7 Must-Haves for iPhone Photographers

5 minute read

Apple’s iPhone 5 is still the world’s favorite camera of choice, according to photo-storage service Flickr. But after the holidays — and presumably a lot of upgrades — newer versions of Apple’s phone could take the top spot.

Still, snapping great pics is only the start — iPhone photographers are using everything from filters to printers to get the most out of their shots. Give your photos a much needed edge with these seven iPhone camera accessories:

Fujifilm Instax Share Smartphone Printer

Smartphones might have done more for photography than any invention since the point-and-shoot camera, but they’ve totally gutted the practice of enjoying printed pics. This Wi-Fi connected printer works with both iOS and Android to let users spit out Polaroid-like snaps for real world enjoyment.

Battery-powered and weighting in at less than a pound, the $179 Instax is portable and easy to use, making sharing photos — as in actually physically giving them to someone else — a cinch. Great for scrap-booking, loading the inside of a locker with photos, or giving grandma a little something for her refrigerator, the Instax is an excellent way to help bring people trapped in the 20th century into the selfie age.

Motrr Galileo

Panning, scanning, and tracking users as they walk past, this robotic dock is how some photographers create those gradually moving, gorgeous, time-lapse panoramic shots that go a full 360 degrees. Controllable via Bluetooth from another smart device or over the Internet, Galileo can also track faces and follow motion, making it great for video chat sessions as well.

Compatible with a range of iPhones from the current models all the way back to the 3Gs, this $149 device can also support GoPro cameras by using a special mount.

Matt Black Is TIME’s Pick for Instagram Photographer of the Year 2014

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Fence post. Allensworth, CA. Allensworth is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 471 and 54% live below the poverty level. 35°51'53"N 119°23'21"W Matt Black
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Trees. Alpaugh, CA. Alpaugh is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 1,026 and 55.4% live below the poverty level. 35°53'15"N 119°29'12"W Matt Black
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Mailbox. Teviston, CA. Teviston is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 1,214 and 65.6% live below the poverty level. 35°55'13"N 119°16'51"W Matt Black
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Apartment. Pixley, CA. Pixley is a town in Tulare County, California. The population is 3,310 and 39.3% live below the poverty level. 35°58'7"N 119°17'30"W Matt Black
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Farmworker camp. Alpaugh, CA. Alpaugh is an town in Tulare County, California. The population is 1,026 and 55.4% live below the poverty level. 35°53'16"N 119°29'14"WMatt Black
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Fresno is California's sixth largest city and is the southern Central Valley's dominant metropolitan area. Backed up trains line the tracks in the city's warehouse district.Matt Black
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Store window. Riverdale, CA. Riverdale is a town in Fresno County, California. The population is 3,153 and 30.5% live below the poverty level. 36°25'51"N 119°51'33"WMatt Black
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A dead palm tree. Shafter, CA. Extensive fracking is sparking conflict between agricultural and oil interests in the southern Central Valley's Kern County.Matt Black
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Guard dog. Mendota, CA. Mendota is a city in Fresno County, California. The population is 11,014 and 45.6% live below the poverty level. 36°45'13"N 120°22'53"W Matt Black
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Vegetable picker. Firebaugh, CA. Firebaugh is a city in Fresno County, California. The population is 7,549 and 34.9% live below the poverty level. 36°51'22"N 120°27'18"WMatt Black
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Ditchbank. Fresno, CA. Sinamon and Aaron bathe at an irrigation canal near their homeless encampment on the outskirts of Fresno.Matt Black
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A dove perches on a post in Sinamon and Aaron's homeless encampment on the outskirts of Fresno.Matt Black
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Displaced when the city of Fresno forced the closure of several homeless encampments, Sinamon now lives in a makeshift home she built in a vacant lot just feet beyond city limits.Matt Black
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Sinamon carries firewood to the makeshift home she built in an empty lot just outside of Fresno.Matt Black
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Fear of eviction and a rash of thefts have increased Sinamon and Aaron's vigilance. They watch as an unidentified man approaches their homeless encampment on the outskirts of Fresno.Matt Black
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Scratched window. Stratford, CA. Stratford is a town in Kings County, California. The population is 1,277 and 39.2% live below the poverty level. 36°11'21"N 119°49'24"WMatt Black
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The deepest drought in California's recorded history is fallowing an estimated 500,000 acres of Central Valley farmland this year.Matt Black
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Shopping Cart. Bakersfield, CA. Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California. The population is 347,483 and 19.3% live below the poverty level. 35°22'23"N 119°1'6"W Matt Black
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Gang tag. Le Grand, CA. Le Grand is a town in Merced County, California. The population is 1,659 and 25% live below the poverty level. 37°13'43"N 120°14'53"W Matt Black
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Fence. Weedpatch, CA. Weedpatch is a city in Kern County, California. The population is 2,658 and 41.8% live below the poverty level. 35°14'17"N 118°54'53"W Matt Black
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Presidents' day decorations in downtown Firebaugh, CA. 80% of the town's population works in agriculture. A third of its downtown storefronts are shuttered.Matt Black
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Wall. Kerman, CA. Kerman is a city in Fresno County, California. The population is 13,544 and 24.5% live below the poverty level. 36°44'3"N 120°3'36"W Matt Black
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A shuttered business in Huron, CA. For two seeks each winter and spring, nearly all lettuce grown in the US comes from Huron's fields. Over half the town’s population lives below the poverty line.Matt Black
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Graffiti. Exeter, CA. Exeter is a city in Tulare County, California. The population is 10,334 and 26.8% live below the poverty level. 36°17'45"N 119°8'31"W Matt Black
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Front door. Taft, CA. Taft is a city in Kern County, California. The population is 9,327 and 15.4% live below the poverty level. 35°8'33"N 119°27'23"W Matt Black
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A flea market in Tulare, CA. The town draws its name from the reeds that once lined a nearby lake. Its water was diverted for agriculture and the lake has been dry for nearly fifty years.Matt Black
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Fallowed fields. Huron, CA. Job losses from drought are pushing unemployment past 50% in some Central Valley towns.Matt Black
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Burned field. Los Banos, CA. Los Banos is a city in Merced County, California. The population is 35,972 and 24.8% live below the poverty level. 37°3'31"N 120°50'58"W Matt Black
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Sheep bones bake under a mid-summer sun near Alpaugh, CA. Dought related agricultural losses in the Central Valley are expected to top $1.5 billion this year.Matt Black
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A shepherd's camp in a dry wheat field. Mendota, CA. His water for drinking, bathing and cooking comes from this 55-gallon drum.Matt Black
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Sheep are herded across a dry wheat field near Mendota, CA. Most wheat fields failed to germinate this year due to lack of rain.Matt Black
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Almond hulls are dried a stacked for cattle feed at a processing facility near Coalinga, CA.Matt Black
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Crop duster markers. Corcoran, CA. Corcoran is a city in Kings County, California. The population is 24,813 and 28% live below the poverty level. 36°5'53"N 119°33'37"W Matt Black
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Dust blows across a barren field at dusk near Avenal, CA. Nearly half a million acres of California farmland went unplanted this year due to drought, an area twice the size of Manhattan.Matt Black
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The head of a dead bull hung to dry near Firebaugh, CA. "California's gonna die," a rancher describing the drought said. "This whole valley's going to blow away like dust." Matt Black

