iPhone Photography Hack: The Simplest, Cheapest, and Tackiest Accessory That Instantly Improved My Shots

I’ve never been a good riddle solver. In fact, I kind of despise them for their potential multi-interpretational answers. But I’ve got one for you.

What has two loops, costs less than your morning coffee, looks cheap enough to ignore, but can stop your thousand-dollar iPhone from smashing to the ground?

Pretty easy, right? I may have been able to suss this one out had I not created it. But here’s the follow-up riddle, a surprise Part 2, that reveals a secondary and revolutionary additional feature:

What has two loops, weighs almost nothing, looks cheap enough to laugh at, and lets a photographer finally shoot one-handed with a phone?

A wrist strap!

Curious as to why I find wrist straps for mobile phones so compelling, apart from the obvious, self-explanatory reasons? Read on!

Why I Hated DSLR Wrist Straps but Love Them on My iPhone

I always found photographers suspect who used wrist straps, especially if they were running a YouTube channel and confidently giving instructions while their three-thousand-dollar camera kit was strapped into their fists like a hand grenade that could never be thrown once the pin was pulled. Maybe it is because I live in India and often need to untie my neck strap from my wrist so I can throw it back around my neck to climb a ladder, dig into my bag, push through a crowd, or simply change a battery or memory card. A dedicated wrist strap always seemed gimmicky to me. The neck strap was the proper solution. It gave me the option to shoot one-handed when I needed to, like holding an umbrella in the Mumbai monsoon or moving obstacles out of the way while shooting street photography. My preference was always one-handed shooting, but with a neck strap.

Switching to the iPhone for a lot of my personal work changed all of that. With my relative inexperience with mobile photography, shooting one-handed was suddenly off the table. I could do it at home when there was no risk of being bumped, but in the streets during my photography sessions, it felt impossible. It never occurred to me that a wrist strap designed for the job was exactly what I needed. My bias from the DSLR days kept me from thinking like an iPhone photographer. Back then, once a DSLR was tied to my wrist, it had nowhere to go. I could not just slip it into a pocket while I did something else. I would have to unstrap it and bag it, or put it down somewhere. That was never an option in Mumbai’s crowded streets.

Enter the obvious solution that somehow eluded me for months: a simple wrist strap. Not a premium leather one or some clever designer take, but a cheap, stringy version that just does the job. It turns out this little piece of cord makes a huge difference. Wrist straps are great for any Android smartphone too, but the Good Ship Android sailed away from me last year, so for me the revelation landed squarely with the iPhone.

The Easiest Ways to Shoot One-Handed on the iPhone 16 Pro

What surprised me was how useful a wrist strap became for one-handed shooting on the iPhone 16 Pro. The dedicated camera button helps a lot: in landscape mode, it sits in the top right where it is easy to reach, and in vertical shooting, it shifts to the lower right for a natural hold. The regular on-screen shutter button is also accessible with little strain because you can use the wrist strap cords to add or release tension on the fly, which keeps the phone surprisingly stable.

This is where one-handed shooting really comes into play. It is actually much simpler than I am making it sound. Adjusting slack or tension feels natural, even when switching between vertical and horizontal. It becomes as easy as flipping the phone up, down, or to the side.

For those using the dedicated camera button on the iPhone 16 models, the hold could not be easier. Let the phone rest in your palm with your index finger on the camera button. The only caution is that two light double-taps will open the mini menu instead of firing the shutter. Aside from that, it is the simplest and most effective way to use a wrist strap for one-handed shooting with the iPhone 16 Pro.

If you are using another model or brand without a dedicated camera button, you can still get a solid grip and access the on-screen shutter. The hand and finger placement will just be a little different. After experimenting with the phone and wrist strap, I found the most stable hold was to rest the phone on top of your inverted pinky, pointing back toward you. Your index finger then runs along the top edge of the phone, with the fingerprint side facing you. This setup gives your thumb a direct and comfortable way to press the shutter without any finger gymnastics. Without a wrist strap, this hold feels sketchy and unsafe. With a wrist strap, it locks into place, giving you stability and a sense of ease that makes one-handed shooting feel natural and secure.

How to Attach a Wrist Strap to Your iPhone Case

Most wrist straps attach through the small cutout loop on a case, usually near the bottom corner where the charging port is. For the record, the wrist strap does not block access, and I can still plug in a cord without any trouble. To attach it, feed the thin strap cord through the loop, then pull the strap back through its own opening to lock it in place. The whole process takes about ten seconds, and once it is secure, it will not budge. If your case does not have a strap cutout, you will need one that does.

The Tacky Little Strap That Changed Everything

I used to roll my eyes at wrist straps. They looked gimmicky, the kind of thing YouTubers flex while dangling three-thousand-dollar cameras from their fists like props. For DSLRs, I was right. They slowed me down and never fit the way I worked. But on a smartphone, I had it all wrong.

This cheap, stringy cord gave me back something I did not even realize I had lost: the ability to shoot one-handed without feeling like I was gambling with gravity. On the iPhone 16 Pro, the strap turns that dedicated camera button into a joy. Even the regular on-screen shutter suddenly feels natural because the strap takes the sketchy wobble out of the hold. What once felt unsafe now feels like second nature.

It is tacky. It is cheap. It looks like something that came free with a kid’s toy at the bottom of a box of sugary cereal. But it has completely changed the way I shoot. In a market full of overpriced “pro” accessories that overpromise and underdeliver, this scrappy little cord quietly does the job. Who knew the best iPhone photography upgrade I would make this year would cost less than my morning coffee — unless Apple decides to sell one themselves, in which case it will probably run you $150.