How to Set an iPhone Camera Timer (Quick Guide)

You can set a timer on your iPhone camera to take a picture without physically clicking the shutter.

Summary

• You can set a timer on your iPhone camera to give yourself time to get in the shot.
• You can set the timer to take a photo after three seconds, 5 seconds, or 10 seconds.
• The camera will take a series of 10 burst photos – you can choose the ones to keep or delete.

We’ve all been there — there’s nobody around to take a picture of your group of friends at a special location or event. Fortunately, Apple has developed a solution to this with a simple feature on the iPhone.

The built-in self timer on your iPhone camera allows you to take photos without physically clicking the button. You can set a long or short countdown timer and your camera will snap 10 burst photos to give you the perfect shot.

Here’s how to set picture timer on iPhone.

How to Set Timer on iPhone Camera

1. Open the Camera app on your iPhone.
2. Position your iPhone where you’d like the photo to be taken.
3. Tap the Camera Controls button or swipe up from the camera modes at the bottom of the screen.
4. Tap Timer, then tap 3s, 5s, or 10s.
5. Tap the Shutter button to start the timer and get in the frame. If you want to stop the timer at any point, tap the Camera Controls button, tap Timer, then tap Off.
6. Once the photo has been taken, open the Photos app.
7. Tap the photo taken with the self timer to select it.
8. Tap Burst (10) at the top right – you will be shown 10 different burst images taken using the self timer.
9. Scroll through the images, and select the ones you want to keep by tapping on them. If you’d like to keep all of them, you can skip this step.
10. Tap Done in the upper right-hand corner.
11. If you’d like to keep only the photos you selected, tap Keep Only # Favorites in the pop-up – the ‌‌# is the number of photos you selected. Otherwise, tap Keep Everything.

Making the Most of Your iPhone Photo Timer

Once you know how to set a timer on your iPhone camera, you can use it as an iPhone selfie timer, for outdoor landscapes, group photos, and more. Here are a few quick iPhone camera tips to get the best photos possible with your iPhone photo timer. Use these iPhone camera tricks to help you capture amazing images and make the most of the delayed photo timer on your iPhone!

• The iPhone’s flashlight will flash each second, and you can use that to time your photo.
• You can turn off burst for timed photos by tapping the Live Photo button at the top and then take the picture.
• If you’re using an iPhone tripod, position it at about eye level. This will usually give you the best results with the selfie timer on an iPhone, or for timed group photos. Of course, you can always mix it up if you’re feeling creative!
• For outdoor photos, make sure the sun is off to one side or behind the camera. This will help you avoid glare when you’re setting up your time-delayed photo.
• Use a tripod and the iPhone selfie-timer when taking night photos. This can benefit all your photos, but is especially useful for capturing crisp nighttime images. The shutter stays open longer in low-light situations, so using the iPhone camera timer can reduce the shaking and blurriness caused by pressing the shutter button.