The portrait mode on our iPhone allows us to take photos with a depth-of-field effect, also known as bokeh, which keeps the subject sharp while the background appears blurred. Taking a portrait is as easy as choosing the option before shooting, but with the release of the iPhone 15 and iOS 17, this feature has evolved and, among other things, allows us to turn our regular photos into portraits after taking them.
A simple button, though with a few things to consider
In previous iPhone models, capturing photos in Portrait mode, besides having to manually select it, was a bit more cumbersome than taking regular photos. The system took a bit longer to snap the picture, and it didn’t have Smart HDR. Now, with the iPhone 15, Apple has introduced next-generation portraits that use the same Photonic Engine as regular photos. This means we enjoy the same speed and quality in portraits as in regular photos.
But there’s more. When a person, a dog, or a cat appears in a photo, the system detects them and captures depth information automatically. This allows us to turn any photo into a portrait. The steps for doing this, assuming we have already taken the photo of the person or pet, are as follows:
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone 15.
- Open the specific photo.
- At the top left of the screen, where the “Live” indicator usually appears, select “Portrait.”
Similarly, we could remove the portrait mode we just added by selecting “Portrait Off.” This gives us the flexibility to decide the aesthetics of the photo as needed.
The power of the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 is responsible for enabling us to turn any photo into a portrait. With the ability to handle much more data much more quickly, whenever the Camera app detects a subject in the photo, it captures the necessary information to convert it into a portrait. Something that, later on, is as easy as pressing a button.
