- I'm gonna share the best iPhone camera settings
for high-quality video
that will level up your iPhone filming
to help you get the best results really, really quickly.
Now, I'm gonna take you through the settings
using an iPhone 14,
which, at the time of filming, this is the latest iPhone.
If you're not on the 14,
you can still follow along 'cause a lot of these settings
are still going to apply,
but you might not have access to all of them.
Okay, so you wanna open up Settings,
you wanna scroll down to Camera,
and this is where all of your camera settings are.
And the first thing we wanna set
is our video recording format.
So if we go to Formats at the top,
and then this is the first big decision you'll need to make.
You get to choose:
Are you gonna record in high efficiency
or in most compatible?
Now for me, personally, I do leave this on Most Compatible
because it is going to give you a video file,
which is gonna be the most compatible
across a lot of different editing tools and apps.
So if you do find the videos you're creating on your iPhone
don't work properly in your editing tool,
then this is where you wanna change this first.
Now, there are specific times
where you will want to be using that High Efficiency codec.
The first one is if you don't have much storage
available on your phone.
So the High Efficiency codec
does give you a smaller file size
because it is more compressed.
But also if you want to use the Cinematic Mode
or you wanna shoot in 4K 60 frames per second;
if you wanna shoot in HDR, or high dynamic range mode;
or you wanna shoot super slow mode,
240 frames per second at 1080p.
For those settings to work,
you will need to be on the High Efficiency codec.
And again, outside of that,
I would suggest that you have it off,
and I normally leave it off.
Now, depending on your device,
you can see that we've got the option to enable
or disable Apple ProRes recording as well.
So if you are someone that really wants to get
the most professional-grade footage out of your iPhone,
then you will want to have this enabled.
But again, I don't think this is for most people.
The file sizes are going to be ridiculously huge
and does say down the bottom here,
"For one minute of HD footage in this ProRes format,
it's gonna take up 1.7 gig of storage."
So if you've got a phone with 128 gig or 256,
you're gonna burn through that pretty quick.
So this is something that, again, I leave off,
but I wanna stress here that this doesn't mean
that you're not able to create amazing-looking videos.
The videos are still coming out of this
are still going to look amazing,
especially if you're gonna be uploading them
to places like YouTube.
If you're creating a documentary or a film
and you're using your phone,
then that might be when you want to have this on.
Okay, if we go back out of this now,
then this is where we can set out recording formats.
So we've got our first one here, Record Video,
and this is where you can choose:
Are you gonna shoot in 4K or 1080?
Now, personally, I think you should be shooting
in 4K wherever possible,
so that you've got the ability
to still release a 1080p video,
but you've got that higher resolution, higher quality,
so that you can do things like zoom in on your footage
if you need to.
But also, you could release the 4K video as well.
So the default for most people here
will probably be to leave this out 4K 30 frames per second.
But if you are in a PAL region,
so Japan, Australia, Europe, and others,
then you can enable PAL frame rates here too.
Things like 25 frames per second or 50 frames per second.
Now, if we scroll down,
you can see you've got the option
to enhance the stabilization.
So if you're creating footage
where you're gonna be walking around
and you need that extra smooth level of stabilization,
then you can enable that in here.
HDR video is something that will only work
in that High Efficiency video setting.
This is something that catches a lot of people out.
When they're recording,
it looks fine if you're playing it back on your phone
or another device,
but if you've gotta drop it into your editing software
and the footage isn't recognized as being an HDR footage,
then it can make your footage look really washed out,
and there's extra steps that you've gotta take to fix that.
So this is another one that
unless you specifically need to be filming in HDR,
high dynamic range,
I would suggest that you leave it off
to save yourself some future headaches.
Auto frame rate is one I would strongly recommend
that you turn off
basically if you're in a low light situation,
and it's gonna drop the frame
right below what you've set it at
to add more light into your shot,
but it can also add a ton of motion blur
and make the video look really bad.
So I'd suggest you leave this one off, too.
So if we go back to our camera settings now,
now, personally, I like to leave
the Record Stereo Sound setting enabled.
And then if we come down to Preserve Settings,
you can preserve the last mode
that you used in your Camera app.
So it's going to remember those settings next time.
So those will overwrite your default settings
so that if you made any changes,
if you close the app, open it again,
then those settings are still going to be applied.
Now, the only one of these that I really leave enabled
is the top one, Camera Mode,
so that if I am using the video camera and then close it,
then it's going to reopen the app in that same Camera Mode.
So if we go back and we scroll down to Composition,
this is where you can enable or disable a grid.
I do find it's pretty handy to have that on screen
so that's something I do leave enabled.
You can also mirror your front camera
if you're gonna be using that front selfie camera,
and it's backwards for you,
and you want to see it the other way around,
you can enable that there, too.
Now, if we go ahead and open up the Camera app now,
switch it over to Video Mode.
Then, there's a couple of extra settings in here
you should know about.
At the top we can tap to switch between HD 4K,
and we can even tap
to change through the different frame rates there, too.
At any time, if we tap on the screen,
it's going to take a focus reading,
so it's gonna auto focus
on whatever it is that we've tapped on,
but it's also doing a brightness adjustment
at that point, too,
to set the exposure level for what it is you tapped on.
Now after you've tapped, we can override that brightness
by swiping up to increase the brightness
or swiping down to lower the brightness,
but that doesn't lock it at this point.
It's just set it as a good starting point.
If we wanna lock our focus and lock our exposure,
then we do the same.
We tap and hold
until we see at the top it says AE, auto exposure,
and AF, auto focus, Lock.
So this tells you that your focus and exposure is locked.
And again, we can adjust the brightness up and down
by swiping up and down on the screen.
Now, whether you are locking your exposure or not
there's one more setting in here,
which I do find is pretty handy.
Up in the top left-hand corner,
you've got your exposure override.
So if we press on that,
then down the bottom, we get a slider bar.
Now, if you're not seeing this setting on your phone,
you can swipe up and then hit the button that has the plus
and the minus icon on it to enable this.
And then from there, we can swipe left or right
to increase the brightness or darkness.
But this is now saved as a default adjustment
to whatever the camera is automatically detecting.
So let's say we set this to negative 0.7.
So we've darkened our shot off a little bit,
but now, every time we're using the Camera app,
the auto adjustment from the phone
is now going to be a little bit darker, 0.7,
than it was originally.
So if you're finding that there's shots that you're taking,
especially in low light conditions,
if some things are too bright and other things are too dark,
then you can actually manually override
as a default setting now with this exposure compensation.
But it's also important
to remember to put this back afterwards,
or you'll find that all of your shots
are going to be darker in this scenario.
Now, if you're someone
who's looking for more advanced features,
more advanced settings and controls,
and really DSLR or mirrorless camera-like settings
on your iPhone,
then that's where adding a third-party camera app
could be the best option for you.
A lot of these apps will even let you record
at higher quality formats, too.
So if that's something you wanna find out more about,
then check out the video that is linked on screen
where we share the best Camera apps for iPhone.
And as always,
don't forget to check out the links in the description.
We've got a bunch of resources down there to help you, too.
See you in the next one.