Take night mode photos with your iPhone camera [How do I set my iPhone camera to night mode?]

Knowing how to use the night mode camera on the iPhone has become one of our concerns.
In 2019, Apple introduced a new “Night Mode” feature on the iPhone 11 and newer models. This feature allows the iPhone camera to take much better photos in low light conditions than previous iPhone models.
Night mode works by automatically detecting when lighting conditions are dark and then adjusting camera settings to capture longer exposures. This allows more light to be captured, resulting in brighter and more detailed images even in very dark environments.
The camera takes multiple quick exposures and then combines them using advanced computational photography techniques. This helps reduce the blur and noise that commonly occurs in low-light photos. Night Mode also uses the iPhone's gyroscope and accelerometer to detect and compensate for hand movement in longer exposures.

Photos taken by iPhone 13 [case: e-ink screen case]

 

 

How do I set my iPhone camera to night mode?

1. Open your phone's camera app and go to Photo mode if needed.
If the lens detects low light conditions, night mode is automatically activated and the moon icon in the upper left corner (next to the flash icon) turns yellow.
If the icon is not yellow, it means that night mode is disabled because the camera does not detect a low-light environment. And if it's crossed out, it means night mode is disabled, so it won't activate even in low light. In this case, you need to tap on the night mode icon to activate it.

 

2. When you're ready, tap the shutter button and hold the phone still until the shot is complete.
3. If the image is not bright enough with automatic night mode, swipe up on the image preview or tap the arrow at the top (right below the notch) to access the camera options.

 

4. Tap the moon icon in the options and adjust the slider (above the shutter button) to set the duration of the photo, with a maximum time of 1 second to 30 seconds depending on the ambient light. The longer the shooting time, the brighter the image.

Once you've adjusted the slider, press and hold the shutter button until the shot is complete.

Note: If you set the flash to auto, it will turn on automatically in low light conditions. Note that turning on Live Photos or flash will disable night mode.

 

Photography in normal mode:

Photography in night mode:

 

5 important tips to take the best photos in night mode

- If you want to take professional photos at night, be sure to follow these 5 tips.

1. Hold the phone steady
Keeping it consistent is the important part. Quickly slow down your shutter speed to get more in. But a slower shutter speed blurs the motion.

Holding the phone steady while shooting in night mode ensures that the resulting image is clear and blur-free. You can use a tripod or place the phone against something.
A small amount of movement is fine, as the camera's electronic and optical image stabilization copes with slight movements.

2. Use the camera timer
A great way to take photos is to hold your phone steady. This way your movement or hands will not cause your camera to shake. As mentioned above, you can use a tripod or place the phone on a surface.
But what do you do if you want to be in the picture, say in a group photo? Simple: use the self-timer! If you're not sure how to use the iPhone camera timer, we've got a handy guide.

3. Choose your topics
Remember how slow shutter speeds cause motion blur? It's as important to your subject as it is to your hands. At slow shutter speeds, anything moving in your photo can become blurry.
As such, a running dog or a jumping child is probably not the best subject for low light. If you can, shoot subjects that are still in the light. If you are photographing moving subjects, try to be as still as possible.

4. Control exposure
If an image looks unnaturally bright in night mode, you can adjust the brightness by adjusting the exposure. To change the exposure, tap anywhere in the viewfinder and drag up or down with your finger.
Or go to Camera Options (tap the arrow above the viewfinder), tap Exposure (minus icon), and then move the slider to change the exposure.

5. If necessary, turn off night mode
Night mode can sometimes be a time when it doesn't need to be active and overexposes the photo. This makes photos look overexposed and kills potential highlights.
Enable night mode only if needed. Tap the moon icon in the top left corner of your camera app to cross out the icon and disable night mode.

Overall, the introduction of Night Mode has been a major improvement for iPhone photography, significantly expanding the lighting conditions where users can capture high-quality photos. It's a great example of how computational photography can enhance the capabilities of smartphone cameras.

Author of this article: Vahid.D