Wired
We all know the problem: As soon as it begins to dawn or it is already dark, iPhone photos are actually no longer usable. Because on almost all iPhone models – except the iPhone 11, which has an integrated night mode – the photo quality suffers in low light and the image noise takes over. How you can still use the iPhone night mode on almost all models, we show you below.
NeuralCam app for night shots
You have certainly noticed that the iPhone camera no longer provides usable results in poor lighting conditions. Perhaps the bad image quality in dark surroundings is already getting on your nerves that you are thinking about buying an iPhone 11. This has a built-in night mode at the factory and enables impressively bright and sharp pictures even in the dark (more on that in a moment).
If you don’t want to spend € 1000 on the new iPhone 11 just to enjoy the improved night shots, you can download the NeuralCam app on your iPhone for the current price of € 5.49 (as of January 8, 2020). With the app, you take significantly brighter and clearer pictures in dimly lit environments than is possible with the standard camera app. Based on artificial intelligence and special image processing algorithms, NeuralCam creates a single high-quality image from several individual images, which does not need to shy away from the comparison with the iPhone 11 night shots.
NeuralCam – Night Mode Camera (€ 6.99, App Store) →
Note: The app supports all iPhone models from iPhone 6 and requires at least iOS 12!
Night shots on older iPhone models with NeuralCam
To demonstrate how good photos can be in low light with the NeuralCam, we tested the app on an iPhone X. The difference between the photo with the normal iPhone camera app (left) and NeuralCam (right) can be clearly seen. While the photo with the camera app looks dark and with noise, the NeuralCam photo looks almost as if we had illuminated the plant on it.
Thanks to the simple user interface, the NeuralCam app is almost self-explanatory. All you have to do is position the photo object and hold the iPhone still while you take the photo. Image processing, in which several photos are merged into a brighter and sharper image, only takes a few seconds.
You can then easily save the photo you have just created in your recordings using the Share menu. The whole thing also works with the iPhone front camera for selfies in poor light, as well as close-ups and the ultra wide-angle camera of the iPhone 11.
NeuralCam – Night Mode Camera (€ 6.99, App Store) →
Use iPhone 11 night mode
Night mode is already integrated into the iPhone on all models from the iPhone 11. Manually activate it, but you cannot. So the iPhone automatically notices when you are in a dark environment and switches on the night mode by itself. You can see whether the function is active by the small yellow night mode symbol in the top left corner. You must also have selected the 1x camera.
A number is also displayed within the night mode icon, indicating how long the recording will take (in our example, it is 3 seconds). This is due to the different shutter speed, which varies depending on how dark it is. By the way, live photos and speed cameras are always deactivated during night mode and must be activated manually. However, you can no longer use night mode.
To set the length of the exposure time in night mode, simply tap the night mode icon in the top left. With the slider above the trigger you can choose between the options “Auto” and “Max”. In “Auto” mode, the camera decides how long it will take …
… while “Max” ensures the longest exposure time.
As soon as you press the trigger, a timer is also counted down here. Remember to keep the iPhone completely still during the recording, otherwise the photo will be blurred due to the long exposure time.
Source: iPhone Tricks