Enable the iPhone Camera Grid to Take Better Pictures

Turning on the iPhone camera grid makes it easier to take better pictures, here’s how to enable it:

• Launch the Camera app from home screen or lock screen
• Tap on “Options” at the top
• Swipe Grid to “ON”
• Tap “Done” to hide the Options again and return back to Camera

The grid will not appear on finalized images in the photo stream.

What’s the point? If you’re new to photography or don’t know why the grid is potentially useful, the grid makes composing images using the “rule of thirds” easier. Essentially that means by dividing a picture into horizontal and vertical thirds and placing compositional elements along those lines and intersections, you’ll end up with better pictures. It’s an old artistic technique that has been around for hundreds of years.

The animated gif shown above from Wikimedia demonstrates this well, and there is more information on Wikipedia if you want an in depth explanation of the technique and its usage in art and photography throughout history.

The grid option is available only to iOS devices with a camera using iOS 5 and later.