With the Portrait function of the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, you can take beautiful photos with a depth effect. But sometimes it is better to turn this off afterwards. We show you how.
New Portrait features from iOS 11
Apple introduced the iPhone camera Portrait mode with the iPhone 7 Plus and iOS 10.1. By using the dual camera lens of the 7 Plus, 8 Plus and X, the object or person you are focusing on is highlighted. The rest of the photo can be blurred, so that you can take better portraits.
Although the feature already appeared at the end of 2016, it has only really been finished since iOS 11. The beta tag is gone when you open the booth and Apple has also added some useful features. In addition, the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X have the so-called Portrait Lighting function. This mode gives you four options to artificially adjust the exposure. This makes it seem like a spotlight is shining on someone, or you are aiming a lamp at someone’s face. You can read more about this in the iPhone 8 Plus review.
The image format introduced by iOS 11 allows Apple to add more info to photos while still saving storage space. Please note that for the steps below you must run at least iOS 11 or higher on your iPhone. You also logically need an iPhone with a dual camera lens to be able to use the Portrait mode at all.
This way you can remove the Portrait mode depth effect
- Open the Apple Camera app;
- Tap ‘Portrait’ and take a photo with depth effect;
- Open the photo you just took;
- Tap ‘Edit’;
- Switch between the photo with and without a depth effect by tapping ‘Depth’.
The feature is a welcome improvement to Portrait mode, as the technique doesn’t always work perfectly. This occasionally ensures that a beautiful photo is ruined by lines that do not run well or are accidentally blurred. By easily adjusting this afterwards, you can use the Portrait mode with confidence. Without the risk of missing a moment.