iPhone 7 Plus Depth Effect

One of the cool visual effects of the iPhone 7 Plus’ new camera is called Depth Effect—it was released as part of the new iOS 10.1 beta yesterday, so I downloaded it and gave it a try.

Depth Effect is a process that blurs the background of a photo while focusing in on an object in the foreground. It’s a really dramatic effect and one that professional photographers have been using for many years.

The effect is part of a new Portrait mode, but it works on regular objects as well as people. In fact, the iPhone will help you place the object to get the perfect shot.

For instance, if you are too close, the iPhone screen will read “Move farther away.” If you are too far away, the iPhone screen will read “Place subject within 8 feet.” When you are in the right parameters, the “Depth Effect” indicator will light up and show you a live preview of what your picture will look like.

iphonedepth

When you take the picture with Depth Effect, the camera actually saves two shots—one with depth effect enabled and one with no effect at all.

nodepth

depth

I am not a great photographer, but I enjoy taking pictures. The Depth Effect adds a level of, well… depth that I couldn’t otherwise achieve. Other people may be able to do that with higher end cameras, but my camera is my iPhone. Whatever I can’t do on that camera isn’t getting done.

As I said in my iPhone 7 Plus review—whatever Apple can do to help me take better pictures is a welcome feature. That’s exactly what the iPhone 7 has done.

Thanks Apple.