iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus: How to Use Live Photos

If you’re getting one of the new iPhones, you’ll be able to turn still images into video.

The
iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which start shipping Friday in the U.S. and
other markets, automatically take three-second videos to accompany your
regular shots, including selfies.

Imagine snapping a shot of your
kid blowing out birthday candles – and getting video showing the flame
going out as everyone sings “Happy Birthday.” Yes, sound is included.
You can also enhance shots of your pets and landscapes, such as a
waterfall.

You need one of the 6s models to capture these “Live Photos,” but older phones are fine for viewing.

This feature takes practice, so check out these tips:

Taking the shot
When
you open the camera app, the iPhone continually records video in the
background, though it’s immediately discarded if you do nothing. When
you snap a shot, the phone saves a second and a half of video leading to
that shot and continues recording until you get three seconds in all.

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Wait
a few seconds before snapping your shot so that the video won’t show
you moving the phone into position. Likewise, resist dropping your
camera right after taking the shot. The phone will detect that movement
with an upcoming software update, so it can stop the video
automatically. For now, wait for a yellow “LIVE” box on the screen to
disappear before moving.

Ask your subjects to hold their pose
longer. If they start moving or talking, the video will show that. The
video will show your flash firing if you use it, so natural lighting is
better.

The still shot is the key part of Live Photos, and video
merely enhances that. Pay attention to perfecting that still shot in
terms of focus, lighting and composition. You don’t need to wait for the
video recording to finish before snapping another shot. Just keep
snapping, as you’d normally do, and the phone will create overlapping
three-second videos automatically.

Viewing and sharing
To
view a Live Photo on your phone, tap and hold the image in the Photos
app. On the Apple Watch, you can view it in its Photos app or as part of
a custom watch face with that image. On Mac computers, go to the Photos
app and move your cursor over the “LIVE” box on the lower left corner.
Your devices need the latest system software – iOS 9 on iPhones and
iPads, watchOS 2 on Apple Watch and El Capitan on the Mac. The Mac
update is coming soon.

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Share Live Photos with family and friends
through the Messages app – as long as they have an Apple device with the
latest system. Otherwise, they’ll just get the still image. Make sure
the message is sent as an iMessage, which will appear blue. If it’s
green, it is a standard text message and won’t have video. You can also
share these through the phone’s iCloud Photo Sharing and AirDrop
features, but not as email. Apple is letting other services such as
Facebook create tools for sharing and viewing as well.

Because Live Photos include audio, don’t share with someone you’ve just gossiped about.

Photo management
The
video part gets turned off when you edit photos. You can get it back,
but you then lose your changes. Make a copy to edit by sending the Live
Photo to yourself using iMessage. Just send it to your Apple ID email
address rather than your phone number.

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You can export Live Photos
to Mac and Windows computers and find video files that work with most
video programs. Quality is lower than usual to save storage. Plus, Apple
hides these files under normal use, so this is mostly for advanced
users.

Each Live Photo takes up about twice the storage of a
regular photo. You can’t delete just the video part, but you can disable
video recording by tapping a yellow circle on the screen. Apple’s
iCloud Photo Library service might free up some storage on your phone,
but you might be better off buying a phone with more storage to begin
with.