Portrait mode is a functional continuation of the iPhone 7 Plus, which received a new impetus for the development of photos with a blurred background in the iPhone X and 8 Plus generation. The manufacturer managed to add portrait lighting. Both instruments use detailed data obtained from dual cameras. It's about cutting out objects from the general background or giving images a new light. In this article we will talk about how all this is done and whether there is a portrait mode on iPhone 8.
Portrait studio lighting will make a movie star out of anyone!
iPhone 8 – is there portrait photography or not?
Buyers and future iPhone owners always check its specifications before choosing a device to purchase. But, in the case of the iPhone 8, most photographers, stylists or just Instagram lovers were left confused because they could not find the portrait mode in the camera settings on the iPhone 8.
That's right, if we look at the official information on the Apple website, we will find the following devices that support the “Portrait” function among the new iPhones with dual cameras:
iPhone 7 Plus (previous generation of portrait photography);
But don’t rush to get upset. Despite the lack of portrait mode on the iPhone 8, you can always download a proven application that can complement your colorful photos with the “Bokeh” effect or optical blur.
Using Portrait Mode on iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X
There's nothing complicated. You take a photo, and your iPhone X or 8 Plus takes care of it thanks to the dual camera on the back of the device. The portrait mode function lives in the application along with other modes (slow-mo, burst shooting, panorama).
If you want the iPhone X's rear camera to work in portrait mode by default, dig into the settings. “Settings>Camera>Preserve Settings” (Settings>Camera>Save settings). Drag the slider to the desired position and enjoy your work.
The photos will remain in an automatically created folder in the Photos app. Such an album will be created even if your iPhone does not have portrait mode (the most important thing is that portrait photos are in the library). For example, you can use your iPad with the same cloud photo library that you have on your iPhone 8 Plus. One of your friends can also send you a portrait photo via iMessage.
The described album will be in your library along with other automatically created albums (panoramas, live photos, etc.).
Portrait selfies
Now humanity can relax! New feature in Apple's 2017 flagships.
You can take portrait selfies with a blur effect on iPhone X. This was achieved thanks to the presence of a 7MP front camera (both cameras) with a portrait mode, which produces 3D models of faces. You just take a regular selfie, which will be much better quality. In the photo you will stand out from the general background. Photo processing is quite fast thanks to the Apple A11 processor.
Use portrait lighting
Portrait lighting and studio photo effects are a very important feature that the iPhone X and iPhone 8 plus have. In this case, we are talking about using detailed information obtained from two lenses at once. The smartphone creates a 3D model of the things you photograph. Moreover, you will definitely enjoy the fun work of artificial intelligence. The iPhone will work with all objects that are in the frame.
Portrait mode can be compared to the early beta versions of portrait mode that were used on the iPhone 7 plus: it behaves in a very “capricious” way. If you managed to take the photo correctly, it will look great. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. For example, the Stage Light Filter illuminates your face with dramatic focus, plunging the background into darkness. This may all look very good, but if the natural light of the photo illuminates the edges of your hairstyle, it will create a weird-looking halo around your head.
To access portrait lighting, you need to go to the editing section of the camera and photo app. Click on "Edit" and then select the effect you want. At the moment, the mode does not provide fine-tuning, but you can always use effects and traditional filters and editing methods (on top of the portrait lighting effect). Overall, these tools are very powerful.
How to remove portrait effects
The photo that is taken is ready for subsequent changes. You can remove both Portrait Lighting and Portrait Mode at any time in the future. If you are familiar with disabling the animated element of a Live Photo, then everything will be intuitively clear to you. Just open the photo and then click Edit. On the familiar editing screen, you will see a yellow “Portrait” panel. Click on the panel to turn it on or off.
The future of portrait mode
Portrait mode and portrait lighting show what happens when you combine hardware capabilities (dual cameras, crazy Face ID camera), computer power and imagination. Portrait mode solved the problem of cell phone cameras. Their size is not sufficient to create a blurred background in the photo (regular cameras do not have this drawback). The same technology has begun to be used to perform an effect that no other camera can achieve. We are talking about new lighting for a photo that has already been taken.
There is a suspicion that these are not the last smart lighting effects that Apple engineers have prepared. It is possible that in the future portrait lighting will also be useful for videos. This will make our home videos truly amazing. It is possible that iPhone owners will even start shooting Hollywood-level films.
The updated version of iOS 10.1 firmware includes improved security of user data, more stable operation of RAM and a number of new functions of standard programs. With the release of iOS 10.1, the Camera app introduced the option to take photos in portrait mode. Let's take a closer look at all the features of this option, and how to use portrait mode in iPhone 7.
