iOS 12 Camera Lighting Tools and Features

iOS 12 provides a comprehensive suite of native tools designed to help users capture and modify lighting effects both during shooting and after a photo is taken. This article outlines the specific camera and editing features available in the operating system, including Portrait Lighting modes, Depth Control on supported hardware, real-time exposure controls, and post-capture lighting adjustments within the Photos app.

Portrait Lighting Modes

Available on compatible devices (such as iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max), Portrait Lighting uses machine learning and depth mapping to simulate professional studio lighting setups in real time or retroactively:

  • Natural Light: Keeps the subject's face sharply in focus against a blurred background without altering the original lighting.
  • Studio Light: Brightens facial features to simulate targeted studio illumination.
  • Contour Light: Adds dramatic directional shadows to highlight facial contours and cheekbones.
  • Stage Light: Isolates the subject under a virtual spotlight while dropping the background to total black.
  • Stage Light Mono: Applies the high-contrast Stage Light effect in classic black-and-white.

These modes can be selected from the carousel at the bottom of the Camera interface while in Portrait mode, or applied later by opening the image in the Photos app and selecting Edit.

Depth Control

Introduced alongside the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR running iOS 12, Depth Control allows users to adjust the depth of field. By altering the simulated aperture from f/1.4 to f/16, users can control background blur (bokeh), directly affecting how light elements in the background blend and interact with the subject. This slider is accessible in the Photos editing menu on supported Portrait shots.

Manual Exposure Slider

For general shooting in any standard photo mode, the Camera app includes a direct exposure adjustment tool:

  1. Tap anywhere on the preview screen to set the focal point, marked by a yellow square.
  2. Touch and drag the yellow sun icon located beside the box upward to increase exposure (brighten the shot) or downward to decrease exposure (darken the shot).
  3. Tap and hold to engage AE/AF Lock, which locks both the lighting exposure and focal distance across multiple shots.

True Tone Flash with Slow Sync

iOS 12 utilizes the hardware's True Tone flash with Slow Sync capabilities. This feature keeps the camera shutter open longer while emitting a brief burst of light, matching the ambient color temperature to illuminate both the subject and the background more evenly without harsh, blown-out highlights.

Photos App Light Adjustments

For photos already saved to the camera roll, the Photos app in iOS 12 offers granular post-processing lighting controls under the Edit menu:

  • Master Light Slider: Automatically balances overall lighting across the entire image.
  • Brilliance: Brightens shadows and tempers highlights without washing out the photo.
  • Exposure: Adjusts overall tonal values.
  • Highlights and Shadows: Independently recovers detail in the brightest or darkest portions of the frame.
  • Brightness, Contrast, and Black Point: Fine-tunes midtones, tonal separation, and the darkest black levels to correct lighting contrast.