With the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, Apple has finally managed to deliver an iPhone that challenges other flagship Android smartphones in the camera department. The new iPhones pack some significant camera enhancements and features. While most iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro users will already know about the new Night mode, there are a lot of other camera settings that you must know about.
As Apple has continued adding new camera features and settings to its Camera app, it has become a bit difficult to keep track of them all. This means most users will likely stay unaware of them. If you want to make the most out of your iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro’s camera, check out five camera settings that must know about.
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro Camera Settings You Must Know About
5. Record 4K Videos and Auto Low-Light FPS
When Apple announced the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, it made a huge deal about the fact that one could record 4K videos@60fps from any of the two/three camera lenses of the phones. While quite a few other smartphones in the market offer a triple camera system, none of them allow users to record videos at 4k@60fps from all of them.
So it is puzzling to see the new iPhones still ship with 1080p as the default video recording resolution. To change the video recording resolution on your iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, go to Settings -> Camera -> Record Video. From here, select the 4K at 30fps or 4K at 60fps option. My recommendation would be to stick to recording 4K videos at 30fps since that way you will also be able to take advantage of the Auto Low-Light FPS option.
With this feature enabled, your iPhone will automatically reduce the frame rate from 30fps to 24fps to improve the video quality in low-light situations.
4. Capture Photos Outside of Frame
When you take a photo from the primary camera of your iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, it also simultaneously captures a photo from the ultra wide-angle camera when it deems it necessary. You don’t get to see the ultra-wide angle photo, but Apple stores it for 30 days and it can come in extremely handy when you want to readjust the framing of a photo.
When you use the crop, straighten, and perspective tools of the built-in photo editor, you will gain access to the ultra wide-angle photo which will then allow you to reframe the photo as you like. In some scenarios, your iPhone will automatically adjust a photo using content captured from the ultra wide-angle camera to improve it further. Such photos will have a blue Auto badge on their top-right corner.
This feature is also available for QuickTake videos. You can find the Capture Outside the Frame options under Settings -> Camera.
3. Deep Fusion
Ok, technically, this feature is not yet live, but it will be available for iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro users once the iOS 13.2 update lands. Deep Fusion will significantly improve the amount of details captured in photos. However, it only works in lightning conditions where it is just bright enough for Night mode to not kick in. It also does not work in outdoor, extremely bright scenarios since Smart HDR kicks in then.
Deep Fusion is basically going to be useful while taking indoor photos where Night mode won’t work and Smart HDR is not going to be useful. The catch with Deep Fusion is that there’s no toggle to enable/disable it.
Another issue with Deep Fusion is that it will not work when the Capture Photos Outside of Frame option is enabled. You must disable the latter if you want Deep Fusion to work.
2. Change Aspect Ratio
This might seem silly to many but most creative folks would like to play around with different aspect ratios before taking a photo. It might seem like a small deal but it helps people with an artistic viewpoint. With more and more features being added to the camera app, the option to change the aspect ratio is now a bit difficult to find on the iPhone 11’s camera app.
Open the Camera app on your iPhone and tap the arrow located on the action bar at the top. This will reveal some buttons on the bottom action bar right above the shutter button. You should see a 4:3 icon, tap on it and select the aspect ratio of your choice.
1. Play Around with Night Mode
One of the key new camera features of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro is the new Night mode. It greatly helps improve the overall quality of photos taken in low-light scenarios. Depending on the lighting conditions, Night mode triggers itself automatically. However, do you know that you can customize some aspects of Night mode as well?
By default, the Night mode on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro will automatically select the best exposure time depending on the scene. If you wish to, you can increase (or decrease) the exposure time to tweak the final image output. Also, don’t be envious of the Astrophotography mode found on the Google Pixel 4. Simply prop your iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro on a tripod and the maximum exposure time will increase to 30s.
Read more about Night mode and how to use it on your iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro here.
What are some of your favorite iPhone 11 camera features that you use a lot? Drop a comment and let us know about it!
