What to know
- iOS 17 offers a way to lock the white balance setting when shooting videos on the iPhone’s Camera app.
- When the white balance is locked, the camera won’t automatically make changes to the color hues that appear on a subject when moving between scenes and lighting conditions.
White balance is the camera setting that defines the way your device renders the colors of a subject in an image or video. Depending on the lighting condition of an environment and how the light falls on your camera, your iPhone will change the white balance setting to make sure objects in white color are reproduced in white by rectifying the color changes caused by the usual lighting.
In situations where you want the white balance setting to remain the same for an entire video recording, you may wish to lock it. In this post, we’ll explain how you can lock the white balance for videos you capture on your iPhone.
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What is White Balance Lock on iOS 17?
iPhones are equipped with algorithms that can detect and balance out unusual colors from different lighting modes that a subject is captured in. When recording a video, the white balance setting changes as you move from one scene to the other and with different lighting setups. If you want to avoid any dramatic changes in color throughout a video you capture, you may want to lock the white balance at the start of your video.
This is possible on iOS 17 as Apple now offers a dedicated setting for the Camera app to lock the white balance. When you record a video on your iPhone with the white balance locked, the Camera app will not change the white balance on its own even when you shoot from one scene to the next. This can be helpful during continuous shooting where you want your camera to capture the changes in color hues where automatic adjustment of white balance is undesirable.
Related: How to enable the StandBy mode on iPhone on iOS 17
How to lock White Balance on iOS 17
Before you can lock the White Balance on your iPhone camera, you need to make sure that your iPhone is updated to iOS 17 or newer versions by going to Settings > General > Software Update and then updating your device to iOS 17, if available.
Note: At the time of writing, iOS 17 is only available as a developer preview, so we suggest you wait for a beta or public release to avoid running into issues or bugs in the software.
To lock the white balance inside the iOS camera, open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Inside Settings, scroll down and select Camera.
On the Camera screen, tap on Record Video.
Here, turn on the Lock White Balance toggle.
This will enable white balance for videos you record on your iPhone.
You can now open the Video mode inside the Camera app and start shooting videos without worrying about changes in white balance.
Related: How to customize StandBy mode on iPhone on iOS 17
What happens when you lock the white balance?
When you lock the white balance on your iPhone camera, your device may be able to capture different color hues that fall on subjects when moving from one scene to the next one with different kinds of lighting.
Locking the white balance when shooting a moving subject also helps renders the colors of the subject naturally without letting the surrounding elements define the color. The feature results in a cinematic-like shooting where you’re shooting long videos and panning your camera across your surrounding.
If you aren’t satisfied with the results that generate with the white balance locked, you can always revert to the original setting by turning off the Lock White Balance toggle inside your camera settings.
That’s all you need to know about locking the white balance on iOS 17.
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