Features of using the effect
Portrait mode is a way of taking a photo that automatically detects the foreground of the photo. After taking a photo, the background automatically appears blurred. This way, harmony and depth of all components of the image are achieved. This feature is not innovative for smart devices. Previously it was available in professional and semi-professional cameras. Attempts by other companies to add a portrait mode have not been particularly successful, with users noting the poor quality of image creation.
Thanks to the dual camera lens in the iPhone 7 Plus, the quality of portrait photography in some cases even exceeds the results of semi-professional cameras.
To create your own photo in Portrait Mode, open the standard Camera application in the main menu of your iPhone. All available shooting modes are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Smoothly scroll the list from right to left to see all the functions. Find and select Portrait.
Before you take a photo, make sure you follow these tips:
- To ensure that the subject is clearly visible in the final image, move 2 meters away from it. The camera will automatically detect the foreground and background;
- Follow the app's built-in tips. This will maximize the depth effect of the photo. For example, “move a little further away” or “add more light.” Tips and tricks are displayed in a yellow rectangle at the bottom of the screen;
- After pressing the “Take Photo” button, do not move the phone for several seconds. Otherwise, the composition of the photo may be disrupted.
With the help of portrait photography, you can photograph not only people, but also animals, plants, and stationary objects. In the pictures below you can see the results of using the new option, which is currently only available on the iPhone 7 Plus.
As you may remember, Portrait mode, or otherwise “Bokeh effect,” appeared in the iPhone 7 Plus in the fall of 2016.
For those who don’t know, using this function, you can take very interesting pictures with a blurred background. It was Apple that gave birth to the fashion for such photos that were taken on a mobile phone.
Today I want to discuss a question that is sometimes asked by users of devices such as the iPhone 6S, iPhone 7 and iPhone 8. Do they have the ability to take such wonderful photographs?
Is there Portrait mode on iPhone 7 or iPhone 8?
If you are currently holding your favorite iPhone 7 or iPhone 8 in your hands, and try to find the camera mode "Portrait", then of course you won’t see him there. 
Every year, Apple likes to highlight a certain device by installing one or more unique features in it. I don’t think you need to explain the reason for this policy. After all, this process is usually done with the most expensive devices and this can bring more profit to the campaign.
In 2016, the iPhone 7 Plus became such a device. It was in it that we first saw a smartphone that was equipped with a dual camera and the main explanation for this action was two functions: 2x optical zoom and portrait mode.
Now it’s 2018 and this time, two devices have already received the same benefits, only now it’s the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X.
If you read carefully, you most likely have already guessed that there are no hints at all about the presence of portrait mode in the iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and especially the iPhone 6S. Unfortunately, this technology is not implemented in these smartphones, since it requires a dual camera.
Of course, you can do this using different applications and blur the background manually. But as practice shows, this is a long process and it will be very difficult to get a good result (examples: Depth Effects, Patch: Smart Portrait Editor and others).
Why is there no portrait mode on iPhone 7 and 8?
By and large, I have already voiced the main reasons and a little later I will list them. For now, I want to discuss a little why this feature was not implemented in the iPhone 7 and 8. 
As practice has shown, it is possible to implement such a function in a regular camera. This is exactly what we were shown in a smartphone like the Pixel 2, which by the way tops various ratings for shooting quality among all smartphones.
This once again confirms the theory that Apple likes to highlight devices and make them special. In order to buy more of them, they make more expensive devices desirable, so to speak, and force buyers to overpay.
On the other hand, if Apple uses a second camera for blur, then Google's phone simply uses good software. The same function is simply implemented in different ways.
Well, the main reasons that you will hear everywhere are the following:
- there is no dual camera and less RAM, which simply does not make it possible to take such photographs;
- I want to make more profit, leaving the best functions to my flagships.
If you have anything to add about this, just write about it in the comments. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Apple's approach.
1The article talks about a wide angle, which is rumored to be 28mm. Isn't 18mm or less considered a wide angle? It's really interesting to see and hear about examples of photographic work done at a wide angle and compare its equivalent in mm.
@mrrc, less than 18mm (equivalent to 35) is super wide. And often at such an angle and wider, geometric distortions arise, and perspective is lost. For most situations when you need to shoot a large object or take a group portrait, 24-28mm is really enough. Something broader is specific shots, often with a complex artistic idea, with an altered sense of perspective and somewhat distorted geometry (bending edges, like a fish-eye). I can't attach examples. But just for fun, look on Google for photos with, for example, Carl Zeiss Batis 2.8/18 and Carl Zeiss Batis 2/25 - 18mm and 25mm, respectively. I named the first thing that came to mind from good fixes of the angles in question. Or look at something wider-angle like 16-35 or 11-24 from Kenon
@mrrc, again - the 18mm you might have in mind is 18mm on 18-55 lenses, which usually go to budget mirrors with an APS-C matrix, smaller than on full-frame DSLRs, the matrix size of which corresponds to the frame size of 35 mm film , the equivalent to which everything is calculated. And for such a camera (with an APS-C matrix), such an 18 mm lens will have a viewing angle equivalent to 26 or 28 mm on a full-frame (35 mm) matrix.
