How to take stunning long exposure photos on your iPhone

2025-04-27 12:08:45admin

As long as you can take Live photos with your iPhone you can turn standard snapshots into artsy long exposure shots.

Every iPhone since the 6s has had the ability to take "Live" photos through Apple's built-in camera. As long as you have the "Live" setting turned on, long exposure stills are only a few taps away.

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Total Time

5 min

What You Need

iPhone

Step 1: First, turn on Live photos.

Take Live photos with the button with concentric and dashed circles on the top of the camera screen. This mode captures the few moments before you take the photo, bringing the still moment briefly to life.

A screenshot of the iOS Photo app with the Live button indicated in yellow.

To get to Live hit the button. Credit: Sasha Lekach / mashable

Step 2: Take a photo, but make sure it's Live.

Hit the shutter button as usual. Try to keep the phone as still as possible since it's capturing the few seconds before while in Live mode.

Step 3: Select the "Long Exposure" effect.

Long exposure mimics the effect of a slow shutter speed. On an iPhone you can't change the shutter speed, but Live photos come with different effects to modify the moving image. Find your Live photo in your camera roll. Scroll down below the photo and you'll come to an "Effects" section. Pick "Long Exposure." If there was any movement during the Live photo it'll show up as blurry or smoothed over.

An iOS photo of yellow California poppy flowers growing in the ground next to pavement taken with long exposure.

Yellow California poppy flowers photographed with iOS Photo's long exposure effect. Credit: Sasha Lekach / Mashable

Step 4: Post your artsy photo skills.

You can save your Live photo with the long exposure effect, or you can go back to your camera roll, scroll to the "Effects" section and take it off. Your choice. There are also bounce, looping, and other effects you can use to modify the image.

SEE ALSO: How to save an iPhone live photo as a video

There are of course third-party apps to get you the same effect, but this is already built into your phone. Artistic eye not included.