How to Take Live Photos and Use as Wallpaper in iPhone?

Apple provides some default wallpapers with iOS in iPhone. These wallpapers generally look simple and setting customized wallpaper will make your iPhone look beautiful. It can also help to improve your productivity when looking at your favorite picture on the screen whenever you see the phone. In this article we will explain how to get rid of boring pictures and set dynamic and live photos as wallpaper in iPhone.

What is a Live Photo?

Many users confuse live photos with videos; however, they are somewhat different. Live photo is a High Efficiency Image File (HEIF file) that act as a container to store multiple or sequence of images. It captures the moments just before and after the photo along with audio. The live photos on your iPhone contain an image in HEIC format and a video in .mov format. However, when you transfer live photos using options like AirDrop, you will get a plain JPG image and not the video. Alternatively, you can use Photos app in Mac to export the HEIF live photo image to get a .mov video along with .HEIC image.

You can do this by selecting the file and go to “File > Export > Export Unmodified Original File 1 Photo” menu.

This will create a folder containing HEIC image and MOV video as below.

Taking Live Photos in iPhone

iPhone camera by default uses “High Efficiency” format for saving the file. However, you can first check that is set properly. Tap on “Settings” app and open “Camera” settings. Go to “Format” and make sure “High Efficiency” is selected.

Now open your camera and select “Photo” mode.
Tap on “Live Photo” icon on the top right corner to enable that option.
Tap on the “Capture” or “Shutter” icon to take a picture like you do for taking any other picture.

You can also edit a live photo when viewing in Photos app using the default set of tools.

Settings Live Photo as Wallpaper in iPhone

iPhone allows you to set three types of wallpaper – still, dynamic or live photo. You can either use the same photo or choose different photos for lock and home screen wallpapers.

Tap on “Settings” app and go to “Wallpaper” option.

You will see the current wallpaper set on your iPhone and select “Choose a New Wallpaper” option.

You can select “Live” option and choose one of the default live photos come with iOS.

If you want to use a live photo taken with your own camera, tap on “Live Photos” option and select the picture.

On the next screen, make sure to tap on the live photo icon to enable that option.

Tap on “Set” button and choose one of the options from “Set Lock Screen” or “Set Home Screen” or “Set Both”.

Now your live photo will be set as a wallpaper for home or lock or both screens.

Setting Wallpaper from Photos App

There is an alternate option to set your wallpaper directly from the Photos app.

Open Photos app and go to “Albums” section.
Scroll down to view “Media Types” section where you can find how many “Live Photos” are available on your iPhone.

Tap on “Live Photos” to view all pictures and then select the one you want to set as your wallpaper.
If required, you can edit the live photo by tapping on the “Edit” link to crop or adjust the saturation, brightness, sharpness, etc. Alternatively, tap on “Live” option to add loop, bounce or long exposure.
When you are done, tap on the share icon showing on the bottom left corner of the picture.

Scroll down and select “Use as Wallpaper” option to open the same screen as explained above. Tap on “Set” button and choose your option to set the live photo as your wallpaper.

Check Live Wallpaper

If you are in doubt whether the picture is a live photo or a plain image, the best option is to select from “Live Photos” section on Photos app. Otherwise, you can open the picture from the Photos Library section and tap on it to see a “Live” nearer to top left corner. You will also see a notification on the screen when setting a wallpaper.

Finally, after setting live photo as your wallpaper, you can tap and hold on the empty area on your screen. This will animate the live photo as a video moment and lift your finger to stop the animation.

Note: You can’t use perspective zoom option with live photo while setting your wallpaper. When the live option is selected, perspective zoom option will be automatically disabled.

How to Take Live Photos and Use as Wallpaper in iPhone?