, including when also using the Smart HDR, Deep Fusion, or Night mode features.* You can edit ProRAW photos in the Photos app and other third-party photo apps.

On iPhone 14 Pro models, users can choose between 12MP and 48MP resolution.
Step 1: In the Settings app, tap Camera.
Step 2: Tap Formats.
Step 3: Turn on Apple ProRAW to reveal the resolution options
Step 4: Tap ProRAW Resolution and select either 12 MP (photo size will be in 25MB or more) or 48MPphoto size will be in 75MB or more)

ProRes mode (available only on iPhones with 256GB storage or more)
Step 1: Open the camera app >> Video >> tap on ProRes in the top left corner.
It should be noted that one-minute 10-bit ProRes video can consume around 1.7GB in 1080p (full HD) and up to 6GB in 4K format.

Action mode
To capture stable videos turn on the Action mode (on iPhone 14 and 14 pro models).

"Holi is all about movement — there’s water and colour flying everywhere, and there are very few static frames in a big celebration anywhere. Try the new Action Mode on iPhone 14 Pro series and move around in a circle around friends/family who are playing with colour while keeping the horizon aligned as much as you can. Your iPhone will stabilise the motion, and give you a video that is as dynamic as it is stable," renowned professional photographer Joshua Karthik said to DH.

Step 1: Open Camera app >> Video >> turn on the action mode icon (man running) at the top beside the video resolution tab

Cinematic mode
Besides Action mode, Cinematic mode is great in capturing the face of multiple subjects and it is capable of auto-shifting the focus from one person's face to another smoothly.
Step 1: Open camera app >> Video >> Cinematic mode

"Use the cinematic mode to create a story between your subjects and capture the fine colors, or explore action mode to get stabilised smooth shots capturing the chaos and bursts of emotions. On videos always lock your exposure to get an even look throughout. Always keep your grid on, swipe up on the camera app, and explore more settings. Check for your camera settings before shooting to get the best and highest resolution. Most importantly celebrate the joy and colors, and trust your iPhone to do the magic," Apeksha Maker noted.

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