Apple Highlights Photos Shot on iPhone XR

[MacRumors]

Apple today highlighted "Shot on iPhone" photos captured with its latest smartphone, the iPhone XR. Apple shared portraits, landscapes, and more that iPhone XR users posted on social networks like Instagram and Twitter.

Apple's iPhone XR is equipped with the same 12-megapixel wide-angle lens that's in the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, and it has all of the same features like Smart HDR and Depth Control for adjusting the amount of blur in a Portrait mode photo.

Image via photographer Austin Mann​

The iPhone XR is unique among iPhones because its rear-facing Portrait mode option doesn't require a two-lens camera setup.

Instead of relying on a telephoto and a wide-angle lens to separate the subject of a photo from the background, the iPhone XR uses software to create a similar effect. As a result, Portrait mode photos captured on the XR only work with people and aren't available for other subject matter like pets and food.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Herald Herrera (@heraldherrera) on Nov 11, 2018 at 1:15pm PST​

As a bonus, though, because rear Portrait mode on the iPhone XR uses the wide-angle lens with wider f/1.8 aperture instead of the f/2.4 telephoto lens used by the iPhone XS and XS Max, its Portrait photos can come out better in low lighting conditions.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Austin Mann (@austinmann) on Oct 26, 2018 at 2:05pm PDT​

The iPhone XR, like the XS and XS Max, uses a TrueDepth camera system for the front-facing camera with a 7-megapixel setup. TrueDepth on iPhone XR is identical to TrueDepth on Apple's pricier iPhones, allowing for a full front-facing Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting options.

iPhone XR: First Photoshoothttps://t.co/vP2Wihoroq#iphonexr pic.twitter.com/xqusSPZvVY - Tyler Stalman (@stalman) October 26, 2018

Apple previously shared a series of images that were shot on iPhone XS and XS Max following the launch of those two devices. The company's full selection of iPhone XR photos can be seen in its Apple newsroom article.

Article Link: Apple Highlights Photos Shot on iPhone XR

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Cool, Tyler's pictures are from Dundas Peak, my current lock screen photo.

 

[AngerDanger]

That's a fantastic photo of Angela Ahrendts.

 

[viizi]

How come it blurs the edge of her face near her lips? Also, the beanie at the back is a bit blurry.

 

[dilbert99]

That's a fantastic photo of Angela Ahrendts.

The Apple camera is simply fantastic. (to make someone look much younger, must be the beauty filter)
Well the sony sensor is and Apple like most camera phone makers nowadays take great pictures.
Apple is unlikely to trumpet what this current crop of sensors cannot do.
Perhaps I can test out my XR if I ever get around to buying one. Money has been sitting there for ages, just haven't got around to picking a phone.

One thing to note though is that while other maker can apply blur to any picture the XR can't because Apple has disabled this feature in software.

 

[zakarhino]

Yep, it’s a terrific camera. Well done Apple’s camera team, always delivering.

 

[nepalisherpa]

I occasionally switch between Android and iOS, and when I do, I go for a Samsung phone. I have always been impressed with pictures taken on Samsung phones (Note 8, most recently) and this is the first time I have been happy with pictures taken with an iPhone. I currently have an XS.

 

[MhaelK]

How come it blurs the edge of her face near her lips? Also, the beanie at the back is a bit blurry.

It is because the blur is added in post, through the use of the single lens and ai/machine learning. Reviews are saying that this process is not nearly as accurate as the Dual lens set-up on the Xs. Depending on the success of the Xr Apple will like continue to tweak the process. Google’s single lens Blur should be quite good, so I’m sure Apple will also be able to make progress.

But I agree. Although the picture looks perfect at first glance. It doesn’t really hold up to close inspection, which is very unlike apple to use something like this in a officiel release. I guess it means this is properly the best it will get right now - still properly fine for 99% of users.

 

[now i see it]

Everyone do yourself a favor and don't use that fake looking portrait mode background blur effect on your wide angle photos. It looks so hokey and artificial. Like a poorly executed photoshop cutout.
Or continue using it - and realize years later you wish you never had.
The blur effect looks fine for the telephoto lenses on the cameras with twin lenses... but on the XR's wide angle lens it looks like garbage.
Oh  will tell you it's the greatest thing since the mouse, but you're smarter than that to get sucked into the hoopla

 

[ChrisMoBro]

I have an 8 Plus and my wife recently got an Xs. I didn't think the cameras would be that different but the Xs is just so good.

 

[BruceEBonus]

Wait until the competition catch up with the iPhone dual camera post blurring and ... oh no... wait a minute ....

