How to refocus Portrait mode photos in iOS17

terse

terse

MobiLifer
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Ted
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Apple's event introducting the iPhone 15 mentioned some improvements to the native camera's Portrait mode. One of those is the ability to change the focus point of a Portrait mode photo. This feature is not limited to the iPhone 15 series, though. I found I'm able to use it on my iPhone 14 Pro running iOS17. I haven't tested it much yet, so I'm making two assumptions here:

* It will work on any iPhone that can run iOS17.
* It will only work on Portrait mode photos taken with iOS17, not on older ones. (I'd be happy to be wrong about this, but haven't tested it.)

At any rate, open the Portrait mode photo in the Photos app, tap Edit to get into Edit mode, and then tap the spot on the image where you want the focus point to be. So far, I've tested this (once) on my iPhone 14 Pro, and it worked.

I haven't yet tested it on my iPad, where you have the extra wrinkle of making sure that the depth info gets included with your image when it's transferred from iPhone to iPad.
 
Update: I transferred a Portrait mode photo from my phone to my iPad, opened it in Photos there, and was able to refocus it. I also found that there are limits to the focus. If you shoot something close (as usual for Portrait mode), then if you try to refocus on something in the distant background, the focus will change, but the background won't get sharp -- a bit sharp-er, but not really in focus.
 
I tried a few Portrait mode images taken prior to iOS17. Refocusing didn't work on those.
 
Starzee said:
That’s pretty cool. I work on it more later.
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Here's a sample.

Original focus on post

IMG_8278.jpeg



Focus shifted to ivy behind post

IMG_8280.jpeg
 
This is interesting enough to make me use the portrait mode more. I hardly ever use it.
 
Starzee said:
This is interesting enough to make me use the portrait mode more. I hardly ever use it.
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According to what I've read, the 15 Pro series automatically captures depth info if you're taking pictures of people, cats, or dogs, so you can use the Portrait mode editing options if you want to. (But normally I use the mode on things that aren't people, cats, or dogs.)
 
terse said:
According to what I've read, the 15 Pro series automatically captures depth info if you're taking pictures of people, cats, or dogs, so you can use the Portrait mode editing options if you want to. (But normally I use the mode on things that aren't people, cats, or dogs.)
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I have to admit I bought the 15 purely for the 5x lens. I haven’t even looked at the other features it has. :oops:
 
Starzee said:
I have to admit I bought the 15 purely for the 5x lens. I haven’t even looked at the other features it has. :oops:
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That would be the big draw for me, too. Still undecided, though. With my 14 Pro, I have noticed that Portrait mode seems to be getting better about determing the line between in-focus and out-of-focus, so that the blur looks more realistic.
 
terse said:
That would be the big draw for me, too. Still undecided, though. With my 14 Pro, I have noticed that Portrait mode seems to be getting better about determing the line between in-focus and out-of-focus, so that the blur looks more realistic.
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Software updates?
 
This is so cool! I tested it on an image I took in June (way before iOS 17) and was able to change the focus to different areas of the image (I did all this in my 14 Pro Plus).
 
A feature introduced by Huawei on the Mate 20 pro in 2018. Could also change the aperture as well as the focusing point to increase/decrease blur, you could also desaturate the planes not in focus to make the in focus object stand out even more - was pretty funky.
 
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