Now I love taking photographs with my iPhone
and being able to adjust
the depth of field before and after taking the photographs
and create masks in Lightroom based on depth information ...
Now, that is brilliant.
Now, if you know this already, then great
but after taking this portrait of my friend Steve Healy
with my iPhone, I did get quite a few comments
and questions from friends about the depth of field
and how it was done in camera or rather in phone.
Now I captured the portrait using the built in camera app
on my iPhone in the portrait setting,
which maybe
should have a different name, something like Depth or Blur
because it's not just for taking portraits.
But when you use it straight away with the default settings,
it gives a cool looking out-of-focus background.
When you turn on the portrait
setting the f stop that the app mimics is set to F 1.4.
but you can also tap on it in the top right
and then change it by dragging the slider at the bottom left
and right to adjust the depth or the blur in the background.
Right to decrease the depth or add
more blur and mimic what would be f 1.4.
and left to increase the depth or add less blur
all the way to mimic what would be f 16.
You can also access it from the bottom menu options.
But here's the really cool thing.
If you take a photograph in the portrait setting
and not everything is in focus that you want,
all you need to do
is go to the photograph in the camera app, tap on edit
and then the F stop in the top left.
You then have the slider appear again at the bottom
where you can drag left
or right to alter the depth of field or blurriness AFTER
you've taken the photograph.
So here's a portraits of me and my wife that a friend
took with my iPhone
in portrait mode at a friend's wedding vow renewal recently.
But you can see that my wife is out-of-focus
because the fake depth of field has concentrated on just me
rather than both of us, likely because of how we were standing,
angled away slightly so my wife is further back.
So again I
tap on Edit then the f stop in the top left
and drag to the left to increase the depth.
So around about the f5.6 mark makes my wife come into focus,
but also maintain a little bit of blur
in the background to give that shallow depth of field look.
Now, though, I want to quickly show you something else
that you can do with photographs taken in that portrait mode,
but in Lightroom, and that's create masks based on depth.
You can do this in Lightroom Mobile
if you import from the camera roll,
but I've exported the original photograph
of my friend Steve from the photo
app out onto my desktop.
You can see it here as a HEIC.
and this file I've imported into Lightroom.
Then in the develop module, I go to the masking section
and this is where I can use the depth range option,
which ordinarily will be grayed out,
but because this photograph has been taken in the portrait
setting, it includes depth information.
Now we have this gradient here where we can drag the left
and right hand markers. But check this out.
You can see that the photograph contains depth information
because as I drag the left marker over, notice
how the parts on Steve's face, which are nearest show first,
and as I continue to drag the marker to the right, areas
that are closer start to be revealed.
If I drag
all the way to the right, the only area covered in the red
overlay is the back wall, which is the part furthest away.
Obviously, with this being masking,
any area covered with the red overlay is what will be affected
if we now make any adjustments.
So let's just put that marker back over to the left.
I can also use this sampler
to tap on areas in the photograph, and when I do
Lightroom uses the depth information
and selects the whole area
that is the same distance away as where we tapped down.
I can choose other areas like Steve,
and again, the back wall.
So I can use the gradient or the sampler
to create masks of certain areas within a photograph
and also alter the transition from one area to another
based on their positioning or depth and then edit them.
So really cool stuff and it'll be really exciting
to see how this technology develops even further.
But like I said, this isn't completely new
and some folks know use it already,
but I did
speak to a few people
and show them, and they were completely unaware.
So that really is who this video is for.
But that's all I've got for now so you know the drill.
I'd really appreciate a thumbs up to give the video a like,
and if you haven't yet, click on subscribe
because as you know that's just a great free way
that you can support this channel.
But for now, that's me. I'm done.
I'll see you in the next video.