This viral iPhone 12 wedding dress pic creeped out the internet

Always make sure your phone camera is in the right mode, folks.
 By 
Alex Perry
 on 
All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.
Group of three confused while looking at phone
A viral iPhone 12 photo baffles the internet. Credit: Canva / Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

Ah, the perils of accidentally taking an iPhone photo in the wrong mode.

Over the weekend, an Instagram post from user Tessa Coates (@wheatpraylove) caught some traction online because, for lack of better phrasing, it made her iPhone 12 camera seem like it was going haywire.

Reflection inside iPhone 12 picture baffled the internet

In the photo, Coates is in a wedding dress standing in front of two mirrors, but both are reflecting entirely different poses from the one she's actually striking. It's bizarre.


You May Also Like

Of course, as TechRadar noted, this sent internet sleuths into a frenzy to figure out how the heck that could happen. One theory was that the iPhone's photographic software simply couldn't deal with mirrors. That would be funny, but as YouTuber iPhonedo pointed out, that's not actually the case.

Put simply, despite the initial Instagram caption insisting the photo wasn't shot in panorama mode, it was, indeed, shot in panorama mode. The image's resolution and aspect ratios aren't correct for the default iPhone photo settings. Beyond that, it turns out there's a little quirk that causes the panorama symbol to not appear on panoramic photos if you don't finish the horizontal sweep.

Do that, and you may get a photo that doesn't look panoramic, but stitches together multiple shots (and thus, multiple posts) in a more normal-looking aspect ratio. That, it appears, is how you end up with three different poses in one photo.

Go ahead and play with this bug now before Apple inevitably fixes it.

Topics iPhone

journalist alex perry looking at a smartphone
Alex Perry
Tech Reporter

Alex Perry is a tech reporter at Mashable who primarily covers video games and consumer tech. Alex has spent most of the last decade reviewing games, smartphones, headphones, and laptops, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. He is also a Pisces, a cat lover, and a Kansas City sports fan. Alex can be found on Bluesky at yelix.bsky.social.

Mashable Potato

Recommended For You
Artemis 2 wet dress rehearsal livestream: Watch the rocket test live
NASA preparing the SLS for Artemis 2

Connor Storrie, Hudson Williams, and Seventeen's Joshua are the Golden Globes' most viral meet-cute
A side-by-side image of Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams presenting at the Golden Globes and Joshua Hong on the red carpet


'The Drama' review: Zendaya and Robert Pattinson deliver cringe comedy in troubling wedding romance
Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in "The Drama."

Comparing iPhone 17e vs. iPhone 17: Is the new $599 phone good enough?
iphone 17 and 17e on blue background

More in Tech

Trending on Mashable
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for April 3, 2026
Connections game on a smartphone

NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for April 4, 2026
Connections game on a smartphone

Wordle today: Answer, hints for April 3, 2026
Wordle game on a smartphone

Google launches Gemma 4, a new open-source model: How to try it
Google Gemma

Wordle today: Answer, hints for April 4, 2026
Wordle game on a smartphone
The biggest stories of the day delivered to your inbox.
These newsletters may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. By clicking Subscribe, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Thanks for signing up. See you at your inbox!