Taking photos of projected images

My wife is using an iPhone 14 Pro Max and is sometimes at conferences where she takes photos of projected material. The issue is that colors are really off, and I have a hard time explaining why this is. Current theory is that the shutter speed is faster than the projector’s refresh rate, but if anyone has a more precise explanation, I’d love to learn about this effect.

The workaround we have found is to use “live photos” and switch the mode to “long exposure” in the Photos app.

Is there a way to set the “long exposure” option and have it stick?

Attaching two photos to show the overly saturated “live photo” vs the “long exposure” one. It almost looks like each third of the screen is being lit by red, green and blue at the time of exposure. Weird…


I think your only other option is a camera app like Halide that lets you control the shutter speed. In Halide’s case you vertically swipe in manual mode to change the shutter speed, and it gives you a realtime preview to help you dial in the setting.

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