Apple might be building a Portrait Mode effect that works while recording video for the upcoming iPhone 13, along with several other camera improvements that are quite intriguing. While most smartphones offer bokeh blur in photography, achieving this in video has proven particularly challenging. Apple has tightened up on leaks recently but as its big iPhone event approaches, more snippets of information are still slipping out, including these exciting iPhone 13 video camera details.
Apple has invested a huge amount of time and effort into its Portrait Mode feature for photography, trying to achieve a realistic bokeh blur effect in the background while keeping the subject in the foreground sharp. With a DSLR camera, this blurring happens automatically, particularly when using a telephoto lens, and increases with distance, due to the physics of light and its interactions with the long lens. Smartphone cameras have small lenses that can't achieve the same effect naturally, however, computational photography comes to the rescue to achieve a good facsimile of a true bokeh blur in iPhone photos.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, the upcoming iPhone 13 might be powerful enough to enable recording video while in Portrait Mode, delivering a dramatic, movie-like effect, with an option to adjust the amount of blur afterward during editing. Using blur allows the cinematographer to subtly shift the viewers' eyes to a particular subject. In addition to Portrait Mode, the report suggests that new types of filter effects will be possible. Ones that use artificial intelligence to alter the color and shading in a way that isn't available with standard filters, using an understanding of the scene to adjust the style, creating a more dramatic look or a brighter image without sacrificing the overall quality of the video. Aiming for the professional market, Apple will supposedly allow the iPhone 13 to record in ProRes format, the low-compression codec used in Apple's professional editing software for the Mac. In addition to rumored camera hardware improvements, the iPhone's video capabilities might be expanding greatly.
Shooting For Cinema With An iPhone?
Making it possible for movies to be created with an iPhone has been Apple's dream for many years, having close ties to the film and TV industry. Its Mac computers and Final Cut Pro software are often used by professional editors and Apple is producing its own original content for Apple TV+ and Fitness+. Whether the next iPhone is really ready for shooting feature films or not, adding more professional-quality effects will benefit all users. In addition to these software updates, rumors suggest that every size and model of the iPhone 13 will have upgraded camera hardware, with a larger image sensor that is similar to what was exclusively used in the iPhone 12 Pro Max last year.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max also uses advanced sensor-shift image stabilization. This helps keep photos steady in low-light shots while delivering particularly amazing steadiness when recording video. As with the image sensor, the stabilization of every iPhone 13 model is said to have sensor-shift technology. Another important camera upgrade that aids video is the ultra-wide angle camera. There was a trade-off in quality to use this lens in the iPhone 12, but leakers claim that Apple will greatly improve the iPhone 13's camera this year. If even a few of these camera changes arrive along with the advanced bokeh, AI filters, and ProRes format, Apple is certain to make reference to cinematic effects and movie quality at its upcoming September event.
Source: Bloomberg