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I Thought Live Photos Were A Gimmick Until..

penajmz

penajmz

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 11, 2008
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New York City
I went back to a picture I took of my dog when I first got the 6s Plus and relived that moment. He was giving me his paw because he wanted a treat and it was adorable. I don't think a regular photo could've given me the same experience.

I also took a picture of the rain hitting the window of my car about a week ago and it's now my wallpaper. Pretty cool actually.

Anybody share similar experiences?
 
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Its still a gimmick. Like most gimmicks it can do some cool things but its definitely something I can live without if it disappeared. But I'm glad you got a cool moment out of it.
 
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The story about your dogs paw was so.....
Tom-Hiddleston-About-To-Cry-From-The-Touching-Moment.gif
 
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Agreed about the gimmick aspect but I've got a pretty cool shot of my girlfriend crouched photographing the WW2 monument in Washington DC and the fountains spraying and the flag blowing in the wind in the background are definitely added bonuses.
 
Guitarpik said:
I've had living images on my Nokia for over a year now and I still think it's gimmicky. But nice to have if you want it I guess.
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Same, but I think the real value comes with time. You take a ohoto of your kids as they're growing up and you look back in 5/10 years time and remember the moment. How much more intense will that memory and emotional reaction be with the photo coming to life?

I really liked living images on my lumia and am looking forward to Live Photos on iPhone.
 
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geoff5093 said:
They've had this for a while actually. It's called taking a video :rolleyes:

If you know you want to capture something that a still photo won't capture, that's what videos are for.
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The difference to me is that a video is when you consciously decide to shoot some footage of moving things. A live photo is just something you can take when you're taking a normal photo without having to think about it. Potential is there for lots of cool memories, enhanced by movement.
 
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mrklaw said:
The difference to me is that a video is when you consciously decide to shoot some footage of moving things. A live photo is just something you can take when you're taking a normal photo without having to think about it. Potential is there for lots of cool memories, enhanced by movement.
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Except you need to be consciously aware not to move your camera before or after the photo, I know I'm used to pressing the shutter then putting it right back in my pocket
 
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Thinking that you might like to take a live photo and remembering to switch the feature on is the tricky bit. I can see that on occasion the end result might be quite nice but ah, I'm not someone who takes a ton of snaps and I rarely shoot video.
 
Not sure why there's not an album for live photos in the Photos app yet. And too bad you can't share the live photos with us, OP. Or maybe there's a way?
 
geoff5093 said:
They've had this for a while actually. It's called taking a video :rolleyes:

If you know you want to capture something that a still photo won't capture, that's what videos are for.
Click to expand...
I get it but that's the whole point, Live Photos add something different without having to be a video. I can see them being very cool memories.
 
techspin said:
Not sure why there's not an album for live photos in the Photos app yet. And too bad you can't share the live photos with us, OP. Or maybe there's a way?
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Well I know you can share them between devices. I can send them to somebody with previous iPhones and they can see them. I don't think they play through safari though.
 
I honestly thought as well Live Photos would be a gimmick, but found out its actually pretty cool. And I do use it regularly. Sometimes, if I want to make a still on purpose, I turn it off. But most times I leave it on.

Just needs some time until people will understand the value of Live Photos. The article digduller shared with us is an interesting, but also good perspective on what makes it so incredible. If you think the feature is a gimmick, read that article.
 
geoff5093 said:
They've had this for a while actually. It's called taking a video :rolleyes:

If you know you want to capture something that a still photo won't capture, that's what videos are for.
Click to expand...
I rarely take videos. So this feature is pretty cool since its seamless with taking pictures, don't have to think about it. Much easier/faster to snap a quick photo than to record video.
 
live photos is pointless when taking shots of people posing for the camera, but it's fantastic for candid shots - i've gotten multiple candid shots that captured the moment, when i was just originally going to grab a quick shot of the subject and then something unexpected happened right as i clicked the shutter.

btw, is there a way to convert live photos to a short video via iMovie or some other app on the iOS device? i believe there're ways to extract the MOV file once you upload it to your computer, but being able to do that on the device would be nice.
 
Jaspatrick said:
I wish that it was a bit smoother. It's almost unwatchable as choppy as it is, especially if there is any movement during the video.
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That doesn't sound good. Living images on lumia were really nice (plus exported nearly as little MP4 video clips so you could bundle them together in a montage easily)

What format are these then?
 
geoff5093 said:
They've had this for a while actually. It's called taking a video :rolleyes:

If you know you want to capture something that a still photo won't capture, that's what videos are for.
Click to expand...

Not quite. Video's take longer to capture. Plus they take way more space. Plus its way harder to browse video's compared to live photos.
 
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I'm learning there are definite use cases for Live Photos. As others have mentioned, candid shots of the kids is a big one. Just have to be careful to hold the camera steady for an extra second. I've also taken some creatively timed shots of my kid kicking in Taekwondo, dog turning to look at me, kid looking serious then cracking a smile, etc. which I have used as live photo watch faces on my Apple Watch.

I try to keep Live Photo mode off by default but turn it on whenever I'm going for a shot that would work well with it.
 
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