Been thinking a lot about upgrading my 2 year old phone after seeing how awesome the iPhone XS cameras are. But after tinkering around with my iPhone 7, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I’m not using my iPhone camera to it’s fullest potential. With these new settings it might be enough to hold me off another year!

Better, Smoother Videos

I almost always prefer taking videos over photos. Sure they’re a little more difficult to consume and share, but they’re also more lively, genuine, fun to watch. Finn loves watching vids of himself!

I recently found out that the default video setting on my phone is 1080p HD at 30 fps (frames per second). That’s sounds good at first, but there are two higher quality settings available to me.

Go to Settings -> Camera -> Record Video to see the options.

1080p HD at 60 fps offers the same resolution with double fps. Higher frame rates are something you see in action packed video games. But when you turn on this setting, the motion in the video looks buttery smooth. It’s the one I’m using.

4K at 30 fps. I had no idea you could shoot 4K video on an iPhone. You won’t be able to notice this high of a resolution on an older iPhone like mine, but 4K TV’s and monitors are more common now, so why not? Here one reason not to: your videos will take up 3-4x more space on your phone. So watch out!

Edit Live Photos

Live Photos have been a thing on iOS for awhile now, and I’m a fan. If you’ve never heard of this feature, it basically takes a little video every time you take a photo. When you look at your photo it just looks still, but if you press and hold, it plays the video. It adds a little life to the experience.

What I didn’t know was that you can use a different frame from the video as your photo. So if you have a blurry or mistimed photo, you might be able to edit it to the right moment and save the day.

Here’s mis-timed picture of Finn at daycare. Finn Original

But a Live Photo actually records a mini video. Finn Original GIF

On my phone I can hit edit and select the frame I want, and I found a couple options I like better.

Finn Edit 1

Finn Edit 2

Obvious improvements!

There are a ton of websites that give iPhone photography tips. Shoot me a message if you have any more!