Apple Shares Two New Ads Highlighting Portrait Mode on iPhone 7 Plus

Apple this morning shared two new iPhone ads on its YouTube channel, focused on highlighting the Portrait Mode feature available on the iPhone 7 Plus. Each 15 second ad explains how Portrait Mode works through blurring the background of a photograph to make a subject stand out.

The ads include examples of images taken with Portrait Mode compared to images taken without Portrait Mode to make the differences clear. The first ad features a dog in front of trees and the second features a child in a creek.


Introduced in iOS 10.1, Portrait mode uses a shallow depth of field to make portrait photos "pop," mimicking a high-end DSLR. The feature takes advantage of the 56mm telephoto lens included in the iPhone 7 Plus, using Apple's image signal processor to scan a scene and machine learning techniques to recognize people and other objects meant to be in the foreground.

A depth map of the image from the two cameras in the iPhone is used to keep people in focus while applying an artistic blur to the background, resulting in an image that's normally not possible on a smartphone.

The two new ads follow a revamped "Shot on iPhone" ad campaign that Apple recently launched, which highlights a series of photographs all taken on a single night to promote the camera features in the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus.

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
bsod

Crowdstrike Says Global IT Outage Impacting Windows PCs, But Mac and Linux Hosts Not Affected

Friday July 19, 2024 3:12 am PDT by
A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery...
iphone 14 lineup

Cellebrite Unable to Unlock iPhones on iOS 17.4 or Later, Leak Reveals

Thursday July 18, 2024 4:18 am PDT by
Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite is unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the capabilities of the company's mobile forensics tools and highlight the ongoing security improvements in Apple's latest devices. The leaked "Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix" obtained by 404 Media...
Apple Watch Series 9

2024 Apple Watch Lineup: Key Changes We're Expecting

Tuesday July 16, 2024 7:59 am PDT by
Apple is seemingly planning a rework of the Apple Watch lineup for 2024, according to a range of reports from over the past year. Here's everything we know so far. Apple is expected to continue to offer three different Apple Watch models in five casing sizes, but the various display sizes will allegedly grow by up to 12% and the casings will get taller. Based on all of the latest rumors,...
tinypod apple watch

TinyPod Turns Your Apple Watch Into an iPod

Wednesday July 17, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
If you have an old Apple Watch and you're not sure what to do with it, a new product called TinyPod might be the answer. Priced at $79, the TinyPod is a silicone case with a built-in scroll wheel that houses the Apple Watch chassis. When an Apple Watch is placed inside the TinyPod, the click wheel on the case is able to be used to scroll through the Apple Watch interface. The feature works...

Top Rated Comments

Fynd Avatar
97 months ago
Portrait mode is a gimmick so are the two lenses. I get actual bokeh with my 20MP Zeiss Pureview. In one lens .The way Apl does it is fokeh and only 12MP.
Having 2x zoom is no gimmick, it's quite handy.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacOG728893 Avatar
97 months ago
I'll keep it simple and say I enjoy the features on my PHONE. It's great to have a bag tricks with me when I want to whip a photo on the whim.

Attached a few photos as an example.

Attachment Image

Attachment Image

Attachment Image

Attachment Image

Attachment Image

Attachment Image
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darcyf Avatar
97 months ago
iPhone camera features are getting more and more gimmicky. First Live Photos, which tend to look janky and serve no real purpose, and now fake shallow depth of field with finicky requirements to use it and get right.

I like having a camera on my phone for things like showing my spouse what I'm looking at right now and to remind myself of something. But for actual photography I've switched back to using a real camera with real camera features (hello Sony rx100 v). The difference is astounding.

To each their own but all these new iPhone camera features just seem silly to me.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Menel Avatar
97 months ago
Yet its still in BETA
Because it's a software hack to simulate optics. And it's hackish... at best.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MarcusCarpenter Avatar
97 months ago
Yet its still in BETA
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Michael Scrip Avatar
97 months ago
Nice commercials. Short and to the point. Showing benefits, not features.

I like it.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)