An iPhone Is All You Need to Take Dreamy Long-Exposure Vacation Photos

Whether you’re looking for a way to take stunning vacation photos during your spring trip or want to improve your phone photography skills, there’s a creative trick hidden inside your iPhone that’ll transform your everyday images into dreamy long-exposure shots. You don’t need the iPhone 13 Pro or 2022 iPhone SE to take advantage of this feature. It works on any iPhone launched after the iPhone 6.

A long-exposure photograph is any image where the shutter has been intentionally left open long enough to blur the motion in the image. Look up pictures of waterfalls and you’ll undoubtedly see images where the raging torrent of water has been smoothed out into this otherworldly flow — that’s a long exposure.

To take this sort of image with a DSLR camera, you usually need a tripod to keep the camera steady and a filter that blocks out light. This is often required because leaving the shutter open for a second or more can let in too much light, which results in an overexposed shot.

The iPhone uses a different and much more cunning technique, however, that doesn’t require extra equipment. It uses Live Photos, a feature that turns a still image into a short animation by recording a few seconds of video when you fire the shutter.

By analyzing which objects are moving, the iPhone captures the movement and blurs it. It’s also able to recognize what isn’t moving (a rock or a wall, for example) and attempts to keep those objects sharp and in focus. It’s a brilliant method because it lets you capture long-exposure images in even bright mid-day sun without using a tripod or filter. Take that, DSLRs.

Here’s how you can do it.

Know what makes a good long-exposure shot

Not everything works as a long-exposure image. A close-up of a flower blowing in the breeze will just become a blurry mess, while a picture of a static car will just remain, well, static.

What you need is a scene where there are both static and moving elements. Waterfalls are common subjects as the rushing water will be blurred while the rocks all around will remain solid. Any body of water, really, would be a good subject to experiment with.

You can also try busy city streets (remember your social distancing!). The long-exposure effect would keep the buildings and roads sharp and fixed in the image, but the people walking all around will be blurred into ghostly figures, which would look atmospheric and dramatic.

Turn on Live Photos

Getting a long-exposure image requires the movement that’s recorded in a Live Photo, so it’s critical that the mode is activated when shooting. It’s located in the top right of the screen in the camera (when held in portrait orientation) or the top left (in landscape orientation). You’ll see an icon of two circles surrounded by a third dotted circle. If there’s no line through it, then Live Photos is activated. If there’s a line through it, tap the icon and you’ll see the message “Live” appear on-screen in a little yellow box.

Keep steady

Although the iPhone doesn’t require a tripod to get a good long-exposure image, you’ll get the best results if you keep the phone as steady as possible while it’s taking the Live image. I suggest resting the phone against a wall or some other fixed surface while shooting. If you have to hold the phone in your hand, I find that tucking my elbows in toward my body and holding my breath helps decrease motion blur while taking the shot.

It’s a good idea to take multiple shots too, hammering the shutter button while you hold the position. This way you’ll increase your chances of capturing at least one image that’s stable enough to produce an attractive long exposure.

Create the long exposure

Once you’ve captured your Live image, it’s time to transform it into the actual long exposure. An update in iOS 15 has made the process of creating the effect even easier, so if you’ve got your iPhone updated to the latest version, start by opening your image in the gallery app. In the top left you’ll see a small icon saying ‘Live‘ with a small downwards-pointing arrow next to it. Tap the arrow and you’ll have the option to turn the image into a looping gif or, down at the bottom, to create a long exposure.

It’ll take a second or two, but you’ll quickly see how any motion in your shot has been blurred into the dreamy effect you’re after. You can then zoom in to check that it’s still nice and sharp. Feel free to apply the same effect to other photos you took of the same scene, just in case they worked out better.

Those of you on iOS 14 or older, open the image you’ve settled on in your gallery and swipe up. This will bring up a panel called Effects where you can loop the motion in the video into gifs. Swipe to the end of the effects panel though and you’ll see one called Long Exposure. Tap it.

Check your library

Before you dash out to find your nearest waterfall, have a look through your library to see if you already have images that would work. The great thing about using the iPhone’s long exposure tool is that you don’t need to use it while you’re shooting. You can go back and apply it to any long-exposure image you’ve taken up until now.

Perhaps you visited Niagara falls or Havasu Falls in Arizona a few years ago and you happened to have Live Photos activated when taking your shots. You can swipe up and activate long exposure on any of those shots. You can even go into your Live Photos album in your gallery to see all the shots you’ve got on your phone that can be transformed into long exposures. My advice? Put a good podcast on, settle into a comfy chair and see what dreamy shots you can dig out of your library.