Senior photographer James Martin spent 10 hours testing the front-facing camera in Apple’s $1,000 phone. The common selfie will never be the same.
elfies aren't my thing. I'd rather shoot interesting places and people — and they're usually not me. But the lowly selfie might soon enjoy a renaissance thanks to the iPhone X.
When I found out I'd have a chance to test the camera tech in Apple's iPhone X, which will be released on Friday, Nov. 3, I knew I wanted to see what the new selfie camera could do. It's a 7-megapixel front-facing camera that supports Portrait mode, where the subject in the foreground is in focus and the background is blurred. Add the various Portrait Lighting effects and the front facing camera is reborn.
Apple says its goal with the TrueDepth camera system is to "bring dramatic studio lighting effects to iPhone and allow customers to capture stunning portraits with a shallow depth-of-field effect in five different lighting styles." But like I said, I'm not big on selfies — so I decided to see what the iPhone X could do by flipping the phone around and taking portraits of people I came across on Monday with that front-facing camera. I tested the various lighting effects — Natural Light, Stage Light, Stage Light Mono, Studio Light and Contour Light.
After 10 hours on the streets of San Francisco, mostly in and around Fisherman's Wharf, I was impressed by how Portrait Mode transformed the everyday selfie into a respectable and elegant photo. I also realize that might not be as easy as it sounds. CNET senior editor Scott Stein, who notes that the lighting effects are still in beta on the iPhone X's front-facing and rear-facing cameras, had trouble taking selfies. "My face ended up looking oddly cut-out and poorly lit," he says in his hands-on review of the $1,000 iPhone X.
Here's what I was able to capture using all five effects of the iPhone X's front-facing camera.
Studio Light effect
Along the docks at Fisherman's Wharf, the front-facing camera with the Studio Light effect elevates the common selfie. Warm enveloping highlights make the subject's face pop against the background, giving the photo the crispness of a travel magazine portrait. A little more punch and contrast gives her a brighter and cheerier look.
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