How To Use The Live Photo Feature For Long
A Live Photo is a short iPhone moving picture. Your iPhone captures the audio and video 1.5 seconds before and after you tap the shutter button to snap a photo. You can do all kinds of things with a Live Photo, even ! When Apple added the Live Photos features, they included the ability to turn a Live Photo into a long-exposure photo, mimicking the effect of a long-duration shutter speed in a traditional camera. Long-exposure photos are often used when the photographer wants to see motion blurs or light trails, or to capture low-light scenes. Surely youve seen those beautiful photos with stars forming circles in the sky or a river with water that looks like smokethose are photos that used long-exposure photography.
For more great tutorials on how to edit photos on iPhone, check out our free Tip of the Day.
Check How To Take Long Exposure Photos On iPhone
In normal photography where your camera is in auto or semi-auto exposure mode, youre probably working with a shutter speed between 1/60 second and 1/4000 second. These shutter speeds cover most normal situations, from bright midday sunlight to occasional indoor shots. Long exposure photography uses a much slower shutter speed and is usually used as a special technique to achieve a particular effect. There is no definite transition point where the shutter speed is long enough to call your shots long exposure photography.
A slow shutter speed helps us follow the pattern of time and see things in a different way than we are used to. Seeing things differently naturally intrigues us, and thats an important factor in creating a compelling image. To achieve long exposure times during the day, it is often necessary to use a neutral density filter on the lens to attenuate the light entering the lens. With less light entering the lens, the shutter speed must be much slower to achieve the same exposure. In this article, we will show you how to take long exposure photos using your iPhone.
What Is Long Exposure Used For
photo by borchee via iStock
There are two main reasons I like using long exposure techniques, motion blur and astrophotography. If youve been following Photography Talk for any length of time, you know that I am a huge fan of blurred water effects and of making night sky images.
Blurred water effects can turn a beautiful landscape image into a special work of art. Whether a river, stream, waterfall, or wave-filled ocean, blurred water technique transforms the water into a very different scene.
We see most water movement in a unique way with our own eyes. We see an endless stream of still images of the water, noticing the individual poses of water as well as the entirety of the scene in motion.
Though photography mimics how our brain interprets the information our eyes provide and allows us to see and understand what is in front of us, it cant capture exactly how our eye-brain connection functions.
photo by jamesvancouver via iStock
We can also use this same method to blur the motion of clouds in a scene. Which I find interesting since clouds are actually made of water vapor, so cloud blurring is still water blurring. Oceanside scenic images can include water blurring of the waves as well as any blurring of cloud movement.
photo by bjdlzx via iStock
photo by CHUNYIP WONG via iStock
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How To Take Long Exposure Photos On iPhone
If you want to take good photos on your iPhone, youll need to try some hidden features, such as long exposure. Heres how.
One forgotten feature built into your iPhone camera is the long exposure photography feature. Long exposure involves leaving the cameras shutter open for an extended time. Its suitable for taking shots of many things, notably rivers, waterfalls, moving lights at night, or other flowing water.
You dont need the latest version of the iPhone to get this featureyou can use long-exposure photography on an iPhone 6 and higher. Still, long exposure doesnt work as youd think on iPhone. If you want to take long exposure photos on an iPhone, heres what youll need to do.
Procam 8 For Professionals
If youre not new to the world of photography and know your way around the camera, the ProCam 8 is the app you should get. It offers more control over the camera, and since youre already well-versed with manual controls, it opens more doors to your iPhone photography.
Price: $9.99
If none of these make the cut, check out our these best manual camera apps for iPhone. Youll certainly find what youre looking for!
Thats it!
I hope this article helps you capture long-exposure images on your iPhone. What images do you plan on capturing now that you know how to take long-exposure images? Let me know in the comments below.
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Final Words: How To Take Long Exposure Photos On iPhone
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Take Long Exposure Photos On iPhone
While photos usually turn out better when using a tripod, you can use it while handheld.
To take a long-exposure photo on iPhone, youll need to first launch the Camera app on your iPhone. Once youve done that, enable Live Photos by tapping the icon at the top of the viewfinder.
After pressing it, the line through the icon will disappear and show that its on.
Now that Live Photos is enabled, get your shot ready and remain steady. iPhone doesnt require a tripod, but you want to stay still for the best results. One tip is to hold your phone next to a wall or other fixed structure to remain steady. Also, take several shots until you get the best one.
