Apple is holding a Night mode photo contest: the five most beautiful photos taken with an iPhone 11 (Pro) in Night mode are used in marketing campaigns. Do you also want to take a chance? With these tips you can take the most beautiful night mode photos.
Photo contest
This week, Apple announced a photo contest. The five most beautiful night photos taken with an iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro or iPhone Pro Max are used as marketing photos. Anyone around the world can participate in the competition, which lasts until January 29th.
Night mode is one of the most important functions of the iPhone 11 devices. With the feature, Apple bundles hardware and software to take beautiful, clear photos in minimal light. Several photos are taken in a short time behind the scenes and your iPhone analyzes the photos to extract the best elements. Then the best parts are put together, the noise and color are adjusted and so you get to see the sharpest and most realistic night photo possible: something you cannot achieve with any older iPhone.
Activate Night mode in the iPhone 11 Camera app
It is not possible to activate Night mode everywhere. First, it is only possible for the iPhone 11 to use Night mode with the standard lens. In addition, Night mode does not work for both iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro (Max) when the wide-angle lens is on. The flash and Live Photos function are also turned off automatically.
Only when you are in a dark environment will the option for Night mode appear automatically. An icon of a moon will then appear next to the flash sign. If you tap this, the feature is enabled. Still, you don’t just need the software and good lenses to take a nice photo. There are a number of things to keep in mind.
1. Keep the camera as still as possible
Once you’ve turned on Night mode, the shutter speed will be slower. This means that the camera can receive more light. The device calculates how long the shutter should remain open based on the ambient light. This is a maximum of five seconds. It is therefore very important that you keep the device as still as possible for a few seconds.
You can see next to the moon how long you have to keep the device still. So if it says “3 s”, you have to keep the device still for 3 seconds. If you don’t, you will get moving photos.
2. Experiment with light
If you have found a nice subject for your photo, you can also experiment with the Night mode. Depending on the amount of light, the iPhone automatically indicates how long it is best to keep the device still. You can also choose to keep the shutter open as long as possible.
If you have turned on Night mode, the option to choose Auto and Max appears above the photo button. The Auto function automatically determines how long the shutter stays open. The Max function always keeps the shutter open for the maximum calculated time to capture as much light as possible. That means that you have to keep the iPhone still longer. It differs per photo whether it is nice to keep the shutter speed open longer or shorter. So give it a try!
3. Use a tripod
If you really want to work professionally, you can also use a tripod, so that you can be sure that the photo remains sharper. Especially if you manually increase the shutter speed, it works very well to use a tripod. The longer the shutter speed, the more movement is also captured. It is therefore almost impossible to keep your hands completely still for the maximum number of seconds.
Because the iPhone detects whether the device is being held still, the maximum number of seconds to keep the shutter open is also taken into account. When the iPhone notices that the device is stable, you automatically get a longer maximum shutter speed, so that as much light as possible can be collected. For example, if you want to take a photo of the starry sky, it is good to put the iPhone on a tripod and use the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds.
4. Still subjects in natural light work best
Even though you hold your iPhone firmly and quietly in your hands, Night mode does not work optimally when you take a photo of something that moves, such as a pet or a child that cannot sit still.
A night photo can also have too dramatic an effect, because the colors are too intense or the contrast too high. Especially with yellow artificial light, the colors can appear unnatural. Night mode therefore works best if you have a still subject in your photo that is in natural light.
More photo tips for iPhone 11 series
Do you want to know what else you can do with the camera of your iPhone 11 (Pro)? On iPhone you can read many more useful tips. For example, we’ll explain how to take a series of photos with burst mode, we’ll show you how to capture an image outside the frame or how to make a QuickTake video.