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Apple Shares Two New Ads Highlighting Portrait Mode on iPhone 7 Plus

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Apple this morning shared two new iPhone ads on its YouTube channel, focused on highlighting the Portrait Mode feature available on the iPhone 7 Plus. Each 15 second ad explains how Portrait Mode works through blurring the background of a photograph to make a subject stand out.

The ads include examples of images taken with Portrait Mode compared to images taken without Portrait Mode to make the differences clear. The first ad features a dog in front of trees and the second features a child in a creek.




Introduced in iOS 10.1, Portrait mode uses a shallow depth of field to make portrait photos "pop," mimicking a high-end DSLR. The feature takes advantage of the 56mm telephoto lens included in the iPhone 7 Plus, using Apple's image signal processor to scan a scene and machine learning techniques to recognize people and other objects meant to be in the foreground.

A depth map of the image from the two cameras in the iPhone is used to keep people in focus while applying an artistic blur to the background, resulting in an image that's normally not possible on a smartphone.

The two new ads follow a revamped "Shot on iPhone" ad campaign that Apple recently launched, which highlights a series of photographs all taken on a single night to promote the camera features in the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus.

Article Link: Apple Shares Two New Ads Highlighting Portrait Mode on iPhone 7 Plus
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/13/apple-ads-portrait-mode-iphone-7-plus/
Curious to know the experience others have had with this feature. For me, its been too much of a hassle getting this to work that I normally don't use it and just take a picture in the "photo" setting.
 
toph2toast said:
Curious to know the experience others have had with this feature. For me, its been too much of a hassle getting this to work that I normally don't use it and just take a picture in the "photo" setting.
Click to expand...

I have had mostly great results...it's been easy to use...with that said, I don't use it too often...still rely on the DSLR for the pro portrait look...
 
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belsokar said:
I have had mostly great results...it's been easy to use...with that said, I don't use it too often...still rely on the DSLR for the pro portrait look...
Click to expand...

I find that Portrait mode is relatively specific with being eight feet away from taking the photo. It's annoying when you don't have it positioned just right. I think Apple can improve on the speed of the focus and distance. Otherwise, it can easily expand beyond its capabilities currently.
 
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iPhone camera features are getting more and more gimmicky. First Live Photos, which tend to look janky and serve no real purpose, and now fake shallow depth of field with finicky requirements to use it and get right.

I like having a camera on my phone for things like showing my spouse what I'm looking at right now and to remind myself of something. But for actual photography I've switched back to using a real camera with real camera features (hello Sony rx100 v). The difference is astounding.

To each their own but all these new iPhone camera features just seem silly to me.
 
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I'll be honest, the upgrade in RAM, camera, 1080p screen, they really didn't make it worth it to me.

Don't get me wrong. It's a great phone. I'm just using my 6s right now and I sorely miss the size. Also for some reason, the 6s screen looks better to my eyes.

My 7+ is definitely getting flipped by either being sold or traded in to JUMP with T-Mobile. It's not a keeper.
 
Portrait mode is a gimmick so are the two lenses. I get actual bokeh with my 20MP Zeiss Pureview. In one lens .The way Apl does it is fokeh and only 12MP.
 
"Share" seems kind of arrogant (just like Apple I guess). Just say "Apple posts two new ads", more accurate and less off-putting.
 
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Nice adverts, the feature itself is great, one that I use regularly and well worth getting the iPhone 7 Plus for.
 
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My wife has an iphone 7+ and while the rest of the phone is really nice the camera is what I love. Portrait mode is such a great feature and addition. I have fancy lenses and cameras but the convenience is the selling point. It will be really nice when they can add a 1.8 or 1.4 aperture to the phone.
 
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Came here expecting to be critical but this actually looks cool, software hack or not. I wouldn't buy the Plus for it but it's a nice feature.
 
belsokar said:
I have had mostly great results...it's been easy to use...with that said, I don't use it too often...still rely on the DSLR for the pro portrait look...
Click to expand...

I feel like its situational. If you and the subject aren't moving, then its fine. But if I try to take pictures of my daughter and shes moving around, its not the best. I was in an airport trying to show one of my co-workers what the feature does (apparently I couldn't explain it well enough :cool:) and it simply would not register a subject and blur out the background. After a few attempts I just gave up.

Its still a great camera though, but the "portrait" mode isn't polished enough for me.
 
darcyf said:
iPhone camera features are getting more and more gimmicky. First Live Photos, which tend to look janky and serve no real purpose, and now fake shallow depth of field with finicky requirements to use it and get right.

...

To each their own but all these new iPhone camera features just seem silly to me.
Click to expand...
I disagree. With a young child who can't sit still and family living far away, live photos creates a mini movie that captures motion and sound. Live photos help to connect my child to the rest of our family. It's a brilliant feature.

To say a feature doesn't fit your narrow scope of needs doesn't mean the rest of us don't find it neat or even helpful.
[doublepost=1487019662][/doublepost]I just wish the 2x lens had optical image stabilization like the 1x lens.
 
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I can't wait until this technology gets better. Increasing the resolution and number of depth layers (which will inevitably happen with better camera technology) is going to help with the foreground/background edge issues and finer details like hair. Then on the software side they need to better approximate true optical bokeh (circular shaped artifacts with intensity based on specular highlights) instead of the simpler blurring they're doing now. Again, faster hardware will help with the heavy lift of processing this in real time. In the short term they could do a fast real-time algorithm for preview to approximate, then have the device crunch out the more accurate blurring in the background later.

In 5 years or so, this technique is going to be amazing. It's already "OK", but it can be a lot better.
 
Fynd said:
Having 2x zoom is no gimmick, it's quite handy.
Click to expand...

It's not "zoom" its a 56mm lens. It has a fixed f/2.8 aperture, capturing less than half the light as its wide-angle 28mm f/1.8 partner.

You notice all Apl photos are cherry picked to show of their fokeh, fake bokeh. One lens collects light the other less than half as much light as the first lens..sort of weird and not "magical"

Photography 101...f/2.8 is lame for a 56mm, f/1.8 is the norm
 
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darcyf said:
iPhone camera features are getting more and more gimmicky. First Live Photos, which tend to look janky and serve no real purpose, and now fake shallow depth of field with finicky requirements to use it and get right.

I like having a camera on my phone for things like showing my spouse what I'm looking at right now and to remind myself of something. But for actual photography I've switched back to using a real camera with real camera features (hello Sony rx100 v). The difference is astounding.

To each their own but all these new iPhone camera features just seem silly to me.
Click to expand...
Honestly I think the portrait mode feature is pretty legit. It doesn't look like real bokeh but it's definitely passable for the untrained eye*. What I think is absolutely a gimmick is Live Photos. I remember Apple advertising that as an actual FEATURE of the iPhone 6S and I felt like face palming so hard that all I could think of is this picture:
facepalm.jpg~c200


By the way, I'm so jelly of that Sony. The things that Sony is doing these days even in the low- to mid-end are insane. And not to mention that A7RII. I could drool a river over that thing.

* edit -
I say "passable to the untrained eye." It's a hit or a miss. Don't take that at face value.
 
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