iOS 17 Camera App Can Help Straighten Your Shooting Angle

The iOS Camera app offers a few optional settings to help you line up your shots, most notably a Grid that can be overlaid on the screen to help apply the rule of thirds.

ios 17 collage
And for the last few years, the Grid mode has included a somewhat-hidden leveling feature for top-down photos, popping up a floating crosshair to help make sure you're lined up properly above your subject.

With iOS 17, Apple is enhancing the camera leveling functionality, separating it out from the Grid mode to its own option and expanding it to include a horizontal level for more traditional straight-on photos.

ios 17 camera level no
Turning the Level option on will pop up a broken horizontal line on the screen when your iPhone senses you're lining up for a straight-on shot and you tilt your device slightly out of horizontal. The line appears white while your phone is out of level and then turns yellow once you achieve a level orientation to indicate success.

ios 17 camera level
The leveling pop-up only appears for a brief time and only within a narrow range of angles close to horizontal (in either portrait or landscape orientation), so it's not intrusively popping up when you're intentionally trying to take a photo at an angle.

ios 17 camera level setting
The new option appears to be off by default if you don't have Grid mode turned on before upgrading, but is on by default if you're already a Grid mode user. The option can be toggled in the Camera section of the Settings app.

The new Level feature is just one of a number of enhancements to photos in ‌iOS 17‌, including one-tap cropping, pet recognition, animated sticker creation, and Visual Look Up for recipes from photos.

(Thanks, Jake!)

Related Roundups: iOS 17, iPadOS 17
Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Top Rated Comments

psxp Avatar
16 weeks ago
this will be a handy feature
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jezbd1997 Avatar
16 weeks ago
we need a camera app redesign. it’s been how long now. app feels like a toy with the slider and how many times has everyone accidentally changed the mode
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
seinman Avatar
16 weeks ago
I love the people like “OMG stolen from [whatever] software!!!!!1111~~” as if leveling indicators haven’t been part of photography and built into cameras for decades. I had a film SLR camera in the late 90s that had a light that came on when I was holding it level.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aroom Avatar
16 weeks ago
this is a good feature available in VSCO since 10 years
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
svish Avatar
16 weeks ago
Will be very useful. These small improvements are really good.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Cheesehead Dave Avatar
16 weeks ago
Nice to see. Halide's camera app does this, and there's a very subtle haptic tap when you're leveled out.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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