How to Use Live Photo Effects to Capture Action Photos with iPhone or iPad
Action shots can be some of the more difficult to capture moments for photographers, but the Live Photos feature on iPhone and iPad makes the job easier. Plus with the help of the new Live Photos Effects capabilities, you can add a looping or bouncing effect to the images, which makes the task of capturing some memorable action imagery simpler than ever.
The Live Photos Effects feature can be particularly great for taking interesting pictures of fireworks too, since fireworks can pose a unique challenge to photographers. We’ve covered some other tips for for taking photos of fireworks with iPhone as well as recording video of fireworks with the iPhone camera, so check out those tips as well.
Read on to learn how to use the Live Photos Effects feature with an iPhone or iPad camera.
You’ll need to have Live Photos enabled while taking pictures on the iPhone or iPad to be able to use the Live Photos Effects. So before getting started don’t forget to toggle the feature back on, particularly if you had disabled it for whatever reason.
How to Use Live Photos Effects on iPhone or iPad for Interesting Action Shots
We’re going to focus on the two action shot oriented Live Photos Effects here, though the third option is long exposure is also great but perhaps less relevant for this style of photography.
- Open the iPhone or iPad camera as usual, then make sure Live Photos is currently enabled
- With your subject of action in view, take a Live Photos picture with the iOS camera
- Now open the “Photos” app on the iPhone or iPad and navigate to the Live Photo you just captured of the action
- Swipe up on the photo to reveal the “Effects” section, then select the desired live photo effect:
- Loop – turns the Live Photo into a constantly repeating loop in sequential order
- Bounce – turn the Live Photo into a repeating loop that goes back and forth, with playback in forward and reverse
- Tapping either thumbnail will set that Live Photos Effect to that picture
Play around with both effects to see which you like best for the photo.
That’s all there is to it! The effect takes a moment to render and then you can watch it repeatedly. You can change it again at anytime however by swiping back up on that Live Photo and switching the effect to another, like Bounce, Loop, or even the Long Exposure option.
It’s fun to experiment with the Live Photos Effects, I personally prefer the “Bounce” effect because I think it works a bit better overall, but the “Loop” effect is also pretty great. It really just depends on the action you are snapping and what the subject is. Try out both, and don’t forget to try using Long Exposure Effect with the iPhone or iPad Live Photos too though Long Exposure tends to work best with something like moving water or moving cars.
If you share the Live Photos Effects image in Loop or Bounce mode, it will either send as a Live Photo to the recipient, or as a .mov movie file, or as an animated GIF, depending on how you send the image and who you share it with. If you don’t want that ambiguous nature involved, you can always convert the Live Photo to an animated GIF using an iPhone app beforehand.
The Loop and Bounce effects look pretty great for any action shot, whether it’s a person or animal jumping around, participating in sports or any other kind of movement, and even for more mundane scenes like people smiling or pulling a goofy facial expression since it will loop the sequence. Loop and Bounce Live Photos Effects also work great and look great with many firework photographs too, so if you’re capturing a celebration for Independence Day, or any other event, you’ll have a neat way of capturing the moment.
Have fun! And if you have any other tips or tricks for using Live Photos Effects with the iPhone or iPad camera, share them with us in the comments below.
