Use the Camera settings on iPad

Learn how to use the focus, exposure, and other Camera settings on your iPad.

Adjust the focus and exposure

Before you take a photo, the iPad camera automatically sets the focus and exposure, and face detection balances the exposure across many faces. To manually adjust the focus and exposure, follow these steps:

Tap the screen to reveal the automatic focus area and exposure setting.
Tap where you want to move the focus area.
Next to the focus area, drag up or down to adjust the exposure.
To lock your manual focus and exposure settings for upcoming shots, touch and hold the focus area until you see AE/AF Lock; tap the screen to unlock settings.

Align your shots

To display a grid on the camera screen that can help you straighten your shots, go to Settings > Camera, then turn on Grid.

Preserve camera settings

You can preserve the last camera mode you used so it’s not reset when you next open Camera.

Go to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings.
On supported models, you can also preserve Live Photos settings.

Adjust the shutter sound volume

Adjust the volume of the shutter sound using the volume buttons on the side of your iPad. Or, when Camera is open, swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen to open Control Center, then drag .

Mute the sound using the volume buttons or the Ring/Silent switch, if your iPad has one. (In some countries or regions, muting is disabled.)

Note: The camera shutter doesn’t make a sound when Live Photos is turned on.

See Adjust the volume on iPad.

Turn scene detection off and on

On iPad Air (4th generation), the scene detection setting can identify objects in various scenes and automatically improve them.

Scene detection is on by default. To turn off scene detection, go to Settings > Camera, then turn off Scene Detection (iPadOS 14.2 or later).

Mirror the front camera

To take a mirrored selfie that captures the shot as you see it in the camera frame, go to Settings > Camera, then turn on Mirror Front Camera.

Helpful?

iPad User Guide