Apple Live Photos brings Harry Potter-style magic to photo album

SAY goodbye to the humble snapshot, because an important and magical change is coming to your iPhone’s photo album.

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YOU might not be getting a cloak of invisibility for Christmas but another piece of Harry Potter magic is about to change your life.

With the launch of the Apple iPhone 6S next week, and the latest video filters that are flavour of the month on Snapchat, one of the big changes coming is that the humble still photo is no longer still, and not that humble.

Apple announced Live Photos last week, explaining that the default setting of the new iPhone 6S is to have Live Photos turned on, so that every photo you will take with an iPhone 6S you will also be taking three seconds of video — one-and-a-half seconds either side of the moment you push the shutter.

Existing iPhone users can’t take Live Photos - that’s a feature of the new camera in the 6S to be released on Friday next week. But you can look at a Live Photo on an older iPhone or iPad, so long as it is running the new iOS9 operating system launched this week and you will see the motion.

New phone ... Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the iPhone 6S. Picture: AFP

Unveiling the technology in San Francisco last week, Apple showed a photograph of someone standing in front of a waterfall which also contained the motion of the cascading water.

The idea of linking video and still photography is not revolutionary from Apple — others have gone down this path.

Snapchat recently launched some video filters that are either wonderful silliness or downright stupid, depending on your point of view, that let you create zany video selfies with cartoon tears coming out of your eyes or your mouth vomiting a rainbow.

Teaching mom how to @Snapchat pic.twitter.com/XrEJ5FCm2w

— Mike Beck (@MikeBeck33) September 16, 2015

IM CRYING I LOVE THIS SO MUCH @Snapchat pic.twitter.com/M0ZvYWsiV7

— Madalyn (@maddferry_) September 15, 2015

If you are wondering why anyone would want to vomit a rainbow, then you’re probably not in the under 21 age group that is the typical Snapchat user.

While the Snapchat filters are just a fun gimmick, Apple’s Live Photos have the potential to be a lot more.

Forbes magazine has already described the format, that doesn’t launch until next week, as revolutionising photography.

It might sound like a big call, or a bit of Apple-loving hyperbole, but it comes down to numbers. The iPhone is the most popular camera in the world — and the new iPhone takes Live Photos with every snap of the shutter.