Once you have your live image, you can transfer it to long exposure, thanks to an update with iOS 15. To do this, open the image you took in the gallery app.
On the top left, youll see a small Live icon with an arrow pointing downwardtap on it. A menu appears with different images for the image. At the bottom, select Long Exposure.
It takes a moment to process, and youll see how it blurs motion on your photo. Try other shots you took in the exact location to see if you can get a better effect.
Its also worth noting that you can go back through your photo archive to find other shots that will work. The good thing is you dont need it while youre taking the picture. So, for example, if youve taken photos of waterfalls or a flowing river with the Live feature, you can add the long exposure feature to those images.
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Shoot Without A Tripod For Cool Motion Effects
You dont always have to place your iPhone on a tripod when shooting long exposures. If you want to experiment with different effects, you can take it off and see what you get.
Of course, you can always swirl the camera around while taking a long exposure shot. But you can also try other methods that can give you somewhat more predictable results.
For instance, you can swipe your camera in one direction while the shutter is open so you can create straight lines. Or you can also shoot as youre walking towards your subject.
Doing so creates a double image. It looks like you were zooming in as you were taking the shot.
No matter what you choose to do, dont be afraid to make mistakes. Its a great way to learn how long exposure works and gain more control over the process.
How Are These Types Of Photos
In the world of photography it is known that long exposure is the technique of keeping the shutter open for a certain period of time, this means that during that period of time the camera is capturing everything that happens, therefore, if there is movement, it will also capture it. To carry out this technique with professional cameras, you must have certain knowledge of photography and play with the shutter speed to obtain the result you are looking for, something that obviously is not within the reach of all users.
One of the advantages of having an iPhone is the great photographic capacity that this device grants to all its users, and an example of this is long exposure photography, since you will not need to have a professional camera or know what photography is. shutter speed to get a long exposure image.
As we have mentioned, long exposure photographs are characterized by capturing the movement of certain elements . The most characteristic examples are those in which the water of a river or a waterfall appears as a smooth layer that seems to be in motion. Also those photographs in which many lights are seen traveling along a road, the result of the movement of cars.
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You Can Take Stunning Long
It’s easy to take gorgeous long-exposure shots of rivers or waterfalls with an iPhone 13 or earlier iPhone.
Andrew Lanxon
Lead Editor, CNET Advice, Europe Lead Photographer, Europe
Andrew is CNET’s go-to guy for product coverage and lead photographer for Europe. When not testing the latest phones, he can normally be found with his camera in hand, behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food. Sometimes all at once.
If you’ve looked at arty pictures of waterfalls or rivers then you’ll no doubt have seen those creative long-exposure shots where the water is intentionally blurred but the surroundings — the rocks, trees etc — remain pin-sharp. It’s a great technique to give the impression of motion in a still image and it used to be something you’d need a DSLR with filters and tripods to take. But a neat feature built right into the iPhone’s camera lets you take shots that look just as good. You don’t need the iPhone 13 Pro or 2022 iPhone SE to take advantage of this feature. It works on any iPhone launched after the iPhone 6.
Read more: Phone Photography 101: Take Amazing Photos With Any Phone
A standard image taken with the iPhone 11 Pro and the same image, with the long-exposure mode enabled .
Here’s how you can do it.
How To Keep And Revert Long Exposure Photos
If you like the long exposure shot, you’re done. Just close the image and that’s the one that will show when you next open it up or when you share that image to someone else.
As it’s calculated from multiple shots taken under Live Photo, though, there are two extra benefit. One is that you can undo the long exposure to go back to regular.
And the other is that this works with any Live Photo you’ve ever taken.
To undo long exposure, reverse the steps above. Open the image, swipe to get the image options, then swipe across to go back to where it says Live.
One thing to note is that when the iPhone turns a Live Photo into a long exposure one, it reduces the size of the image. It doesn’t crop in close, though, you’re not losing visible parts of the frame, but it does make a smaller image.
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How To Convert Your iPhone Live Photos Into Long Exposure Photos
Posted by Becki RobinsComments 5
Do you want to create stunning long exposure photos with a beautiful motion blur effect? While there are specialist iPhone apps for this, theres actually a long exposure feature built right into the iPhone Camera app. All you need to do is shoot a Live Photo and then convert it to a long exposure! In this article, youll learn how to achieve this jaw-dropping effect using the Live Photos long exposure feature on your iPhone.
