Many of us use Live Photos to capture memories in moving photo snippets on our iPhones. But did you know that you can make Live Photos bounce back and forth, similar to the popular boomerang effect in Instagram and Snapchat? Here’s how to do it.
There’s More to Live Photos
Live Photos is a camera feature embedded in iPhones that lets users record short video snippets either side of the photos they snap. This results in a three-second video with audio.
Live Photos is a pretty old feature, debuting in iOS 9 with the release of the iPhone 6S, where Live Photos was one of its flagship features.
A few years later, Apple further upped its game by adding effects on Live Photos. These were released in iOS 11. It’s these effects that let you create a boomerang on your iPhone. Aside from adding effects, you can also edit your Live Photos, use Live Photos as wallpapers, and even convert them into GIFs.
How to Add a Boomerang Effect to Live Photos
Adding an effect to a Live Photo on your iPhone is easy. To begin, take a Live Photo as usual. To do this:
- Open the Camera, then tap the Live Photo icon. The icon turns yellow when it is turned on.
- Tap the shutter button as usual.
Once you’re done taking your Live Photo, go to the Photos app to edit it:
- Open Photos, then select the Live Photo you want to edit.
- Tap the Live Photo icon, then select Bounce.
- Instead of seeing Live above the photo, you’ll see Bounce.
Bounce makes your Live Photo play and then bounce back in reverse on a loop, similar to the popular Boomerang effect on social media platforms like Instagram. Aside from this, there are two other effects you can try out:
- Loop: Instead of having to hard-press a Live Photo to play, this effect plays it on loop. It comes with a motion-blur effect.
- Long Exposure: This mimics the photography trick of using slow shutter speed to blur the moving elements of a photo without affecting the static ones.
Make Live Photos More Awesome
You no longer have to use social media platforms or third-party apps to make boomerangs. Simply snap a Live Photo on your iPhone, then switch it to the Bounce effect in the Photos app. It couldn’t be easier.