Apple has done really well over the years with upgrading its camera features, making taking selfies on an iPhone an absolute joy. In fact, the recently released iOS 15.2 update includes a highly coveted upgrade that lets users easily enable and disable Macro mode on iPhone 13 Pro handsets. However, what a lot of users may overlook is a tiny camera feature that has been around since iOS 14 that lets someone control how their selfies look after they tap the shutter button.
By default, using the front-facing camera on an iPhone will flip a picture horizontally after it is taken. 'Mirror Front Camera' is an iPhone camera setting that lets the user take mirrored selfies and capture the shot as they see it in the front camera frame. This simple tweak in an iPhone's image orientation may not be as massive as upgrading its camera's megapixels, but it helps the user in a small way by providing them snapshots that match what they see mirrored on their phone's screen.
Before getting started, try taking a selfie with the current iPhone camera settings in order to compare it to changes later on. Tap on the Camera app on the home screen and switch to the front-facing camera by tapping the rotate button on the bottom-right corner. Tap the arrows inside the frame to increase the field of view when desired before tapping the shutter or either volume button to take the shot. Now it’s time to take a better selfie that matches what a person sees on their screen. To get the Mirror Front Camera setting—which is toggled off by default—an iPhone will need to be running a minimum of iOS 14. To turn it on, go to 'Settings', scroll down, and tap 'Camera'. Alternatively, type 'camera' in the Settings search bar and tap on the camera icon. Under 'Composition', switch the 'Mirror Front Camera' toggle on. It is worth noting that for an iPhone X or earlier, the setting will be called 'Mirror Front Photos'.
Two Ways To Get A Mirrored Selfie
To take a mirrored selfie using the new settings, tap on the Camera app on the home screen, switch to the front-facing camera, adjust the field of view if preferred by tapping the arrows inside the frame, and take the photo by tapping the shutter button or either volume button. The selfie saved in Photos will match what users see on their iPhone display instead of the usual flipped view. Unfortunately, older iPhone models and those running on iOS 13 or earlier may not have the new mirrored selfie feature available. However, users can still manually flip their photos to reflect their mirrored view. Open the photo taken in Photos and tap 'Edit'. Tap the crop icon on the bottom toolbar and press the flip button at the top-left corner of the screen. Hit 'Done' to save the changes.
It's unknown why Apple has chosen to have the Mirror Front Camera setting disabled by default. Perhaps because the flipped version of a face isn't really true to life and isn't how other people view the selfie-taker. Either way, having the option to take mirrored images will benefit those Apple users who have gotten used to seeing themselves on a photo-taking app and want the output to come out exactly the same way they see it.
Source: Apple