Experiment With Nd Filters To Take Daytime Long Exposures
In most cases, long exposure only works in low lighting. If you shoot iPhone long exposures during the day, youll often end up with overexposed images.
But what if you need to take photos when the suns out? Youll need to use Neutral Density filters. Think of them as sunglasses for your camera to block the light.
ND filters come in different optical densities, which affects how much light they let through. For example, ND2 has an optical density of 0.3. This is equivalent to 1 f-stop reduction. ND4 has an optical density of 0.6 and 2 f-stop reductions and so on.
To keep it simple, remember that the higher the number, the less light that gets through.
There are special ND filters for smartphones that range from ND2 to ND400. But you can also use regular ND filters used for full-size cameras.
They wont fit on your phones camera lens since theyre meant to fit larger lenses. But you can always hold them up to your lens while taking photos.
In most cases, anything between ND16 to ND64 is enough to create a long exposure image in daylight. On an overcast day, ND16 would be sufficient. But you might need ND64 or higher if you shoot in bright sunlight.
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What Is Long Exposure
Have you ever noticed the way crashing waves or waterfalls look silky smooth in some photographs? Or the way some photos capture the hustle and bustle of a city scene by showing the movement of cars and people, while the background remains crisp? These are examples of long exposure photography, and they are captured using slow shutter speed and a tripod to reduce camera shake. To achieve the long exposure effect using a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you would set your shutter speed to somewhere between 1/15 and 30 seconds, depending on the effect youre after.
Night Mode Camera Apps: To Simulate A Long Exposure In Low Light Conditions
Instead of using a long exposure to photograph nightly scenes, you may want to try a night mode camera app that simulates a long exposure at night.
ProCamera app was one of the first iPhone camera apps to introduce such a special low light mode.
These night mode camera apps work similarly to what Slow Shutter Cam App and Live Photos do. They take a series of differently exposed photos and merge them into a single, low noise, and well-exposed photo that simulates a long exposure taken at night. However, night mode camera apps won’t allow you to capture light trails at night.
Here’s such a photo taken using the Low Light mode of ProCamera App. It’s the view from the Shard in London.
Pro Camera Low Light Mode simulates a long expose for low light situations
Apple followed the lead and released a special night mode with iOS 13 and the iPhone 11. However, when Apple introduced night mode, it only worked with the standard wide-angle lens of the iPhone 11. Even with the iPhone 12 Pro, night mode only works with the standard and ultra-wide lens – but not with the telephoto lens.
If you try to use iOS night using the telephoto lens, then the iPhone’s cheating. It will use the wide lens with digital zoom.
Here’s a photo of a railroad bridge in Bratislava, Slovakia, that I took using iOS night mode camera.
iPhone night mode camera simulating a long exposure
To learn more about iOS night mode, check the iPhone night mode review I’ve published in the blog.
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Live Photos: The Most Convenient Way For Long Exposure Photography With iPhone
Since iOS 11, you can convert such a 3-second Live Photo to a long exposure photo. The results are pretty neat. Here’s an example of such a Live Photo I converted to a long exposure on an iPhone 11 Pro.
Live Photo Long Exposure of a streetcar entering a tunnel
I tend to use Live Photos for long exposure photography in good light conditions, and if I don’t want to use my tripod because Live Photos use the iPhone’s image stabilization.
But there are some disadvantages of using Live Photos for long exposure photography that you should be aware of. And the first one is image stabilization.
Suppose you don’t hold the iPhone steady while it takes the Live Photo. In that case, Photos App will crop the resulting photo if you convert it to a long exposure because of the image stabilization. Thus you’ll end up with a slightly lower image resolution, meaning: fewer pixels.
I still see this effect with modern iPhones like the iPhone 12 Pro Max, though it’s not as strong as it used to be with older iPhone models.
Second, you’re limited to a shutter speed of 3 seconds, which you can’t change or adjust. Sure, you can crop the 3-second video clip and create a long exposure from that shorter clip. But my results with that process were mixed.
So, let’s see it this way: Live Photos are a great way to capture long exposure snapshots. If I should provide three reasons why to use Live Photos for long exposure photography with iPhone, these are: