Apple offers handy photography tips for taking expressive pet portraits with iPhone

A new educational video from Apple on the intricacies of taking depth-of-field images of four-legged friends offers some great tips for shooting expressive pet portraits with iPhone.


STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Learn how to take expressive pet portraits with the depth-of-field effect
  • The effect keeps the subject sharp while blurring the background
  • Pet portraits in the Camera app require a compatible iPhone

iPhone 12 Pro Max laid facedown on its packaging
Image credit: TheRegisti / Unsplash

Apple video: Taking great pet portraits with iPhone

In the video embedded right ahead, Jahmyra of “Today at Apple” is joined by Sophie Gamand as they discuss some nice photography techniques for taking expressive pet portraits with iPhone, using the portrait-shooting mode that’s available in the stock Camera app.

Gamand is an award-winning French photographer living and working in New York who is also an animal advocate known for her work with shelter dogs.

The stock Camera app used to only let you take portraits of people.

With the iPhone series and later though, customers can now take photographs of their favorite four-legged friends with that DSLR-like depth-of-field effect aka bokeh. Older models like iPhone XR can take portrait shots of pets with a third-party app like Halide.

To take a cool portrait of your pet, you’ll need to first get its attention.

To help establish eye contact, hold keys or a similar object above the camera (tip: the High-Key Light Mono lighting effect works especially well with portraits of dogs and cats).

If you like Apple’s video tutorials series and are into portraiture photography, we recommend watching Apple’s recent video offering some handy tips for taking great portraits with iPhone.