I Love This Hidden iPhone Camera Trick for Stunning Long-Exposure Photos

If you’ve got ever seen creative images of waterfalls or rivers the place the water is blurred to appear to be flowing ribbons, you then already know the attractive impact of a protracted publicity picture. By permitting shifting topics in a scene to grow to be blurred, it creates an amazing sense of movement, particularly when these blurry topics are contrasted in opposition to static components corresponding to rocks or bushes. While this system used to require a cumbersome DSLR, filters and a tripod to attain shutter speeds over a number of seconds, now you can obtain a lot the identical end result utilizing simply your iPhone. 

You do not even want the most recent iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max to make the most of this characteristic. It works on any iPhone launched after the iPhone 6.

Read extra: Take Your Best-Ever Photos With Your iPhone

The method makes use of Live Photos, a characteristic that turns a nonetheless picture into a brief animation by recording a couple of seconds of video whenever you hearth the shutter. By analyzing which objects are shifting, the iPhone captures the motion and blurs it. It’s additionally in a position to acknowledge what is not shifting (a rock or a wall, for instance) and makes an attempt to maintain these objects sharp and in focus. This allows you to seize long-exposure pictures in even vivid noon solar with out utilizing a tripod or filter. Take that, DSLRs. 

Here’s how you are able to do it.

Know what makes an excellent long-exposure shot

Not every thing works as a long-exposure picture. An in depth-up of a flower blowing within the breeze will simply grow to be a blurry mess, whereas an image of a static automotive will stay, nicely, static. 

What you want is a scene the place there are each static and shifting components. Waterfalls are frequent topics, because the dashing water shall be blurred whereas the encircling rocks will stay strong. Any physique of water, actually, can be an excellent topic to experiment with. 

You can even strive busy metropolis streets. The long-exposure impact retains the buildings and roads sharp and glued within the picture, however the individuals strolling throughout shall be blurred into ghostly figures, which appears atmospheric and dramatic. 

Turn on Live Photos

Getting a long-exposure picture requires the motion that is recorded in a Live Photo, so it’s vital that that mode is activated when capturing. It’s situated within the high proper of the display screen within the digicam (when held in portrait orientation) or the highest left (in panorama orientation). You’ll see an icon of two circles surrounded by a 3rd dotted circle. If there isn’t any line by way of it, then Live Photos is activated. If there is a line by way of it, faucet the icon and you will see the message “Live” seem onscreen in a bit yellow field. 

Keep regular

Although the iPhone would not require a tripod to get an excellent long-exposure picture, you may get the most effective outcomes in the event you preserve the telephone as regular as potential whereas it is taking the Live picture. I recommend resting the telephone in opposition to a wall or another mounted floor whereas capturing. If you need to maintain the telephone in your hand, I discover that tucking my elbows in towards my physique and holding my breath helps lower movement blur whereas taking the shot. 

It’s a good suggestion to take a number of pictures too, hammering the shutter button whilst you maintain the place. This method you may improve your probabilities of capturing at the least one picture that is steady sufficient to provide a pretty lengthy publicity.

Create the lengthy publicity

Once you’ve got captured your Live picture, it is time to rework it into the precise lengthy publicity. Start by opening your picture within the gallery app. In the highest left you may see a small icon saying Live with a small downward-pointing arrow subsequent to it. Tap the arrow and you will have the choice to show the picture right into a looping GIF, a bouncing GIF that performs forwards then backwards or, down on the backside, a protracted publicity. 

It’ll take a second or two, however you may rapidly see how any movement in your shot has been blurred into the dreamy impact you are after. You can then zoom in to verify that it is nonetheless good and sharp. Feel free to use the identical impact to different images you took of the identical scene, simply in case they labored out higher. 

If you occur to nonetheless be on iOS 14 or older, open the picture you’ve got settled on in your gallery and swipe up. This will carry up a panel referred to as Effects the place you’ll be able to loop the movement within the video into GIFs. Swipe to the tip of the consequences panel although and you will see one referred to as Long Exposure. Tap it. But you actually ought to replace your telephone to a more moderen model.   

Make long-exposure images from present Live pictures

Have a glance by way of your library to see if you have already got different pictures that might work for long-exposure images. The wonderful thing about utilizing the iPhone’s long-exposure software is that you just need not use it whilst you’re capturing. You can return and apply it to any Live picture you’ve got taken up till now. 

Perhaps you visited Niagara Falls in New York or Havasu Falls in Arizona a couple of years in the past and also you occurred to have had Live Photos activated when taking your pictures. You can swipe up and activate lengthy publicity on any of these pictures. You may even go into your Live Photos album in your gallery to see all of the pictures you’ve got obtained in your telephone that may be reworked into lengthy exposures. My recommendation? Put an excellent podcast on, settle into a snug chair and see what dreamy pictures you’ll be able to dig out of your library. 

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