Creative Photos
How to shoot and edit photos to get a background (or foreground) blur while keeping the main subject sharp
Professional DSLR camera users can utilise a wide aperture setting such as f1.5 to create a shallow depth of field, which makes the main subject look sharp while blurring the background. This selective focus effect helps draw attention to specific parts of the image. While you can’t manually choose a blur-inducing wide aperture on your iPhone, there are things you can do to create selective focus effects. We’ll show you how to create a blur effect naturally using the standard Photo mode, fake a shallow depth of field in Portrait mode, and even take precise manual control over focus using a third-party app.
Use aperture value, focal length and shooting modes to create selective focus effects
Step-by-step Take control of focus
In Photo mode the x1 Main Camera’s longer focal length of 26mm gives you a stronger blur than the 13mm of the Ultra Wide Camera. Tap to focus on a subject.
Here we’ve tapped on the man to focus on him. The location’s low light makes the camera choose a wide aperture of f1.5, which also helps blur the foreground.
By tapping ‘i’ we can see the settings used to snap the shot. The combination of a wide aperture and the 26mm focal length are enough to create a shallow depth of field.
The Portrait mode can mimic the shallow dept
