How to take better Live Photos on iPhone

Live Photos on iPhone capture a few seconds of motion before and after you take a photo—creating a little clip that adds life to your photo. But these photos don't always live up to expectations. Here are some tips to improve your Live Photo experience!

1. Use a tripod

Steady shots are essential to getting a high-quality Live Photo. Even the slightest shake or movement can blur the image. To prevent this, use a tripod to keep your phone steady or place it on a stable surface. When the light is low, the shutter needs to stay open longer to capture enough light; any movement during this time can distort the image.

In situations like concerts or crowded places where using a tripod may not be practical, hold your phone with both hands and keep your elbows close to your body for stability.

2. Adjust focus and exposure

Just like a regular photo, you can adjust the focus and exposure of a Live Photo. This is useful in varied lighting conditions or when highlighting a specific subject.

To adjust the focus, tap the screen and a yellow box will appear around that area. You can drag this square to change the focus point. In addition to the yellow box, you'll see a sun icon with a small slider to adjust the exposure; slide it up to increase the exposure or down to decrease it.

If you tap and hold on the screen, you'll see a yellow AE/AF LOCK banner at the top. This will lock the focus and exposure so you can reposition the camera without losing your settings. Then, scroll your finger up or down to adjust the exposure.

3. Add effects to Live Photo

You can add effects to your Live Photo. There are four options available: Loop, Now, Long Exposure, and Live: Off. Here's what each option does.

• Loop : Turns a Live Photo into a continuous loop that plays over and over again. It creates GIF-like animations or highlights from a live photo.
• Bounce : Similar to the Repeat effect but on repeat. It basically adds fun animations like a boomerang.
• Long Exposure : This is an artistic effect that captures motion blur in a still image. It looks great on rivers, car lights at night, and waterfalls.
• Live: Off : If you want to turn off the Live Photo effect completely, select this option. It turns your live photo into a regular still photo.

To use these effects, open a Live Photo in the Photos app. In the top left, you'll see Live (two overlapping circles); tap it to open the effects menu. Then, select the effect you want and it will be applied to your photo.

4. Set a unique main photo

The main photo is the still photo that appears in your photo library before you tap Live Photo. This is also what you'll see if you've synced your Live Photos to other devices.

Sometimes the automatically generated key photo isn’t the best. For example, you blinked or made an awkward expression when you took a Live Photo. Or, you might have taken a group photo and the main photo has someone not looking at the camera. In those cases, you can choose and set a different key photo.

To choose a different main photo, open the photo in Photos and tap Edit in the upper right. Next, tap Live at the bottom (the one with three interlocking circles). You'll now see a timeline of all the frames in your Live Photo.

Scroll through to find the frame you want to use as your key photo. The white dot above it shows your current key photo. Then tap Set as key photo just above the key frame. When you're finished, tap Done in the top right corner. The Live Photo thumbnail now shows your new key photo.

If you want, you can also restore the original main photo. To do this, open the Live Photo and tap the three dots in the upper right corner. From the menu, select Restore Original . This will remove all edits and restore the Live Photo to its original state.

5. Crop Live Photo

Sometimes Live Photos capture moments you don’t want to include. For example, you’ve captured a beautiful landscape with birds flying across the frame, but someone walks in and ruins the shot. In cases like this, you can crop your Live Photo to remove unwanted frames. However, this cropping can only be done at the beginning and end of the Live Photo; frames in between can’t be removed.

To crop a Live Photo, open it in Photos and tap Edit. Next, tap Live at the bottom to access the timeline. At the bottom of the timeline, you'll see vertical bars with white arrows; these indicate where your Live Photo starts and ends.

Drag these bars to the frames you want to keep. Anything outside of these bars will be cropped off. Next, tap Done in the upper right corner to save your changes. The Live Photo will now be cropped and the thumbnail will reflect these changes.

To restore the original photo with all frames intact, open the photo in Photos, tap the three dots, and select Restore Original .

6. Turn Live Photo into video

Did you know you can convert Live Photos to video? This feature is ideal for sharing Live Photos on social media platforms that don't support its format.

To turn a Live Photo into a video, open it in Photos and tap the three dots. From the menu, select Save as video . This will save the Live Photo as a video to your camera roll.

7. Find the right time

Even with these tricks, you can still get dull or uninteresting photos. Since Live Photos capture movement, timing is important—you have to pick the moment that really matters. For example, when taking a photo of someone jumping, tap the shutter button right before they jump so that the Live Photo captures their preparation and actual jump.

Here are some tips and tricks for taking and editing Live Photos on iPhone. Remember that Live Photos don't just capture a moment, they capture the emotion and action around it. So try these scenarios and see how your Live Photos come to life.