And all equivalent focal lengths to it are counted. Moreover, the exact focal lengths (not equivalent) of phone cameras will be only a few millimeters.
I hope I didn't explain it too confusingly :)
@vic73_06, I understand you, I have an idea about photographic equipment. Yes, I meant 18 on the crop, if the 7 has a full-format matrix (is this true?), then the specified “wide angle” of 28mm may be acceptable. How long was the wide angle then in the previous generation of iPhone, if now there was a separate emphasis on the wide-angle lens?
@mrrc, apparently I didn’t write it correctly...
The iPhone 6s has a 1/3″ (one third of an inch) matrix, since nothing noticeably larger will fit there. The competitors have the largest one that I found - 1/2.3″ for the Sony Z5. Moreover, not full-frame and not even APS-C (as on younger DSLRs).
The iPhone 6s lens has an equivalent focal length of 29mm.
Regarding confusion - all lenses have an optical design parameter “Focal Length”. Depending on the size of the matrix, you will get different viewing angles at the same focal length. And to avoid any confusion, the photographers came up with the idea of calculating the equivalent of a 35mm frame, mistaking it for a crop factor of 1.
This happened due to the fact that old photographers who switched from film to digital for the first time were accustomed to the full frame of film (having the same dimensions as the matrix of modern full-frame digital cameras), but the first digital SLRs were only cropped.
Then, knowing the crop factor and the actual focal length, you can estimate what viewing angle this lens will have on a given matrix relative to a full-frame lens. To do this, just multiply the focal length by the crop factor.
Kenon on an APS-C matrix has a higher crop factor - 1.6, most others have 1.5. In this case, 18mm on the crop will be 28.8mm or 27mm depending on the crop. Those. 18mm on such a matrix will give approximately the same viewing angle as a 29mm or 27mm lens.
The problem is that lenses on crop cameras are marked with an absolute focal length value. Hence the confusion.
To summarize, we can roughly say that the lens on the iPhone has a viewing angle almost the same as 18mm on crop or 28mm on full frame.
The iPhone 6s, with an equivalent value of 29mm, has a 1/3″ matrix. The crop factor for such a matrix is approximately 5 (considered as the diagonal of the full frame divided by the diagonal of the matrix). It turns out that this smartphone has a lens with a focal length of approximately 5.8mm. And 29 is only a very conditional equivalent, giving an idea of the viewing angle in the values usual for a full-frame matrix.
Accordingly, the iPhone 7 has an equivalent value of 28. If the matrix size is still 1/3″, then in fact the lens of the new product has a focal length of 5.6mm.
As a result, the difference in angle width is not so great, most likely even barely noticeable, but it is there, the shooting angle is indeed wider than that of the previous generation. That is more marketing. Although we need to look at it in practice.
The viewing angle of both lenses is approximately the same as on the kit lenses of budget SLR cameras. But it’s already more than possible on system cameras (including SLRs) when using advanced ultra-high-angle lenses. Another question is that such lenses themselves will cost more than a brand new iPhone, sometimes many times.
There is a new feature called "Depth". After you take a portrait photo, you can adjust the level of background blur. Apple is promoting this feature as one of the best features of the iPhone XS. However, you can also use it on iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, and even iPhone 7 Plus using a third-party app.
The iPhone XS's new sensor blurs different parts of a photo at different levels. The effect is similar to that of DSLR cameras. Smartphones like the Pixel 2 work differently.
How to adjust background blur oniPhone X, iPhone 8 PlusAndiPhone 7 Plus
The Focos application has already made it into ours, and there is a reason for this. It fixes one of the biggest shortcomings of portrait mode. Older iPhone models blurred out extraneous elements in photos in almost all cases.
Portrait mode does not always recognize ears, glasses, and hairstyle edges. Focos allows you to not only adjust the blur level, but also adjust the focal point. You can open a photo and change its focus, as well as adjust the depth effect. The application does its job very well. Moreover, basic functions are available for free.
Here's how it works. Once you install the app, simply open it. You will see a camera, and below there is a grid with ready-made photos. Select a photo to open it.
There will be a slider under the photo. Move it to the left to reduce the blur, and move it to the right to increase it. That's all, adjusting the blur is so easy! The application uses data about the depth of the photo itself, so the edges of the object will not be blurred.
The Focos app allows you to change the aperture from f/20 to f/1.4. You can even change the shape of the blur effect. There's even a 3D editing tool available.
All this can be done in the application for free, and these functions will be enough for most users. To gain access to all features, you can purchase a paid subscription.