 

[PJivan]

The Apple camera is simply fantastic. (to make someone look much younger, must be the beauty filter)
Well the sony sensor is and Apple like most camera phone makers nowadays take great pictures.
Apple is unlikely to trumpet what this current crop of sensors cannot do.
Perhaps I can test out my XR if I ever get around to buying one. Money has been sitting there for ages, just haven't got around to picking a phone.

One thing to note though is that while other maker can apply blur to any picture the XR can't because Apple has disabled this feature in software.

True but you only see the blur after the picture has been taken not in real time, that kind of suck

 

[44267547]

How come it blurs the edge of her face near her lips? Also, the beanie at the back is a bit blurry.

Seems you’re being a bit pedantic, for the most part, the photo looks excellent with the blurred bokeh background and focusing strictly on the individual.

 

[burgman]

Seems you’re being a bit pedantic, for the most part, the photo looks excellent with the blurred bokeh background and focusing strictly on the individual.

Anyone commenting on photo quality minutiae viewed on the internet loses credibility to me.

 

[Tech198]

"Instead of relying on a telephoto and a wide-angle lens to separate the subject of a photo from the background, the iPhone XR uses software to create a similar effect. As a result, Portrait mode photos captured on the XR only work with people and aren't available for other subject matter like pets and food."

Wouldn't this be a trade-off? Pets can be done and blurred background the same way but Apple choose to limit it to only people.

Still good though.

 

[TheRealDGD]

Good for a phone camera but please do not compare the images to my Nikon and the lenses I use.... it is night and day. But recently everyone is trying to be a professional... with inferior equipment.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Or continue using it - and realize years later you wish you never had.

Why? Photos saves the file in such a way that the effect can be removed at any time after the photo is taken. If you decide you don’t like it in the future, pull-up the pic, tap the “portrait” button to remove the effect... and there is no step three.

 

[KanosWRX]

Still a generation or two behind the Pixel camera. I mean night shot is amazing, nothing even comes close to touching a Pixel 3 in the dark! let alone standard photos.

 

[groadyho]

Imvho it is not a bad pic, it is actually pretty good.

 

[viizi]

Seems you’re being a bit pedantic, for the most part, the photo looks excellent with the blurred bokeh background and focusing strictly on the individual.

I am a photographer and if I sent a client something like that for commercial work it would stain my name lol. I get that for the untrained eye it is fine but for others and Apple's reputation in the art industry. Well.

 

[citysnaps]

Today, most camera phones make decent photos. The differences are mice nuts.

What's much more important is the person making the photograph. The strength of a photo is pretty much determined by the photographer's imagination, life experiences, creativity, understanding light and composition, and more.

I've been shooting with my iPhone almost exclusively for the last few years. And for the photos I like to make it works just fine.

 

[lk400]

Everyone do yourself a favor and don't use that fake looking portrait mode background blur effect on your wide angle photos. It looks so hokey and artificial. Like a poorly executed photoshop cutout.
Or continue using it - and realize years later you wish you never had.
The blur effect looks fine for the telephoto lenses on the cameras with twin lenses... but on the XR's wide angle lens it looks like garbage.
Oh  will tell you it's the greatest thing since the mouse, but you're smarter than that to get sucked into the hoopla

This is not good advice. One of my favourite lenses for portraiture is a wide angle, wide aperture (Sigma 20 1.4 ART) paired with a full frame camera. Part of the reason is that it gives a non standard, non compressed field of view coupled with shallow depth of field, so a different look and feel to a generic normal / telephoto portrait with an isolated subject.

People should shoot how they like and in a way they think looks good, not because there is some convention or trend for how a certain image should look.

 

[dilbert99]

Today, most camera phones make decent photos. The differences are mice nuts.

What's much more important is the person making the photograph. The strength of a photo is pretty much determined by the photographer's imagination, life experiences, creativity, understanding light and composition, and more.

I've been shooting with my iPhone almost exclusively for the last few years. And for the photos I like to make it works just fine.


View attachment 804447

Remember to clean your lens before taking photos. Especially if you take your phone into the shower or if your were breathing into the lens

 

[citysnaps]

Remember to clean your lens before taking photos. Especially if you take your phone into the shower or if your were breathing into the lens

What? Your juvenile response makes zero sense.

 

[Porco]

It’s amazing what images smartphones are capable of capturing, especially considering the less-than-ideal way they are putting relatively small lenses into the back of ever-thinner devices. But personally I’m not really a fan of these artificial blurs, they can just look a bit... ‘off’ to me. But I’m sure they’ll keep getting better.