How to take long exposure photographs on an iPhone

Have you ever wanted to take those impressive photos with the smooth water or vehicle light trails? You may think these require a fancy DSLR or mirrorless camera, but smartphone camera systems and computational photography are getting so good that even mobile devices can handle these shots to a certain degree. Are you rocking an Apple device? Today we’ll show you how to take long exposure photographs on an iPhone.

Editor’s note: We used an iPhone 12 Mini running iOS 16.1.1. Remember some steps may differ depending on your iPhone model and software version.

What is a long exposure photograph?

A long exposure photograph is an image taken with a longer shutter speed. When any camera shoots an image, it allows light to enter the sensor for a pre-determined amount of time. This is often in the hundredths or thousandths of a second. Elongating the shutter speed will create what we know as a long exposure image.

People like quick shutter speeds because they make for much sharper pictures with no motion blur. They “freeze the moment,” so to speak. Prolonged exposure can soften images or create motion blur, especially when handholding the camera or shooting a moving subject, often for multiple seconds. A long exposure photograph can create very interesting effects if you do them correctly, though.

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Have you ever seen those photos with the traffic light streaks? Those are long exposure images. Then there are also the gorgeous pictures with the softened flowing water.

The only tip we can give you is that, while computational photography and merging helps, a long exposure is still subject to blur with movement. You will need to keep the camera (in this case, the iPhone) as steady as possible. Whether you use a tripod or set the device somewhere, just make sure to keep it as still as possible.

Here are some samples of long-exposure photographs:

How to take long exposure shots by using Live Photos

Apple iPhone users have a straightforward way to create long exposure photographs. iPhones can do this using the Live Photos feature, which comes on any iPhone 6s or newer Apple smartphone. Here’s how to do it.

1. Launch the Camera app.
2. Make sure Live Photos is turned on. It’s the circular icon in the top-right corner.
3. Shoot the photo as you usually would.
4. Open the photo in the stock Apple Photos app.
5. Expand the section that says Live.
6. Select Long Exposure.

Here’s a comparison between a regular iPhone image and a long exposure one:

What’s the best iPhone app for long exposure photography

If you’re looking to make an actual long exposure image, the stock iPhone camera app won’t be of much help. You’ll have to rely on a more advanced manual camera app that will actually allow you to elongate the shutter speed. If you don’t know how to do that, we have a guide on using manual mode on your smartphone camera.

If you’re looking to get something free, we recommend Lightroom Mobile. It’s technically a photo editing app, but it features a built-in manual camera that works amazingly. The only downside is that you’re limited to one-second exposures. You can’t go longer than that. That said, it’s an incredibly powerful tool, and we have a full guide on using it.

If you don’t mind paying some cash, we also like ProCamera and Slow Shutter Cam.

Read more: 8 smartphone photography tips guaranteed to produce instant results

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