A woman shared her delight after she discovered that she could record in cinematic mode using the front-facing camera of her iPhone.
Tiffany Flores (@tiffyfirz) posted about her latest findings on TikTok, where her video garnered over 26,000 views.
In the short clip, the woman sits in her car, filming herself with the phone’s front-facing camera.
“Am I the only one that didn’t know that you could do cinematic on the front-facing camera?” she asks her viewers.
Cinematic mode is a feature on iPhone cameras that records videos using a shallow depth of field. This results in a video that has a blurred background and a sharper subject. It allows for users to achieve a cinematic quality in their homemade videos, no matter their expertise when it comes to filming.
“The quality is so good,” Flores says, turning her head back and forth.
How to use Cinematic mode on iPhone’s front-facing camera?
It’s pretty simple to enable the iPhone’s cinematic record feature. First, open the camera app and swipe to Cinematic mode at the bottom. Next, hit the camera switcher icon to use the front-facing camera.
Then, while holding the camera in landscape mode, tap the arrow on the left to show the various video settings. This allows users to control features such as depth-of-field, zoom, exposure, and flash. Once these settings have been adjusted, press the red button to begin recording.
Can you shoot a movie on a iPhone?
While the cinematic recording mode is a relatively new feature on the iPhone’s camera, filmmakers have been using the device to record high-quality videos for many years. In fact, there are a number of feature-length Hollywood films that have been shot on iPhones.
Sean Baker’s Tangerine (2015) was one of the first high-profile movies to be shot entirely on an iPhone. The director used an iPhone 5S along with an anamorphic adapter, which allowed him to capture a wider image than the phone’s lens would allow, and a Steadicam Smoothee gimbal rig.
More recently, British filmmaker Danny Boyle shot ’28 Years Later’ (2025) with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, albeit with some “a lot of rigging and upgrading … that most smartphone filmmakers and everyday videographers wouldn’t usually have access to.”
Viewers react to the iPhone camera feature
Many viewers appeared to appreciate the tip about the iPhone’s cinematic video recording capabilities. They let Flores know so in the comments.
“Never knew,” wrote one user.
“I didn’t know either thanks for sharing,” said another.
Several commenters also left notes admiring the TikToker’s physical appearance, which appeared in crystal clear detail thanks to her phone’s cinematic recording feature.
“Yasss let’s see that face card in cinematic,” one appreciative user said.
“Sheeee u r cinematic mami damn,” exclaimed another.
The Daily Dot reached out to Flores via email.
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