If you haven’t yet played around with Apple’s slo-mo feature on the iPhone 5s, now’s a perfect time to start. This week’s video tip has Macworld associate editor Serenity Caldwell demonstrating how to shoot slo-mo video, preview it on your own device, and share it with others.
Transcript:One of the great features of the iPhone 5s is its slow motion video mode. To use this mode, just swipe over while in the Camera app to the Slo-Mo setting.
To begin shooting a slow-motion video, make sure you’ve got your target focused, then press the record button. Your video will begin recording in what looks like real time, but don’t be fooled: there’s some slow-motion magic yet to come.
If you just want to view your masterpiece yourself, you can open up the Camera Roll. There, two new blue edit handles will drop down, allowing you to phase in and out of slow motion. But if you’d actually like to send those videos to anyone, you have to move over to iMovie, Apple’s free software for editing and sharing home movies.
iMovie automatically lists all the videos from your Camera Roll that you’ve taken. To create a project from one of them, just select the clip in question, then press the Share button, followed by Create Movie. From there, you’ll enter the Edit screen.
Unlike the Camera Roll, you can’t automatically phase in and phase out slow motion. We actually have to make some cuts first to do that. Scroll through your clip and decide where you’d like the slow motion to start.
Tap the clip, and then swipe down on it to create a cut. Once you’ve made your cut, double-tap on the clip to the right and select the Speed option. This allows you to slow down that new clip to 1/4 its original speed.
Now you’ve slowed down the middle of your future video, but you still need to create an end clip to take you out of the slow motion. When you’ve decided where your ending spot should be, select the clip and swipe downward to make a second cut. The clip to the right keeps the same speed as the clip it’s been separated from; as such, we still have a slowed clip where we’ve made our cut, and we need to speed it back up again before we can finish our movie.
To preview your movie, scroll back to the beginning of the timeline and press the play button.
Once you’re happy with how your slow-motion video has come together, tap the arrow in the upper left corner of the screen. That brings you back to the Projects area, where you can tap the Share button and then tap Save Video to send your masterpiece back to the Camera Roll.
When your slow motion movie finishes exporting, you can send it to friends via Messages, email, Instagram, Facebook, and more.
Thanks for watching!
Author: Serenity Caldwell, Associate Editor
Serenity has been writing and talking and tinkering with Apple products since she was old enough to double-click. In her spare time, she sketches, writes, acts, sings, and wears an assortment of hats.