iPhone 15 gets a major camera upgrade; Know all about the improved Portrait mode

The iPhone 15 has finally received some much-needed major upgrades. At the Apple event, yesterday, the iPhone 15 was unveiled with rounded edges, Dynamic Island support, USB-C connector port, and a 48MP primary rear camera lens. While these became the talking points of the smartphone, it also received one particular feature that went somewhat under the radar. However, it can be a game changer. The iPhone 15 received an improved Portrait mode, which will change the way you click portrait pictures.

The Portrait mode was first introduced with the iPhone 7 Plus in 2016. It was introduced as a camera effect where by detecting different depth levels, the iPhone could create an effect that felt like a DSLR image. The software did most of the heavy lifting to compensate for what the hardware could not. And it became very popular. Now, in 2023, the Portrait mode has got even better. It now comes with the capabilities of machine learning.

The new Portrait mode

The iPhone 15 will be able to automatically recognize when there is a person or a pet in the frame, and automatically take pictures in Portrait mode. Not only that, but you can also take pictures of groups and after clicking the image, decide who will be the focus of the photo. Of course, some of it could already be on Android devices, however, the demonstration of the feature during the Apple event highlighted how seamless this process can be for the iPhone 15.

You can of course, also turn off the portrait effect after taking a picture, which means the entire process takes place in the background through machine learning and it takes your manual input out of the equation. So, you can click pictures comfortably and without worrying about whether Portrait mode is turned on or not, and the image processing system will take care of the rest.

iPhone 15 cameras at a glance

The camera system on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus features a 48MP camera that brings them up to the level of the iPhone 15 Pro. It is a quad-pixel sensor, meaning four pixels are binned together to create more vivid, and detailed images. By integrating hardware and software, an additional 2x telephoto option is also offered this time, which creates optical zoom-like images. Three zoom levels of 0.5X, 1X, and 2X come for the first time to the iPhone with dual lens.