iPhone 12 Pro Tip: How To Use Night Mode For Portrait Shots

Apple has designed the new iPhone 12 series devices to be the best choice for mobile photography, especially for those who love taking portrait shots.

The iPhone 12 Pro and upcoming iPhone 12 Pro Max, in particular, take portrait photography to another level with the new LiDAR scanner. This allows the handsets to produce great portrait images even at night.

Here’s how iPhone 12 Pro users, as well as would-be iPhone 12 Pro Max users, can use Night Mode to produce stunning portrait shots:

Enabling Portrait and Night Modes

• First, users should launch the Camera app on their iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro Max (when it arrives).
• Second, once the Camera is up and running, users should select Portrait below the viewfinder.
• Third, users should make sure the flash is turned off to activate Night Mode. This is done by ensuring that the flash icon at the top-left corner of the screen is not yellow.
• Fourth, iOS should automatically enable Night Mode once the flash is turned off and once the device detects that the environment is dimly-lit. Users can verify this by looking for a crescent moon icon shown at the top of the viewfinder. If it’s present and is colored yellow, it’s active. If it’s there but it’s not yellow, it’s inactive but can be enabled by tapping on the icon. If it’s not there, the ambient light might be too bright for the feature to work.

Using Night Mode

• If the feature is enabled automatically, it means the iPhone will select a recommended exposure time as well. Users can simply tap on the shutter button to take portrait shots or manually adjust exposure time by tapping on the yellow moon icon then adjusting the horizontal dial.
• If the feature is enabled manually, users will need to set the exposure time using the slider above the shutter button.

Users should take note that the iPhone will take a bit of time to process images in Night Mode. Users must hold still and avoid moving while the night mode portrait is being created. This feature is best used when the iPhone is placed on a tripod.