Easy 5 Minute IPhone Stop Motion Tutorial
Up your content game with easy stop motion photography!
With the growing number of ways to market yourself – reels, IGTV, live, youtube, twitter, pinterest, video, carousel, etc, – it can be so overwhelming. And it’s easy to stick to your content comfort zone and shy away from trying something new. I get it! I have yet to touch a number of social media platforms, but I’m here to tell you that challenging yourself mix it up can work out beautifully. And learning a new skill is always fun!
With that in mind, get ready and grab your gear for this quick and easy iPhone stop motion tutorial. You'll need:
backdrop
phone stand (something that mimics a tripod)*
included wired iPhone earbuds
iPhone
objects you want captured
The below video can be seen on my IGTV post (my first one!) and is a more in depth explanation of the following steps:
lighting
You want to aim for a cloudy day, or use a room that is well lit with ambient light (no sun pouring in, with very little shadows)
setup
Prepare the scene that you will be shooting with whatever backdrop suits your needs and helps tell your story. I was going for cozy, so I opted for a dark backdrop
Set your iPhone up safely above, or near your scene with a tripod-type* situation
Secure the phone and zoom* in to capture your desired scene – make sure it’s nice and steady!
Connect your wired iPhone headphones – this will be your shutter button so you don’t have to touch the phone (we don’t want to shift it in between shots)
Once you’re all set up, do a couple test shots before moving the objects around
Ready to start clicking?
shoot!
Take a starting photo
Move the object(s) just a tiny bit, making sure not to budge the items that are meant to stay still
Remove your arms, hands, fingers, and SHADOWS from scene, and...
CLICK
Repeat this as many times as necessary for your scene’s story to finish. As you're going through, remember step 3 above - always get your shadow out of the shot in between snaps.
compile
Now that you have your stop motion photos complete, you'll want to compile them into a short video. I like to use ImgPlay - it's so EASY to turn your project into a GIF or video to share! You can follow along in my video below from 3:09. Wait until the end to see the final product!
share
At the time this was written, GIFS are not available to publish to instagram grids (but can in your stories, or on twitter), so you can make your project as a video and post throughout your social media, website, emails, etc! Enjoy!
Captioned video available on IGTV.
notes
*tripod - For this tutorial I wanted to keep it accessible to any household so instead of my tripod, I used this plant stand, my handy photoshoot stool, and mini gorilla-type phone stand, like this one…plus a few books as counterweight.
*zoom - I zoomed in using the 2x button. I would not recommend zooming in more than that default option, as the quality is not good.
Would you like some mentoring to discuss
ways to improve your at-home product photography?
These one to one coaching calls were created with the budding photographer in mind! Together we'll have a look at your online presence and go over ways to to improve your digital photography whether you shoot with a DSLR or your phone!
Check out what's involved in Photo Coaching Calls and reach out when you're ready to learn more!
Not interested in doing it yourself? Have a look at hiring out your Remote Product Photography.
