How to Use Portrait Camera on iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, & iPhone 7 Plus

How to Use Portrait Camera on iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, & iPhone 7 Plus

Portrait Camera mode is a nice feature available to some of the newer iPhone models. As the name implies, its ideally suited for taking portraits of people, animals, or objects, and it uses a digital blur to create a depth effect on captured images. Portrait Camera mode can be used on select new iPhone models, including iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7 Plus, and presumably other future similar iphones, as long as they also have modern versions of iOS software. In case you were wondering, the iPhone Plus or X is required because it includes the dual camera lens, and its the secondary that is being activated for Portrait mode shots. Portrait mode is fun, and fairly easy to use once you learn how it works, its available as a camera app option like many of the other handy iPhone camera features, including , , and . Lets discuss how this feature works Once Portrait Camera is active youre ready to take pictures with the effect, but do pay attention to the onscreen messages to improve the picture quality and the likelihood it will turn out expected. When Portrait or Depth Effect is highlighted in yellow then portrait mode is active and ready to go with the subject, so tap on the camera button as usual to take the picture. The message on screen will also inform you if the image is not ready for portrait mode, in which case you should move the camera or the subject. The animated gif image below shows an example of the portrait mode effect on a tree branch with snow on it, the blur effect version has portrait mode whereas the regular version is just a normal camera picture: Generally speaking you will want to be close to the subject you are snapping a picture of with portrait mode, but let the iPhone camera app guide you with the little yellow indicator on screen. Portrait mode tends to work best with clearly defined objects, faces, people, animals, and not so well with abstract objects or anything with complex edges. Even some haircuts and hair types struggle, for example curly hair or wind-swept hair tends to blur our in Portrait Mode photos of people. The image below shows portrait mode working reasonably well on a MacBook Pro laptop, blurring out the portions of the laptop that are not in focus: Just experiment with the feature and youll quickly learn what works well and what doesnt. You will find both the Portrait mode photo (labeled as Portrait or Depth Effect) and the regular mode photo side-by-side in the general Photos album of the iPhone. Theres also a dedicated Portrait or Depth Effect album in the Photos app, how they are labeled depends on the version of iOS system software. Portrait mode is being aggressively marketed in ongoing ad campaigns by Apple, and is actively being worked on, so its certain the feature will continue to improve as time goes on. Perhaps in the future well get even more Camera app software features or manual focusing abilities to fine tune the Portrait camera on iPhone, but for now its as simple as point and shoot. And of course the iPhone X also has portrait lighting effects available in the camera mode too, which use software to blend out the background or adjust lighting on screen.