Apple’s Portrait Mode but on cars

22 Aug 2018

Apple’s Portrait Mode, which utilises the second camera on the iPhone 7 & 8 Plus and X to create a depth of field effect, is great for taking hi-res portraits of people. But, with enough depth, it can be effectively used for pretty much any macro shot.

You’ll see here that in most cases it works pretty well, and in some cases doesn’t make too much of a difference. It’s a very sensitive and pretty temperamental system, requiring lots of screen-tapping to get the focus right. And iPhones are hard enough to hold still as it is.

It requires the subject to be within a certain distance (not too close but no further than 8 feet), whether the subject is in the fore, mid or background.

Combining it with the HDR can make life easier, especially in bright and awkward lighting, and double-especially when the car is both in light and shade. The HDR takes 3 shots at 3 different exposures and ‘blends’ them. It works really well and I pretty much keep it on the whole time.

The Portrait Mode can be tripped up as I found, especially if the background is dark or difficult to discern from the subject. Also if the subject is thin & hollow (no thanks Merc 3-pointed star).

Comments

These are fecking beautiful!

I prefer using HDR to create depth but this looks good

The HDR just balances the lighting, which as far as I’m aware just improves the exposure quality. Don’t think it has an actual effect on depth but it looks like it

Meanwhile when I try to take a pic with my regular 7 with HDR it literally doesn’t look any different from a normal pic and it’s only in like 1080p

Yeah I had the HDR on the 6 and I couldn’t notice the difference, it seems to be much stronger now

Can i have a moment to complain about how awful Apple’s bokeh algorythm is?
If there is any subject a bit more reflective than it should be, it overdoes the blur.
It the subject is too small, for example the Mercedes logo from your photos, it does the same thing.
If there is anything translucent, like, not fully transparent.
And finally, it has a very big problem with plexiglas. It just doesnt like transparent plastic.

If you can try HTC’s bokeh.
Like, you’ll be surprized how good it is.
I have a HTC One M9, single camera, and it takes better bokeh shots than a friend’s SG Note 8.
It only misses on non-stationary objects because instead of taking 2 photos at the same time with the 2 cameras, it takes 2 photos one after another because it has only 1 camera.
But anyway, this phone has the best hair detection i’ve ever seen.
It takes even the smallest details in consideration when bluring around them.
So i think that the HTC U12+ can only do better than that.
I’ve tried it once and the re-focus thing is just amazing. Also the edge detection.

Shameless fanboysm aside, your photos look amazing.
I wish i knew how to take proper car photos, but i would learn after i get my first car. I need a test subject. 😂
I mean, it would be quite akward for me to take artistic shots of random people’s cars.

Yeah it’s a trash algorithm. But this tech is new to Apple (hur duh Huawei and Samsung have had this for ages Android master race hur duh), and Apple never get these things right first time. It’ll get there.
I had a Samsung like 5 years ago as my first smartphone and I’ve always been tempted to go back to android or similar ever since. Technically a few of them are better than iPhones, but I dislike android as an OS. Even though I started on an Android, moving to iOS somehow felt more natural even though I’d never really used it before.

As for taking artistic shots of other peoples cars - forget about it. Have you ever seen car spotting videos on YouTube? Supercars will be driving and kids with cameras will be running after them, jump out in front of them, and people lean on them when parked. There’s no way you could be worse than that. I keep my distance, be courteous and keep out of the way of the owner if they’re around, will never run for a picture.

Sure, some owners may scorn, but many love people looking and taking pictures, whether it boosts their ego, or if like you, they love cars and they understand. Maybe throw them a compliment if they’re there.

Mind you, all of these pictures are taken in dealerships; that’s probably the best thing to do. As far as I’m concerned that’s relatively normal behaviour. One of the places I went to, Hexagon Classics, reminded me that if I was posting the pictures online to remove VIN’s and serial no’s, since the cars there were still on street plates and stuff, so make sure to do that if they ask.