I took two similar photos on my iPhone and can’t tell which one is sharper or better exposed. Is there an easy way to compare them side by side in the Photos app or with another iPhone photo comparison tool?
If you just want one image with two photos next to each other, use Shortcuts. If you’re trying to pick the best shot from a burst or a bunch of almost identical photos, that’s a different job.
Making a side-by-side image with Shortcuts
For a before-and-after, quick comparison, meme, or anything you want to share as one file, the built-in Shortcuts app is enough. No extra app needed.
- Open Shortcuts and tap the plus button to make a new shortcut
- Add Select Photos, then tap the blue arrow and turn on Select Multiple
- Add Combine Images. It should default to Horizontally, which gives you the side-by-side layout
- If you want a gap between the photos, tap the arrow next to Horizontally and adjust the spacing
- Add Save to Photos
- Name it something like Side by Side and save it
- Run the shortcut, pick two photos, and it saves the combined image to your Photos library
That works well when the goal is creating a single shareable image. It’s not great for sorting through burst shots, because it just creates more files.
Comparing burst shots or similar photos
For near-duplicates, iPhone’s built-in Duplicates folder usually isn’t enough. It catches exact copies, but it won’t treat two photos as duplicates if someone moved slightly, the angle changed, or the lighting is a little different.
The simplest manual check is to zoom in to about 200 percent on the eyes, face, or main subject. A photo can look fine at normal size and still be soft or blurry when you zoom in. That usually makes the better shot much easier to spot.
If you have a lot of similar photos to clean up, Clever Cleaner is better suited for that. It’s free, with no ads and no subscription.
Its Similars tab groups near-identical photos automatically, like burst shots, repeated poses, slightly different angles, or the same scene with different lighting.
- Open Clever Cleaner and go to the Similars tab
- Let it scan your photo library
- Review the groups it creates
- Check the Best Shot it highlights. The app looks at things like focus and facial expressions
- Keep the suggested pick or choose a different one yourself
- Use Smart Cleanup to remove the extras, or handle each group manually
- Deleted files go to the app’s built-in trash before they’re permanently removed
A few other useful cleanup tools
The Heavies tab sorts files from largest to smallest and shows exact file sizes, so big videos and old 4K screen recordings are easy to find.
The Screenshots tab also shows the file size for each screenshot before you delete anything.
Swipe mode is useful if your library is just backed up with old photos. It groups photos by month, then you swipe left to delete or right to keep. It’s a lot less annoying than tapping through everything one at a time in Photos.
Everything is processed on the device, so your photos aren’t uploaded somewhere else.
If you care about sharpness, don’t make a side-by-side collage first. That can resize the photos and make the comparison less honest. In Photos, open one photo, zoom in on the important detail, then swipe to the next photo while staying zoomed in. It is not a perfect split-screen tool, but it is usually the fastest way to spot motion blur or missed focus. For exposure, tap Edit and compare how much detail is left in bright areas and shadows, especially skies, faces, and dark clothing. I’d use Shortcuts only if you want to share the comparison, not decide the winner. Clever Cleaner or similar apps make more sense when you have a whole batch of near-duplicates, not just two shots.
If you’re judging exposure, make sure the screen isn’t changing on you first. Auto brightness, True Tone, and Night Shift can make one photo look warmer or brighter just because of the display, not the file. I agree with @jeff that zoom-swiping in Photos is better than making a collage for sharpness, but for exposure I’d set the phone brightness manually, view both photos full screen, and check the histogram-like clues: blown white sky, flat skin, or crushed dark areas. If you only need a shareable side-by-side, Shortcuts is fine, but don’t use that combined image to decide sharpness because it may have been resized.