Using Cinematic mode on the iPhone

Cinematic mode is a way to use your phone to take high-quality DSLR-like videos. As of 2022, it’s available on the iPhone 13. P.S. This page may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more information.

“With Cinematic mode, your iPhone 13 camera can record videos with a shallow depth of field and add beautiful focus transitions for a cinema-grade look,” writes Apple.

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Here are some tips for shooting with Cinematic mode…

First, find the setting in your phone’s camera app. You should see it along the bottom of the screen:

Make sure you tap the screen to focus on your main object. If you want to pan the camera, continue to tap the screen to change focus as shown in the TikTok video above.

You may need to physically move closer to the object to get it in focus, but you should be able to focus on objects at a distance too.

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By tapping the screen twice you can turn on something called AF Tracking Lock:

This means your main object will stay in focus even if you move the camera. You can also touch and hold the phone’s screen to lock the focus (AF Lock) at a specific distance.

You can change settings too. Hold the phone horizontally, then tap the arrow that appears:

Settings will appear. According to Apple, you can:

• Tap the Depth Control button , then drag the slider to adjust the depth of field.
• Tap the 1x button  on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max to switch to Telephoto. Then tap the button again to switch back to Wide.
• Tap the exposure button , then drag the slider to make your video brighter or darker.
• Tap the flash button , then choose from Auto, On or Off.

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Transferring footage…

One thing to keep in mind with Cinematic mode is it takes longer to transfer to a computer than a regular video file. You can transfer footage with AirDrop or something like an iXpand drive, or you can upload your footage to Google Drive if you have the app. Your phone will automatically process the footage to help make it move a bit faster, but the phone needs time to do this.

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If you’re in a rush you can also find your Cinematic mode videos and process them sooner. Go to Photos > Albums > Cinematic. Scroll down and press the blue button that says “Process Now.” This button will only appear if you have videos that the phone has not yet processed.

You can even do more when editing your Cinematic mode footage. For more on that, click here.