How to Edit Live Photos in iOS 11

[MacRumors]

Apple originally debuted Live Photos in 2015, alongside the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, marking it as a feature that enhances the smartphone's photography with pictures that move when a user performs a 3D Touch on them. With the launch of iOS 11, Live Photos can now be edited in a few useful ways, and this guide will help you make a new key photo (which shows up first in your Photo Album), as well as explain how to add new animation effects to a Live Photo.

To begin, taking a Live Photo hasn't changed with the new iPhone software: simply open your Camera app, tap the circular Live Photos icon at the top center of the screen, and take a picture.

Making a New Key Photo

1. Open Photos.
2. Tap the "Albums" tab, then navigate to the Live Photos album to find your image.
3. Tap "Edit" in the top right corner of the image you select.
4. At the bottom of the screen, scrub through your Live Photo and find the exact spot you want for a new Key Photo.
5. Tap "Make Key Photo."
6. Tap "Done."

Changing a Live Photo Effect

1. Find the Live Photo you want to edit and select it.
2. From the center of the screen, swipe up.
3. Here you'll find three new Live Photo effects.
4. Choose Loop, Bounce, or Long Exposure.
5. Swipe down to see the effect in full screen.

Live Photos now have the full suite of editing options previously available to traditional still photos only, including: rotating, cropping, filters, and light and color balancing. You can also choose to mute the Live Photo (volume icon at the top left in edit mode), and automatically enhance it (wand icon at the top right in edit mode). Markup is one editing feature that does not support Live Photos, however.

After you choose a new Key Photo and find a new effect, you can replay your Live Photo like before by performing a 3D Touch action anywhere on the screen of an iPhone 6s device or later.

Article Link: How to Edit Live Photos in iOS 11

 

[unobtainium]

None of the new effects are particularly useful. One of them should have been “export gif” since that’s what non-iOS 11 users can actually see. If you send a photo with the new effects to a non-iOS 11 user they get a short video clip. Lame.

 

[zorinlynx]

I've discovered that if you pick a new "Key photo" in a live photo, the quality is quite a bit lower than the original "actual photo".

It seems the live photo video is taken in 4K on the iPhone 7, but 4K video is still less quality than a full resolution still photo. So be careful, and only pick a different "key photo" if the actual photo you took is useless.

 

[Jmausmuc]

Isn’t only the picture itself taken as the photo while the rest is just video?
This would mean that choosing a new key photo would decrease the quality, wouldn’t it??

 

[zorinlynx]

Isn’t only the picture itself taken as the photo while the rest is just video?
This would mean that choosing a new key photo would decrease the quality, wouldn’t it??

This is a good assumption to make, but I did wonder if Apple found a way to make the entire live photo full resolution, so I wanted to check for myself.

I confirmed that it's indeed not full resolution, like I expected. But Apple doesn't make this obvious so it's to everyone's benefit to be aware of the reduced quality when you change the key photo.

 

[jonnysods]

I wouldn't want to lose my original high quality image by doing this. I guess I could duplicate the pic somehow.

 

[harriska2]

I take it these options are only for 3d touch?

 

[zorinlynx]

I wouldn't want to lose my original high quality image by doing this. I guess I could duplicate the pic somehow.

You won't; all edits are nondestructive. You can always revert to the original.

 

[Ldubrov]

I've discovered that if you pick a new "Key photo" in a live photo, the quality is quite a bit lower than the original "actual photo".

It seems the live photo video is taken in 4K on the iPhone 7, but 4K video is still less quality than a full resolution still photo. So be careful, and only pick a different "key photo" if the actual photo you took is useless.

This is definitely true on iPhone 7. Anyone here have an iPhone 8?

The A11 chip should be more than powerful enough to create a full resolution HEIF file consisting of all the frames. The iPhone 7 records 1 frame HEIF (or JPEG if you set it up that way) and an MOV file.

 

[psac]

Is there any way to disable to sound from recording on a Live Photo? That’s a little creepy to me. I have an 8, I’ll try it with the main camera to see.
[doublepost=1506170824][/doublepost]First pic is original (subject was moving so there is some blur), second pic is duplicate with changed key photo. On an 8, not plus.

Regardless of the quality, you could say the first pic is useless, while the second pic works.

I also tried with a still. This one it wouldn’t let me upload the original because it was too large? Here’s the changed version though

I also have HDR on, I don’t know how that changes things with Live Photo.

 

[Ldubrov]

That’s unfortunate. The 10 MP resolution indicates that the iPhone 8 still uses the pic + video for live images. Ah well.

Also, you can mute a live image: edit, and click the audio button in top left corner.

 

[Solomani]

And the new iOS11 editing tools still does not allow us to export the single "still photo" JPG from the LivePhoto? We still need a 3rd party app to do this?

 

[Ldubrov]

I can export a any still from a live image.

Quick follow up question to those with iPhone 8 (for my own curiosity). When you take Burst shot (hold down the picture button), do those images get saved as jpeg or HEIF? You’ll need an app like HashPhotos or something similar to analyze photo file details to answer this question.

On the iPhone 7, only single shots get saved as HEIF. Burst shots are a series of jpegs, I suspect due to compression speed limitations.

 

[Solomani]

I dont have iOS 11 installed yet, maybe later this week. Does the Live Photos editing allow you to export a given photo frame? Or at least export the KEY photo as a still jpeg?

 

[Ldubrov]

When you export a Live Photo to, say, an email, it will export the JPEG of your selected Key Frame. Be advised that if you select any other frame except the original, you’ll get a 10 megapixel still of a video, which will be not as sharp as the original Key Frame. AirDrop and iMessage will send the full Live Image.

 

[ateslik]

And still iMovie on the same phone can’t import the live photo movies. Silly.

 

[Arcticsun420]

I have an iPhone 11 not sure what one. Something my mother got me. I don’t use apple products because thay all suck. Accept for the photo quality I really like. I have tried every edit option I can find even downloaded photo shop. I can not figure out how to edit to get a still frame from the Live Photo’s. I managed to open up that option by accident About a week ago. I didn’t even realize I was in that editing option until I hit cancel. Was showing a friend that I can scroll through the Live Photo. Somehow I got to an editing option to pick a frame out of it.

I am frustrating myself to the point I want to just break the phone and give up. I need help. How do you get a still of the Live Photo’s? All I remember doing is taping on the photo at the bottom and it expanded into the full Live Photo viewing strip to scroll through the photo. All the instructions I find on how to do it again(opening the option for selecting a still),I click on the editat the top right. I do that. But, when I’m the edit options there is nothing in the edit options to selecting the still I want from the Live Photo.

Some one please help me. also I apologize for I am very bad at trying to explain things.

 

[ateslik]

this app works awesome for converting Live Photos to whatever you need - a video, an animted GIF, or grabbing a still frame:

‎LP - Live Image to Video & GIF

‎Export live Photos to GIF, video, and still image. Customize your GIF export with several settings. Save time by exporting several Live Photos at once with batch export. -------Features------ • Batch export - keep in mind that Settings set under the GIF tab are maintained when batch exporting...

apps.apple.com

once the Live Photos are converted you can easily import them into iMovie or any other video editing software.