Apple iPhone 15 Ad Highlights Portrait Camera Capabilities

[MacRumors]

Apple today shared a new iPhone 15 ad that focuses on some of the camera capabilities of the device, such as the option to snap an image and then adjust the focus during the editing process.

In the ad spot, a band is working on their album cover. One of the band members is using an iPhone to edit a picture of the trio in the group, and she uses the Portrait subject focus adjustment feature to focus on herself in the foreground, blurring out her bandmates in the background.

She hands the iPhone to her bandmate, who edits the image again to change the focus to himself, blurring the background and foreground and cutting her out of the image. The two bicker about which image to use before getting the opinion of the third band member, who taps to focus in on himself, blurring out the other two. In the end, that's the shot they go with.

"Turn your photos into portraits," reads the tagline of the video.

Standard images captured with the Wide camera on an iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Pro model support focus editing. In the Edit interface, tapping on the aperture icon allows the amount of blur in the background to be adjusted with a slider. This feature is available even when the image was not originally captured in Portrait mode.

In a photo with multiple subjects, the focus of the photo can be changed by tapping on one of the people or objects in the image.

Article Link: Apple iPhone 15 Ad Highlights Portrait Camera Capabilities

 

[picpicmac]

then adjust the focus during the editing process.

Which of course is not a real thing. It's simply exploiting the low angular resolution of the human eye-brain system.

Long ago there was this thing about the "democratization" of photography. You see, it used to be that to write with light took some skill, but the masses wanted to take their own photos, so companies like Kodak came up with fixed focus cameras (wide-angle lenses, small apertures) using fast film. The masses rejoiced.

What Apple is doing today is just a rerun of that bygone era.

 

[Account25476]

So... What?

I want the ability to erase things or people like on the Google Pixel.

 

[anthogag]

Funny ad. Why isn't there also the option of having the entire picture...everyone...in focus?

 

[dogolaca]

This ad givse such an incomplete view of editing portraits.

Yes, Portrait Edit allows you to change the focal plane from near to far, as the bandmates are arguing over. But it also allows you to change the "in focus" range (by varying the f-stop) so that none of the three faces are completely blurred.

 

[Tofupunch]

I enjoyed it. Nicely lit. I could have watched a whole episode unfold in that room. Serious.

 

[rp2011]

Now that is a great ad. Hilarious. Round of applause to the ad company and the actors. Everyone is pitch-perfect. Brian " Yeah I like that. Feels iconic" lol

 

[Hopscotcher]

So... What?

I want the ability to erase things or people like on the Google Pixel.

There are plenty of apps that do this without having to subject yourself to the utter garbage that is Android.

 

[citysnaps]

Excellent ad. And the fact you can change the focus point in post is pretty neat.

 

[4odomi]

So... What?

I want the ability to erase things or people like on the Google Pixel.

You can, there are apps and they work just as bad as google erase 😊

 

[allenvanhellen]

What if I want the two people in the foreground to be in focus and the others to be blurred?

I’ll stick with my real camera with aperture and shutter speed adjustments, thanks.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Funny ad. Why isn't there also the option of having the entire picture...everyone...in focus?

Too useful. Ever since Hipstamatic, which Instagram ripped off and became wildly successful, the trend has been toward low resolution, blurry, heavily filtered, heavily edited pictures.

A clear picture as close to reality as possible, or showing as much information as possible (like having everything in focus) is so two thousand and late.

 

[actripxl]

This ad sucked, I don't understand how people liked it, the woman was really annoying instead of coming off funny. The only good thing was showing how you can change the person in focus for those that didn't know already

 

[aParkerMusic]

Funny ad. Why isn't there also the option of having the entire picture...everyone...in focus?

With a proper portrait mode photo, you can turn portrait off, removing the depth effect. Is that what you’re asking about? Not sure about the new portrait-without-portrait-mode thing

 

[anthogag]

With a proper portrait mode photo, you can turn portrait off, removing the depth effect. Is that what you’re asking about? Not sure about the new portrait-without-portrait-mode thing

I am talking about the ability to have the whole picture clear because computational photography analyzes the entire scene. Not only for portrait mode.

 

[ThomasJL]

Tim Cook has no originality. Every year, there are commercials about the iPhone's camera capabilities.

Meanwhile, iOS is still very buggy and has an unintuitive GUI thanks to Apple copying Microsoft's horrible practice of using flat design. Please go back to the user-friendly skeuomorphic design of iOS 6. Use the same graphics as iOS 6.

 

[jamesnajera]

This feature works on my 13 Pro Max and I assume it works on any Pro iPhone with Lidar. Been using this for quite awhile since iOS 17.

 

[toobravetosave]

yes, phone cameras are very good in the year 2023

 

[wigby]

So... What?

I want the ability to erase things or people like on the Google Pixel.

Then buy your mom a Pixel. - Tim Cook

 

[CPx]

Funny ad. Why isn't there also the option of having the entire picture...everyone...in focus?

You mean literally how the picture was at the beginning of the ad before she clicked on her face?

 

[fguerraz]

There are plenty of apps that do this without having to subject yourself to the utter garbage that is Android.

Like? I’m coming from the pixel 7 pro, I have tried many apps that do kind of “magic eraser” things, even the paying ones, and they don’t get close to what magic eraser does. I mean Lightroom does a good job, but the workflow is more involved and not really “editing on the go”.
If you have any good suggestion I’m interested.

 

[Vasilisxd]

Neeeext iPhone plz, this already feels old.

 

[steve09090]

Tim Cook has no originality. Every year, there are commercials about the iPhone's camera capabilities.

Meanwhile, iOS is still very buggy and has an unintuitive GUI thanks to Apple copying Microsoft's horrible practice of using flat design. Please go back to the user-friendly skeuomorphic design of iOS 6. Use the same graphics as iOS 6.

Why are you trying to make this about Tim Cook? What a load of bollocks.

I have had a total of ZERO issues with iOS. It’s super intuitive. You click on a person in the image an it focusses on them. How hard is that for you?

You can also adjust the focus on the slider at the bottom. Also super intuitive.

 

[svish]

Good ad. iPhone cameras are very good

 

[daabido]

Then buy your mom a Pixel. - Tim Cook

Yeah, Tim is a bit of a dick.

2027 - "Today we are introducing a brand new amazing technology allowing you to erase people from your photos. We call it iStalin."