How To Film, Edit, And Everything You Need To Get Started For iPhone Cinematic Mode
Everyone has grown up watching movies and cinematic classics that use complex focus pulls to move your eyes to a different subject on the screen, and you wonder how they were able to pull it off. It requires not just specialized gear but also years of focus-pulling experience to get the results you see in your favorite movies and television shows.
But thanks to businesses like Apple, you can now fit such capabilities into a tiny gadget like a smartphone. You can use the iPhone’s Cinematic mode to take videos with a shallow depth of field and change the focus from one topic to another to give your work a more “cinematic” appearance. This feature debuted on the iPhone 13 Series “aesthetic.”
Make sure your device is supported before I explain how to use the cinematic mode effectively. Currently, only the iPhone 13 Series from this year and the freshly released iPhone 14 Series are supported. First and foremost, moderation is the key to enjoying everything. The background blur, often known as bokeh, that you may get using the Cinematic setting also needs to be used judiciously. If you go overboard, your footage may appear strange (more on that later).
Go to the iPhone Camera app and swipe to Cinematic mode to start recording in that mode. the same way you would with a “real” You can change the F-Stop in Cinematic mode on a DSLR or mirrorless camera to change the depth. It is nothing short of astounding that the software can give you such fine-grained control over the footage you receive despite not being hardware-based.
Select an F-Stop in accordance with the goals and creative direction of your shoot. Don’t go overboard with the blur or bokeh, as I mentioned before in this essay. Make sure that your depth of field doesn’t go too narrow because, at the end of the day, everything is software that is attempting to replicate a hardware solution. If it does, your movie will look artificial.
You can choose between 1X standard and 3X telephoto lenses for your iPhone, depending on the model. The 3X lens on the Pro iPhones enables you to capture stunning films with backdrop compression akin to what is found in lenses 50 mm and above. By tapping the exposure button and moving the slider to make your image darker or brighter, you can also change the exposure.
How do you change the focus? You can tap your target in the viewfinder to make them the center of attention. Depending on your shooting needs, you can switch between the two if there are many subjects in the frame. Additionally, you may double-tap on the subject to adjust the focus to “auto” and touch and hold the screen to lock focus at a distance. Fear not if you make a mistake while filming; unlike professional-grade cameras, you may change the depth of field and focus points even after the video has been captured.
Here’s how you can edit a Cinematic mode video:
- Open the Photos app > Tap the video that you want to edit.
- Tap Edit
- Using the Depth control button, adjust the depth of field according to your liking. Once finished with the edits, tap Done.
- Now, if you want to change the focus, in the video timeline, you’ll see yellow dots. These dots indicate the moments in your video in which the focus is changing between subjects.
- When you navigate to such a point, the subject in focus will have a yellow square on them, and subjects not in focus will have a white square.
- If you want the focus to change from one to another, tap the white square to change the focus. And you can do anything from locking focus to setting autofocus.
Despite the excellent editing tools, it’s a good habit to put in the most effort while shooting. It’s not optimal to save everything for post-production. For content producers aiming to improve their production quality, a cinematic mode is ideal. It not only gives your footage a more polished appearance and feel, but it also makes sure that you are exercising your creative muscles.