How to take and view burst photos on your iPhone, to capture and save fast-action images

The iPhone's camera has a burst mode that mimics the rapid-fire exposures taken by sports and action photographers with high-end cameras. The iPhone can take about 10 frames per second, which is often enough to capture great moments during fast action like sporting events, moving vehicles, or animals in motion.

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  • You can easily take and view burst photos on your iPhone using the Camera app's burst mode, which captures images at 10 frames per second.
  • To shoot a burst of photos, just hold your finger down on the shutter release button on your iPhone camera as you take a photo. 
  • You can review a burst series by tapping "Select…" at the bottom of the burst photo, where you can save the best individual photos or keep the entire series.  
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The iPhone's camera has a burst mode that mimics the rapid-fire exposures taken by sports and action photographers with high-end cameras. 

The iPhone can take about 10 frames per second, which is often enough to capture great moments during fast action like sporting events,  moving vehicles, or animals in motion. 

To take a series of photos in burst mode, you don't need to do anything in advance – there's no setting or mode to change. Instead, just tap and hold your finger on the shutter release button. You'll capture a burst of photos as long as your finger remains on the button.

After you take a burst mode photo, it will appear in your camera roll like any other photo – though the iPhone will choose one image to represent it, and "hide" the others. You can review the entire series at any time and save them all or choose one or more of your favorite photos and delete the rest. 

Here's how to do it. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone Xs (From $999.99 at Best Buy)

How to view burst photos on an iPhone

1. Start the Photos app.

2. Tap "Albums" at the bottom of the screen.

3. Scroll down and tap "Bursts" to open the Bursts folder. 

Your collection of bursts is stored in the Bursts folder. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

4. Tap the photo you want to review, and then tap "Select…" at the bottom of the screen.

You can see all the photos in a burst series by tapping "Select…" Dave Johnson/Business Insider

5. You should now see thumbnails of all the photos at the bottom of the screen. You can swipe through the series, reviewing each image. 

6. Tap each photo that you want to save as an individual image to your camera roll. You should see a check mark appear in the lower right corner of each selected image. 

You can select as many photos as you like to export them out of the burst series and save them to your photo roll. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

7. When you're finished, tap "Done."

8. In the pop-up window, you can choose whether you want to keep the entire burst series, or only the favorites you selected. If you choose to keep everything, you can always return to the burst folder and review the photos again. Otherwise, the burst series will be deleted, and only the selected photos will be saved.

Choose whether to save the entire series of photos or just the favorites you selected. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

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Dave Johnson Freelance Writer Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider. Read more Read less

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