*Real* depth-of-field on an iPhone

You’re probably familiar with Portrait mode first introduced on iPhone 7 Plus. It’s a combination of the phone’s camera and software working together to provide depth-of-field (DOF) in your photos. Shoot a Portrait mode photo of someone or something, and you’ll get your subject in focus with the background blurred. It’s an effect previously reserved for more expensive cameras like DSLRs.

What I hadn’t realized yet, is how well the cameras on an iPhone can handle real depth-of-field (or Bokeh) when you’re able to manually focus them using an app like Halide. Consider the photos in this tweet:

Ridiculous how nice an iPhone's *real* bokeh is. It's gotten good over the last few camera changes. f/1.8 is huge; get close to a subject and use manual focus and you get lovely detail and smooth falloff.

X/XS users: as a bonus, the two lenses have totally different bokeh looks! pic.twitter.com/ir4fjlXZkc
— Sebastiaan de With (@sdw) December 11, 2018

Inspired by the above, I opened Halide and took a couple of shots. To do the same, make sure you have Halide in manual mode. Then focus your camera on something in the foreground. If you’re using an X/XS, switch between the 1X and 2X lens to see the two different bokeh effects.

Telephoto Lens

Close-up Lens

Close-up Lens