Professional Hollywood films achieve a cinematic look by using a technique called “rack focusing,” where the camera seamlessly shifts focus from a subject in the foreground to a subject in the background, blurring out everything else to direct the audience’s attention.
Historically, this required expensive camera lenses and a dedicated camera operator pulling physical focus rings. However, modern iPhones can replicate this effect entirely through software using Cinematic Mode. This feature uses the iPhone’s multiple camera lenses and advanced AI to map the depth of your scene, automatically blurring the background and smoothly shifting focus between subjects as they move.
Which iPhones Support Cinematic Mode?
Because Cinematic Mode relies on heavy real-time computational processing, it is not available on older devices. You must have an iPhone 13 or newer (including the standard, Pro, and Pro Max models) to use this feature.
How to Record in Cinematic Mode
Shooting in Cinematic Mode is almost identical to recording a standard video.
- Open the Camera app on your iPhone.
- Swipe left or right on the camera mode selector at the bottom of the screen until you highlight Cinematic.
- Point your camera at your subject. You will immediately notice the background behind them become beautifully blurred (a synthetic depth-of-field effect).
- Tap the red Record button to begin filming.
While recording, the iPhone’s AI will attempt to automatically manage the focus. For example, if you are filming a person speaking, and they suddenly turn their head to look at someone standing behind them, the iPhone will automatically detect where they are looking and smoothly shift the focus to the person in the background.
How to Manually Control Focus While Filming
If the AI is struggling to understand your scene, or if you want to create a specific creative effect, you can override the automatic focus system.
- Tap to focus: Simply tap anywhere on the screen while recording. The camera will instantly shift focus to whatever object or person you tapped, blurring out everything else.
- Lock the focus: If you want to track a specific moving object, tap and hold on the subject until the words AF Tracking Lock appear on the screen. The camera will now keep that subject in sharp focus as they move around the frame, regardless of who else walks into the shot.
How to Edit Cinematic Video After Filming
Because Cinematic Mode relies on software depth-mapping rather than a physical lens, the focus data is saved alongside the video file. This means you can completely change the focus points after you have finished filming.
- Open the Photos app and find the Cinematic video you just recorded.
- Tap the Edit button in the top right corner.
- A timeline will appear at the bottom of the screen. Look for the small yellow dots underneath the timeline; these represent moments where the camera shifted focus.
- Scrub through the video to any point in time.
- Tap anywhere on the video preview to manually change the focus point. A new yellow dot will appear on the timeline to mark your edit.
- You can also adjust the intensity of the background blur. Tap the f (aperture) button at the top of the screen and drag the slider left or right to increase or decrease the blur effect.
- Tap Done to save your changes.