How to Take a Quick Burst of Photos on iPhone

[MacRumors]

If you're looking for a great way to capture a shot of an action scene or an unexpected event on your iPhone, try Burst mode in Apple's stock Camera app. In Burst mode, the camera on your iPhone captures a series of photos in rapid succession, at a rate of ten frames per second.

When photographing anything dynamic like sports events, wildlife, or children at play, burst mode increases the likelihood of obtaining sharp, well-timed images. By taking multiple shots in quick succession, you can select the best frame where the subject's motion is perfectly frozen. Here's how to shoot Burst mode photos on iPhone.

Shooting in Burst Mode

1. In the Camera app, press and drag the shutter button to the left beneath the viewfinder.
2. Keep your finger pressed down to continue taking photos in rapid succession.
3. Take your finger off the shutter when you want to end the burst of shots.

When shooting in Burst mode, notice how the counter increases in the shutter's original position for as long as you hold it down. This indicates how many shots are being captured in the current burst.

Apple also includes an option in iOS settings that when enabled lets you press and hold the Volume Up button to take Burst shots. Go to Settings ➝ Camera, then turn on Use Volume Up for Burst.

Choosing the Best Shot

1. After shooting in Burst mode, tap the image thumbnail in the Camera app, or open the Photos app and select the Burst you just captured.
2. Tap Burst in the top-left corner, then tap the best shot or shots you want to keep as an individual photo. (You can swipe across the photos or scroll the row of thumbnails below to view them.) Gray dots below the thumbnails mark the suggested photos to keep.
3. Tap Done, then choose Keep Everything or Keep only X Favorite (X being the number of shots you selected).

When you take a series of burst photos, they automatically appear in the Photos app under the Album name "Bursts." You'll also find them in the Recent Days section.

Article Link: How to Take a Quick Burst of Photos on iPhone

 

[Razorpit]

Thanks for the reminder. This is a feature I should use more often than I do.

 

[macjaffa]

I kinda do this with live photo as it is. I can go in and choose the keyframe photo which can be the best shot from a ‘burst’ is this basically the same thing but not limited by the length of the ‘live photo’?

Its then becomes obvious to ask if these bursts can be looped/long exposure/bounced like a live photo can be?

 

[mattkowalski]

Great feature…. but….

In the early days of iOS, you could discover features by exploring. The interface was simple and intuitive. Now there are features like this, hidden behind obscure gestures/actions. I’d never have found this if I’d not seen the article. Maybe that’s just me.

 

[speg]

Great feature…. but….

In the early days of iOS, you could discover features by exploring. The interface was simple and intuitive. Now there are features like this, hidden behind obscure gestures/actions. I’d never have found this if I’d not seen the article. Maybe that’s just me.

Are you serious Matthew? This feature has been in place since those “early days”.

Imagine you were flying and the pilot didn’t know all the controls of the aircraft. You are that pilot.

 

[Chazak]

Great feature…. but….

In the early days of iOS, you could discover features by exploring. The interface was simple and intuitive. Now there are features like this, hidden behind obscure gestures/actions. I’d never have found this if I’d not seen the article. Maybe that’s just me.

Respectfully, I disagree. I don't think it has been obscure at all. The burst feature and the ways to engage it has been around almost since the beginning of the iPhone.

 

[MasterControlProgram]

Are you serious Matthew? This feature has been in place since those “early days”.

Imagine you were flying and the pilot didn’t know all the controls of the aircraft. You are that pilot.

Wasn't the original burst mode activated by holding the button though? These days that activates video recording, so it's understandable not to think to swipe the button left to trigger burst mode.

 

[rotlex]

No idea why they ever changed the method for doing burst. Just holding down the shutter buttron was so much more intuitive. Why not allow it to be customized to the uers preference?

 

[rmn1644]

These Bursts are such a pain. You're left with 9 useless photos, out of the 10, that take up space and are hard to remove. Storage Bloatware for sure!

 

[ambientdaw]

Wasn't the original burst mode activated by holding the button though? These days that activates video recording, so it's understandable not to think to swipe the button left to trigger burst mode.

when I try the above technique the iPhone shoots a movie not bursts

 

[MasterControlProgram]

when I try the above technique the iPhone shoots a movie not bursts

Yes that's what said. It used to do bursts but now it starts recording video and to do bursts you need to know to slide the button sideways.

 

[macjaffa]

So i just tried this. In 14 years of iPhone ownership i dont think i have ever done ‘burst’ shooting. Should be press and hold for burst and swipe for video imo. You need to know you want a burst before shooting you can’t just press harder like a dslr

 

[ApAx]

You used to be able to press and hold the on screen button. There is already an on-screen label to switch to video mode and cycle through all camera modes. I expect a dedicated burst-only mode button to be added to iPhone 17 to bring clarity and ease of use to the incomprehensibly difficult on-screen button that we have had for 17 years.

 

[svish]

Good article. The feature proves to be useful

 

[TheDauterive]

when I try the above technique the iPhone shoots a movie not bursts

Yes that's what said. It used to do bursts but now it starts recording video and to do bursts you need to know to slide the button sideways.

I don’t know if ambientdaw is talking about the same thing, but for me it records a movie when I slide the shutter sideways. It did this repeatedly so I went to take a screenshot and it suddenly went into shutter mode! So there may be another function you can accidentally trigger when trying to use burst mode. This isn‘t good because if I need to quickly access burst mode, and I accidentally get the movie function, I lose the shot I want.

BTW, I was able to reproduce the slide shutter left to shoot movie function and this is what it looks like. The shutter only slides a little bit to the left and stops, and a lock icon appears on the right side of the screen.

