Focus, exposure and white balance on the phone camera
The manual controls tool opens three rows: Focus, Exposure and White balance. Each starts on AUTO. Sliding a row locks that control on the phone's camera; a double tap on the row, or its lock button, returns it to AUTO.
These controls act on the phone's own camera: the picture you frame, and the stills and takes you save. They do not change the simulated camera, lens or stop.
- Tap Manual controls among the tools at the top of the viewfinder. The panel opens above the shutter, out of the way of your fingers on the rails.
- Slide Focus to set the phone's focus by hand.
- Slide Exposure to brighten or darken the picture. It works as exposure compensation.
- Slide White balance to set a color temperature in kelvin.
- Tap Done to close the panel. The values you set stay locked.
Each row says what it is doing right now, AUTO or the value. To hand a row back to the phone, double-tap it or tap its lock button.
When to lock them
Locking white balance keeps the colors steady from frame to frame on a scout, so a set of stills of one location can be compared fairly. Locking exposure stops the picture pumping as you pan from a window to a dark corner. A look from the Looks panel then sits on top of a steady picture.
If that didn't work
If a slider jumps back, the camera refused that value and the thumb follows what the camera reports. On an iPad with a keyboard, Escape closes the panel.
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Updated November 2, 2026