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Tips on shooting slo-mo video with iPhone

Edward C. Baig
USA TODAY
This iPhone is ready to shoot in slow motion

NEW YORK — All those iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets that Apple has been selling lately come with a crowd pleasing camera feature that you might want to call into action while your kids are flinging snowballs. I'm speaking of the ability to shoot video in slow motion. The feature, which is also part of the older iPhone 5s model, (not to mention some rival smartphones,) is really quite simple.

A quick primer: Launch the Camera app on your phone and swipe across the various shooting options so that Slo-Mo is highlighted in yellow. If one of the other shooting formats—Time-Lapse, Video, Photo, Square or Pano—were selected instead, it would appear in yellow. You won't even see Slo-Mo as an option if you don't have the iPhone 5s, 6 or 6 Plus.

As you would with any video, tap the red button on the screen to begin shooting your scene. You'll note that when you're in slow motion mode, the white circle around the red button has teeny-tiny lines around it. Shoot the scene normally. Tap the red button again when you're done capturing the moment.

The video you've shot lands in the Camera Roll on the phone, with all the other photos and videos you've shot. Tap the Photos icon to get there, and then tap the selected video to watch it. The video momentarily plays at normal speed then slows down at a point that is determined by the phone.

You can lengthen or decrease the section that plays back in slow motion by tapping the screen to summon what is called a frame viewer, and then dragging the vertical bars that appear. When these vertical lines are close to one another the video plays back at a normal speed. It plays back slowly when the lines are further apart.

Meanwhile, don't be startled by the sound—when playing a segment in slow motion, the audio is slowed down, too.

Techies take note: on the iPhone 5s, slow motion video is recorded at 120 frames per second in 720p high definition. On the 6 or 6 Plus, you can shoot in slow motion at 240 FPS as well. Tap the 120FPS or 240FPS on-screen indicator to toggle back and forth.

Going slow has its benefits. Those snowballs your kids are throwing have never looked more cinematic. Pretty much your last chore is deciding with whom to share the video.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter


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