iPhone Telephoto Lens

A little outrageous compared to the iPhone’s tiny, subtle, rear camera lens, this 12-times zoom lens packs some powerful magnification into an inexpensive $35 kit. Complete with a matte black iPhone case (necessary for attaching the telephoto lens), a collapsible tripod, and a carrying case to keep it all protected, this manual focus accessory works with iPhones as old as the 4/4s (but note, the 5c is not compatible).

You might look a little foolish walking around taking snapshots with it, but who’ll be laughing later when your Instagram sunset gets more likes than your friends’ pics?

iStabilizer Shutter Remote for iOS

Remember when Macs used to come with remote controls? iStabilizer hasn’t forgotten, and this iOS-compatible controller brings the experience to your handheld devices. But why would you need a remote for something you can put in your pocket? Photos.

This tiny, $39 accessory can snap pics from up to 30 feet away, which means technically full-body, sans-mirror selfies can be part of your repertoire. Add in the ability to play, pause, skip and rewind music, launch movies, adjust brightness and volume and even activate Siri, and you’ve got a multimedia monster in the palm of your hands. Oh, and it also works with Macs, if you lost your old remote.

Jelly Camera Phone Filters

Trying you out-filter your friends? Slap one of these gummy accessories over your iPhone’s camera lens before you shoot, and you’ll have photos that your followers will never be able to recreate.

Adhesive (without leaving residue), these keychain-looped lenses are compatible with just about any phone (or tablet) sporting a rear camera, and with starburst, kaleidoscope, and wide-angle options, they’ll make your photos pop and your videos totally trippy. Best of all, they run just $15 for the set, so they are excellent stocking stuffers for the shutterbug in your family.

Moment Lenses

Expert photographers frequently talk about how they use the popular smartphone to take astounding photos that their pro-level cameras just can’t capture. But with Moment’s gorgeously crafted lenses — a 60mm telephoto and a shorter wide-angle lens, $99 apiece — amateurs can also up their game, taking beautiful, distortion-free shots that can be just as good as those taken with DSLRs.

Compatible with the iPhone 4 and newer handsets (as well as iPad Air and Mini), the lenses attach to your Apple devices via a stylish adhesive mounting plate. But if you have a cover on your phone (and you should), fear not. I discovered that slipping the plate between the case and the handset works well (even with Apple’s super-snug, leather iPhone 6 protector), and even saves you from sticking the plate to your handset.

Noot Selfie Stick

If 2014 was the year of the selfie, then there’s no more timely gift to give this holiday season than the Noot Selfie Stick. Low-tech but highly useful, this extendable pole lets photographers get more of themselves and their background in the shot.

While some selfie sticks connect via Bluetooth (yes, there are more than one of these devices on the market), they also require a periodic battery recharge. But this $19 model sports no such wireless connectivity. Instead, it has a plug that connects to your iPhone’s headphone jack that allows a button on the stick’s hilt to take the picture – no timers necessary. After all, who has time for timers when you’re snapping off super-cool selfies?

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