 

[macjaffa]

I don’t know if ambientdaw is talking about the same thing, but for me it records a movie when I slide the shutter sideways. It did this repeatedly so I went to take a screenshot and it suddenly went into shutter mode! So there may be another function you can accidentally trigger when trying to use burst mode. This isn‘t good because if I need to quickly access burst mode, and I accidentally get the movie function, I lose the shot I want.

BTW, I was able to reproduce the slide shutter left to shoot movie function and this is what it looks like. The shutter only slides a little bit to the left and stops, and a lock icon appears on the right side of the screen.

View attachment 2448489

in the photo app.

1. press shutter - takes a picture
2. press shutter, and hold - changes to temporary video mode, takes video, lifting finger stops video recording.
3. press shutter, and hold, and then swipe to lock - changes to video mode, but sticks - i.e. you can take you finger of
4. dont press shutter, but swipe the shutter button and hold -- activates burst mode.
5 - bonus tip, you can also activate burst mode or not in the camera settings in settings app.


personally i think 2 and 4 should be reversed behaviour. And I disagree a little with the overloaded functionality here. It's a little too complex. Why do I need to switch modes. Can't i just have a button to record video and a button take a picture ? Why can't i have quick presets like U1, U2, U3 so I can change from B&W square to colour XPAN ?

AND WHY WHY WHY Can't we have 3:2 crop option so we can take pictures that fit 6x4 prints . It's so clever (overloaded shutter button with 25 options about how you use it) but also so dumb - we can't take standard print sized images. 1:1 , 16:9 or 4:3 . I use 1:1 nearly all the time now

 

[TheDauterive]

Just a quick reminder for everyone: Even though the iPhone doesn’t ship with a manual, you can download one in the Apple Books store. Since the days of every function on an Apple product being obvious and intuitive are over, and it would probably be impossible to discover them all yourself, don’t forget Apple provides comprehensive instructions on what the iPhone can do and how to do it. i didn’t have a clue that the simple press and hold method of accessing burst mode had changed, so I’m going to go read the manual myself just to see how many other functions have been changed since I last used them or I have forgotten about altogether!

 

[TheDauterive]

in the photo app.

1. press shutter - takes a picture
2. press shutter, and hold - changes to temporary video mode, takes video, lifting finger stops video recording.
3. press shutter, and hold, and then swipe to lock - changes to video mode, but sticks - i.e. you can take you finger of
4. dont press shutter, but swipe the shutter button and hold -- activates burst mode.
5 - bonus tip, you can also activate burst mode or not in the camera settings in settings app.


personally i think 2 and 4 should be reversed behaviour. And I disagree a little with the overloaded functionality here. It's a little too complex. Why do I need to switch modes. Can't i just have a button to record video and a button take a picture ? Why can't i have quick presets like U1, U2, U3 so I can change from B&W square to colour XPAN ?

AND WHY WHY WHY Can't we have 3:2 crop option so we can take pictures that fit 6x4 prints . It's so clever (overloaded shutter button with 25 options about how you use it) but also so dumb - we can't take standard print sized images. 1:1 , 16:9 or 4:3 . I use 1:1 nearly all the time now

Wow, thanks for all the info! I just made a post saying I am going back to the manual to relearn the photo app from scratch, but this is great info on the one problem I was having right now!

 

[CarAnalogy]

Lotta spice in the comments section for such a feature. I found this helpful because while I was aware of burst mode, I frequently forget to use it and did not realize that at some point swipe left became the way to activate it. So thank you for this post.

Now that I know this though, I think the shutter button makes sense. I agree it should be configurable but it's already loaded to the gills for the average user.

Press for picture, swipe left for burst, swipe right for video, press and hold for short video. Makes sense to me.

 

[TheDauterive]

Ugh, is there any way to access burst mode using the volume buttons for the shutter? In all the excitement I forgot that I rarely tap the screen to take photos, I almost always use the side buttons.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Just a quick reminder for everyone: Even though the iPhone doesn’t ship with a manual, you can download one in the Apple Books store. Since the days of every function on an Apple product being obvious and intuitive are over, and it would probably be impossible to discover them all yourself, don’t forget Apple provides comprehensive instructions on what the iPhone can do and how to do it. i didn’t have a clue that the simple press and hold method of accessing burst mode had changed, so I’m going to go read the manual myself just to see how many other functions have been changed since I last used them or I have forgotten about altogether!

Siri directly answering questions about Apple product usage is one of the most useful features they've added. GPTs have always been good at this since they can easily read the entire documentation and just answer the question.

And Apple does not promote those manuals nearly enough. They don't promote Books very much in any way either.

 

[macjaffa]

Ugh, is there any way to access burst mode using the volume buttons for the shutter? In all the excitement I forgot that I rarely tap the screen to take photos, I almost always use the side buttons.

yes

 

[TheDauterive]

And Apple does not promote those manuals nearly enough. They don't promote Books very much in any way either.

There may be a reason for that. I went to download the iOS 18 manual and I can’t find it. In fact, the most recent manual I can find is for iOS 16.5, so maybe they’ve stopped publishing the manuals completely. I guess it’s just Siri and ChatGPT now!

 

[CarAnalogy]

There may be a reason for that. I went to download the iOS 18 manual and I can’t find it. In fact, the most recent manual I can find is for iOS 16.5, so maybe they’ve stopped publishing the manuals completely. I guess it’s just Siri and ChatGPT now!

It seems they've moved it to a web page, which honestly is probably better. Doesn't bode well for the future of the Books app though.

iPhone user guide updated for iOS 18