So not too many weeks ago Apple released it’s new iPhone 8 & 8 Plus phones as a replacement for the iPhone 7 & 7 Plus and also announced the iPhone X, which released on November 3rd. You might remember back in my Feb 17, 2017 post. I talked about the new Portrait mode on the iPhone 7 plus, well Apple has stepped up it’s game with the new iPhone 8 Plus.
In this new iPhone, Apple enhanced their Shallow Depth of Field algorithm to make your portraits even more amazing considering it’s not a DSLR, but they also added some lighting modes to make the images even more interesting. Now they offer Natural Light, Studio Light, Contour Light, Stage Light and Stage Light Mono. Now, so far the only mode I have played with is the Stage Light Mono
as I have been dealing with a broken wrist so I have not been shooting much while I heal. I did use the Stage Light Mono for a friend’s wedding at the end of October and once I recover and have a chance to try the others I will post an update to this post. With both of the Stage Light modes, the came puts a circle on the view finder and you put your subject/subjects in that circle and then shoot.
With the Moonlight mode, it takes the background and turns it black for you. This first image is the bride and her grandfather.
The software is not 100% perfect, you’ll notice a bit of a ghosting at the tail end of the bride’s veil, or maybe it’s just the way her veil was at the moment, but all in all, the software Apple is using works quite nicely when you consider I shot this outdoors behind the barn venue that the wedding took place in. You can also notice a little bit of sunlight sneaking in next to grandfather’s head. This next image is one of the bride and groom during their dace at the reception and if you look closely you can see a small sliver of the wooden wall past them there in the middle.
Again, the software isn’t perfect, but I can see Apple spending some more time tweaking it to get it closer as Apple always likes to work out any issues with any of their software to try and give it’s customer’s the best possible experience with their products. On a separate note, Apple also added Wireless charing to the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X and they used the industry standard QI wireless technology!
Update:
I decided to use myself as a “model” while at my dentist today. This first one is Natural Light.
Next we have the Studio Light
And then there is Contour Light
And finally there is the Stage Light. This one is similar to Stage Light Mono as it blacks out the background, but the image remains a color image.
And there you have all the new lighting modes on the new iPhone 8 Plus Portrait Mode!