Celebrate World Photo Day with smartphone shooting tips and apps

Today is World Photo Day and considering that we're celebrating 175 years since the first permanent photographic process was patented and released to the world, we now take more photos than ever before. To be more precise, the number of photos taken by 2014 will be around one trillon, that's a lot of pictures. Hit jump for tips to improve shooting on your iPhone as well as some notable apps, and photographers worth following.

Tips and Tricks

Spot the Light The first and most basic tip in photography is to spot the light and keep it behind you. This will illuminate the subject that you’re trying to capture.

Focus Facial recognition on iPhone 5s is amazing - take advantage of this key feature, always touch the screen on your subject to focus properly.

Rule of Thirds When shooting landscapes or traveling, always remember the rule of thirds: that is, never centre your subject. Enabling the Camera Grid in your iPhone 5s Photos and Camera settings can help you achieve this.

EarPods Did you know that your EarPods can double as a remote button for your camera? Plug your EarPods in, and click on the +- button. 

Burst Mode Burst mode in iPhone 5s continuously captures 10 photos per second, letting you take hundreds of images so you don't miss a single look from the runway. From the Camera app, just tap and hold the shutter. Favorites are automatically selected but you can also choose your own.

Panorama Capture the entire runway in a single shot with the Panorama feature in your iPhone’s Camera app. Just tap the arrow on the righthand side in the Camera app to take the panorama from right to left. 

Camera app + Filters Quickly and easily switch between formats including—video, photo, square and panorama—with just a swipe. Pick one of eight Apple-designed filters and see it live before you take the shot. If you want to change it later, no problem.

True Tone flash Capture vibrant colors on the runway in their purest form with the new True Tone flash on iPhone 5s, which determines just the right balance of ambient light versus flash for more natural-looking skin tones. The result is a beautiful shot with more true-to-life colors. 

iCloud Photo Sharing Create shared streams to share photos and videos with selected friends and colleagues. They can instantly see the photos that you are taking, post their own photos, videos, and comments to your streams, and it all appears on everyone’s iOS devices — automatically.

Social Media Sharing photos on social media has never been easier than with iPhone. With the Photos app for iOS, Moments, Collections, and Years — smart groupings of your photos and videos based on time and place — make it faster and easier to scroll down all of the incredible photos you’ve taken and share to Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.

More Tips 

Set the Auto Focus and Auto Exposure by pressing and holding anywhere you want on the image

• If the picture is a little dark, tap on a shadow to brighten the exposure

• Want to take a picture while you are recording? Grab it tapping the white circle the left of your record button

• Take video in landscape for the best video capture

iPhone Photography Apps

Use these apps to add a signature touch to the photos you share on World Photo Day that will be sure to make your photos stand out from the crowd!

Slow Shutter Cam ($0.99)

Slow Shutter Cam lets you capture a variety of amazing slow shutter speed effects that you only thought you could get with a DSLR.

ProCam 2 ($1.99)

ProCam 2 offers 17 live lenses and an anti-shake feature to help you capture the best shots

Over ($1.99)

Over is the app for adding text and artwork to your photos. Designed with mobile creatives in mind, Over features standard and custom-made fonts and well-crafted artwork combined with a sleek design, easy-to-use functionality, and immediate sharing ability.

Party! Party! ($0.99)

Party Party is more than your own personal photo booth. It can bring an experience to life with its easy-to-use stop motion feature—layering your photos atop one another to make a looping animation! No matter how you use it, this app is designed to make it simple to capture the fun of any moment.

Mextures ($1.99)

With over 120 hand-picked textures, Mextures gives you endless opportunity to create your signature photo look. For the ultimate finesse add gradients and lightleaks filters to take your photos to the next-level.

Afterlight ($0.99)

Afterlight is the perfect image editing app for quick and straight forward editing. This app offers a simple design, paired with powerful and snappy tools that will give you the look you want in seconds.

VSCO Cam (Free)

VSCO Cam is the premier way to shoot, edit and share your photographs. VSCO Tools allow for fine tuning, with the goal to complement, not define, your photographs. Exposure, Temperature, Contrast, Crop, Rotate, Fade, Vignette and more allow you to define your look.

Litely (Free)

Add gorgeous, film-inspired tones to your photos in seconds. Adjust crop, exposure, sharpness, vibrance & vignette for lovelier photos.

Hipstamatic ($1.99)

Digital photography never looked so analog. Make and share beautiful photography with Hipstamatic. Swap lenses, flashes, and films for hundreds of different effects. Instantly share your best prints to Oggl, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, and Tumblr.

EyeEm (Free)

Shoot, edit, and get creative with your photography using unique filters and effects. Connect with new talents, and discover exciting albums for every topic you can imagine.

Fuzel (Free)

See your photos in motion - Fuzel is the first app ever to let you create animated collages - make photo collages, add music, and see them play out in a fun and stylish fashion.

iPhone Photographers to follow for World Photo Day

What will your next great photo story be? Make sure to follow these iPhone photographers for some added inspiration on World Photo Day!

Julien Heon - @heonphoto 

Julien is a Montreal-based sports and action photographer. He swears by his iPhone 5s, raving about its Camera quality. Having travelled the world for over 10 years, Julien's immortalized landscapes across the globe and captured some of the world’s top athletes at the top of their game.

Matt Barnes - @MattBarnesPhoto 

Toronto-based Juno award-winning photographer and videographer, Matt Barnes has a proclivity towards pop culture influences. Barnes is a self-proclaimed iPhoneography aficionado, taking over 50% of his photographs using iPhone 5s. He’s currently exploring how he can use iPhone 5s for his work in videography as well.

John Lehmann - @JohnLehmann 

John Lehmann is a Vancouver-based travel photographer, capturing historical moments across the globe using his iPhone 5s in his travels. A regular contributor to the Globe and Mail shooting high profile events such as the Olympics, John has had two photo assays published in The Globe and Mail, shot entirely with iPhone. Using the iPhone allows a great deal of creative freedom for Lehmann, who touts the compact and powerful nature of the iPhone as very liberating for professional photographers.

Kevin Lu - @sweatengine 

Kevin is a commercial travel photographer based out of NYC - he became a full-time photographer after quitting his job to travel the US last year with his iPhone in-tow.

Jonathan Griffith - @jonathangriffith 

Jonathan is a designer for the San Diego Padres by day, and an iPhone photographer by night. He uses iPhone 5s to capture the essence of San Diego and his exciting travels.

Alice Gao - @alice_gao 

Alice is a New York based food and lifestyle photographer. Her Instagram is brimming with mouthwatering food snaps and her stylish getups.

Daniel Krieger - @danielkrieger 

Daniel Krieger is an award-winning food, restaurant and portrait photographer based in New York City. His expert eye for light and framing brings an added dimension to each subject—a quality that has made him a go-to resource for local and national outlets such as Esquire, Bon Appetit, Gourmet and GQ.

Jeremy Cowart - @jeremycowart 

Jeremy Cowart is a Nashville based iPhone photographer who was recently named the most Socially Influential Photographers  Jeremy uses social media spaces to express his unique visual creativity, inspiring his followers to rise up for social good.

Austin Mann - @austinmann 

Austin Mann is a photographer + filmmaker + creative who's traveled to over 40 different countries in the last 3 years and has worked with numerous different non-profit organizations to help them better cast their vision worldwide.