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There are times when motion blur can really add interest to a photo. The traditional way to do this is by creating a long exposure photograph by slowing down your shutter speed on your camera. This leaves your shutter open for a longer period of time thereby blurring any movement in the shot while leaving things that don’t move nice and crisp. However, there’s actually a really fun way to achieve pretty good motion blur results on your iPhone without any knowledge of how to change your shutter speed.
All of the images on this post were taken with my iPhone X. In fact, the two above images are the same shot, but one is with the motion blur “cheat” method. So, what’s the secret? The secret is making sure you take the photo in Live Photo Mode. Watch this super short video below to see how it’s done.
In case you prefer it written down or didn’t bother to take the time to watch the video tutorial, here it is again in 4 easy steps!
How to Create Motion Blur on your iPhone
1 – Make sure your iPhone is set to “live photo”. It’s the little symbol that looks like three concentric circles. You’ll know it’s on when it’s yellow.
2 – Compose and take your shot. Make sure you have some movement in the scene. It also helps to have your main subject not moving so that it’s nice and crisp. It’s really helpful to have a small portable tripod anytime you’re taking a long exposure shot. (This isn’t technically long exposure. It’s actually taking a short video and then blending the images together into one composite image making it look like things are blurred.)
3 – After taking your photo, go into your photos and open up the image. Then, swipe up. You’ll be given 4 options; “Live”, “Loop”, “Bounce”, “Long Exposure”. Select “Long Exposure”.
4 – Don’t like how it turned out or would rather just keep it as a normal photo? No problem! You can always undo it or even export the image in multiple modes. How great is that!?
One added benefit of using this method is that you can get great motion blur in the middle of the day using nothing but your phone. Typically, this would require a fair amount of photography knowledge as well as an ND filter.
What’s next? Go out and give it a try! This is a super easy way for you to achieve that “motion blur” effect and we would LOVE to see what you come up with! Be sure to share your results with us and if you’d like to continue getting more content like this, be sure to subscribe or follow our social media channels.
