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Hi everyone. I created that wonderful footage of a hummingbird with my iPhone, a few accessories,
and iMovie for iOS. And in this tutorial, I'm going to show you exactly how I did it.
I used an iPhone 5s, which shoots 1080p video. I set my phone up on a tripod and used a Joby
Grip-Tight Mount for smartphones to attach the phone to the tripod. I also used a shutter
remote for iOS from iStabilizer to remote-control the camera shutter on my phone.
Here's how I set things up. I turned on the shutter remote with the switch on the left
edge; the blue indicator light should turn on. I attached the phone to the mount with
the rear-facing camera lens aimed at the flower. Next, I set the phone up to communicate with
the shutter remote. Open settings and Bluetooth; you should see the shutter remote listed under
devices. Select it, and it will say connected when they are communicating.
I then opened the camera function and selected the slo-mo option which allows you to shoot
at 120 frames per second. I then locked the autofocus and autoexposure by pressing on
the phone screen at the flower image. I then tested the shutter remote. You can see the
recording on the phone start when the record button changes from a circle to a square.
I was able to go sit on my porch with the shutter remote and wait for a hummingbird
to show up to start recording. It wasn't long before a hummingbird visited that particular
flower.
Once you get your footage, you then need to edit.
I'm going to use iMovie for iOS to edit. You may already have it on your iPhone; if not,
you can find it in the App Store. Open the app and tap the plus sign to create a new
project. Then select movie and create movie. And I'm going to use the modern theme. Tap
the viewing panel and this will open the media library. The hummingbird file is at the top,
tap it and it drops into the timeline.
I can scrub through the clip by grabbing it with with my finger and dragging it until
the playhead is positioned at the start of the clip. I can review the clip by tapping
the play button.
Double-tap the clip to see the speed. You can see that iMovie has imported
the clip and automatically set it to play at one quarter speed. We can bring it back
up to the original speed to see what it looks like at 120 frames per second.
But we want it at 30 frames per second so it plays in slow motion. So I'll reset the
speed option back down to one quarter.
I next want to trim out the end of the clip after the hummingbird flies out of the frame.
To do this, tap the clip to select it and then drag the yellow bar at the end to trim.
And so there is where it flies out of the frame. Now I'll do the same at the beginning
of the clip. And I think that's about the spot I want the clip to begin. I tap the clip
to select it and then drag the yellow bar to that point.
Next, I want to isolate the segment when she goes behind the flower. So I'm going to split
the clip at that point. I tap to select and then swipe my finger down the playhead. And
it's split. Then I'm going to split the clip again after she comes back into frame. There.
So the clip is now split at that point. And I'm going to speed that segment back up to
the original 120 frames per second. Now I've got first a slow motion segment, a segment
at normal speed, then the final segment is back in slow motion.
And she does her little pirouette in slow motion, goes back to the flower, and then flies out of frame.
Once I'm done editing the clip, I can go to the marquee screen and watch it full screen.
To do this, I tap the return button at the top left. And then I tap the play button to
see full screen.
And that looks pretty good. So now I'll name the project by tapping on the text, bringing
up the keyboard. And I'll type in hummingbird. Now all I have to do is tap the share button
to save it to my camera roll or I can upload it directly to a video-sharing site such as
YouTube.
Well, that's a brief look at how to set up and use your iPhone to produce slow-motion
footage. If you found this tutorial helpful, please click the like button below or leave
a comment. You can find a lot more information about science videography in my ebook. So
please check it out.
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