It's officially the age of selfies, ya'll. Whether you're posting a selfie on Instagram or uploading one to Facebook, you're probably guilty of snapping a photo or two with your front-facing camera. There's no shame in the game, though! Everyone does it. But now, selfies are about to be taken to a whole new level... if you have the iPhone X, that is. That's right: Portrait mode on the iPhone X is part of the front-facing camera, which means your selfies are about to look pretty dang professional.
In case you were unaware, Portrait mode is an iPhone camera feature that focuses on your face and blurs the background. Yes, this means you can totally pretend you're a professional photographer while taking headshots for you and all of your friends (I've done it). With Portrait mode comes Portrait Lighting, an additional feature introduced when the iPhone 8 was released.
Guess what? The iPhone X lets you take selfies with Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting, all thanks to the TrueDepth Camera. In other words, you can snap a professional pic of yourself and add a cool lighting mode filter to really amp up your Instagram game. People might even think a professional photographer took the photo of you.
I had the opportunity to try Portrait Lighting for myself with the iPhone 8 Plus, and I was truly impressed by its detail. Before we dive into the cool new ways to take selfies with the iPhone X, let's recap what Portrait Lighting does.
Portrait Lighting is a feature that enhances Portrait mode with five lighting options: Natural Light, Studio Light, Contour Light, Stage Light, and Stage Mono Light.
Natural Light sharpens the subject's face and blurs the background, while Studio Light keeps the subject's face lit. All you fashionistas out there are going to love Contour Light, because it literally contours your face with highlights, lowlights, and shadows (I still can't do that with makeup). Stage Light is super dramatic because it lights up the subject's face (like a spotlight would on stage) and makes the background blurred and black. Stage Light Mono, on the other hand, does the same thing but in black and white.
Like I said, I was super impressed when I first tried Portrait Lighting on my iPhone 8 Plus, but I was kind of bummed about one thing: I couldn't take a selfie with it. I know, it definitely wasn't an important issue, but I couldn't help but wonder what my selfies would be like if I could use Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting with them.
There are a few tips that you should follow if you're trying to take a selfie with Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting on iPhone X, and we're here to help.
For starters, you should try standing in front of something (like a wall, a door, etc.) before taking the selfie. If you don't, you might get a message on your camera that says the background is more than 15 feet behind you. You also might want to pose in an area without direct sunlight, because your camera might tell you it's too bright if too much light is present.
Now that you know how to use Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting with your TrueDepth iPhone X camera, you're ready to take on the selfie universe. Have fun with it — and if you get bored of taking pictures of yourself, you can always take a break and play with Animojis.
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