Depth effect with one camera
If you have an iPhone XR or an iPhone SE 2020/2022, you can still take portraits with depth effect with one camera. This works best when photographing people. If you want to photograph pets or objects with depth, it is best to use an app such as Halide. With these devices, the depth is created with smart software tricks.
If you have an iPhone 8 or earlier with a single camera, you cannot simply take photos with depth effect with it. In that case too, you have to rely on third-party apps that blur the background of a photo or create a bokeh effect, for example with blurred balls of light in the background. In this tip we explain how to get such a depth effect with apps on an iPhone without a dual camera.
- Depth effect
- InstagramFocus
- Tada
Depth effect on any iPhone
Because the iPhone has lenses that are quite close together, you can’t create the depth effect you can with a DSLR, where you focus the lenses on a specific person. That’s why Apple uses computational photography, which allows you to achieve all kinds of photography effects with the computing power of the computer. The nice thing is that it is done in software. This means you can also achieve a similar effect on other iPhones, although you will have to put in a little more effort.
The tips below are intended for the following devices:
- iPhone 8
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 6 Plus and 6s Plus
- iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
- iPhone SE 2016
- Earlier devices, provided apps are still available for them
InstagramFocus
The most accessible way is to use Instagram Focus, a function within the Instagram app. Many people already have this app on their device and it is therefore a small effort to give it a try. Instagram Focus also sharpens the background through software, but only works with portraits. The software recognizes people and makes the rest of the image blurrier.
Tada
For the explanation below we used the Tadaa app. There are two variants of this app, Tadaa HDR Pro (free) and Tadaa SLR (paid). Because the depth effect is also possible with the free version of this app, we use it in the explanation below. If you like it, you can always switch to the paid version of the app.
Tadaa creates depth effect
The portrait mode with the depth effect can be found in Tadaa in the edits at the bottom of the screen. On the left you see the original photo we took at a park in Brussels, next to it the two predefined blur settings.
In Tadaa you can get it done quickly if you use the standard blur effects. If there are people in the photo, you can use the circular blur effect. You can adjust the size and flattening of the circle by adjusting the shape with two fingers on the screen. The result can be seen in the middle photo.
If you have a group of people in a row, there is also a linear blur effect. This makes everything sharp on one line (see right photo). Here too you can rotate the line with two fingers and make it wider or narrower. If you choose Off, the original photo will be visible again.
Manual depth effect with masks
In our example photo, the circle shape works best, but you can also manually indicate which parts of the photo should be in focus. To do this, create a mask using the Create Mask button at the top of the screen.
Swipe your finger over the areas that you want to remain sharp. The rest will be faded. With the eraser you can correct mistakes and with the zoom function you can color details of the hair a little more accurately. As with any mask, it is difficult to properly select hair spikes.
You can see the result in the left photo. We thought this looked very fake, so we made the blur effect slightly less strong with the slider (right).
In Tadaa you can also create a bokeh effect with lights using the buttons at the bottom of the screen. For example, you can add circular points of light in the background, or points of light in the shape of stars, hearts or butterflies, but we have not done that here. Of course, Tadaa contains many more functions to adjust the brightness of your photo, apply a filter and crop. Vignette and contrast can also be adjusted.
If you don’t like Tadaa, you can find many more apps in the App Store to add depth effect and bokeh to your photos. To do this, search for the keyword ‘bokeh’.
