How to pick a different frame from a Live Photo on iPhone
Blinked or looked away in a Live Photo? Choose a better frame as the key photo in a few taps, and know when that trick isn't enough.
A Live Photo is more than a photo. When Live Photos are on, your iPhone records about a second and a half of video around the moment you tap the shutter: a little before and a little after. The still you see is just one frame of it, called the key photo, and you can change it.
That makes it the first thing to try when someone blinked, looked away or was mid-word.
How to change the key photo
- Open the photo in Photos. A Live Photo shows LIVE in the top corner.
- Tap Edit.
- Tap the Live Photo button at the bottom (the concentric circles).
- Drag the white frame along the strip of frames below the photo until you find the moment you want.
- Tap Make Key Photo, then Done.
The change can be undone. Open Edit again and tap Revert to go back to the original key photo.
What to look for in the frames
- Open eyes. A blink usually covers only two or three frames. The frames just before it are often the best.
- The real smile. Smiles peak and fade. The frames right after a laugh often have the most natural expression.
- Everyone at once. In a group photo, look for the one frame where nobody is blinking or talking. It may not exist, but it's worth a scroll.
Why the new frame looks a little softer
The original key photo is a full-resolution still. The other frames come from the video, so they have less detail and more noise, especially in low light. For a profile photo or a social post it's usually fine. For a print or a big screen, you'll notice.
When a Live Photo can't help
- Live Photos were off. Then there are no other frames. Check for a burst instead: you may have taken several photos in a row.
- The moment was too short. If your eyes were closed for the whole laugh, every frame of the laugh has closed eyes.
- It's not your phone's photo. Photos shared in most messaging apps arrive as plain stills; the Live part stays on the sender's phone. Ask them for the original, or for the frame you want.
When none of the frames has the moment, a retouch can fix the one photo you have. You can open closed eyes, soften a forced smile or fix closed eyes in a group photo, and keep everything else in the photo as it was.
Keep Live Photos on
Live Photos take a little more storage, and they turn a lot of almost-photos into good ones. To check that they're on, open the Camera and look for the Live Photo button (the concentric circles) at the top; a line through it means it's off.
Fix this in a photo
- Fix closed eyes in a group photoBlinked in the group photo where everyone else looks great? Open your own eyes in that photo. Everyone else, and everything around you, stays exactly as it was.
Keep reading
- How to brighten a dark photo of your faceYour face is in shadow but the photo is otherwise good? Free ways to brighten it on iPhone, why it often looks worse, and how to fix the light itself.
- How to fix a photo without changing your faceMany AI photo editors redraw the whole photo, and your face drifts with it. Here's how to tell a tool that fixes one thing from one that regenerates everything.
- How to fix eyes not looking at the camera in a photoLooked at the screen, at a friend or just past the lens? Why it happens, how to avoid it, and how to fix where your eyes look in a photo you already have.