While the iPhone XR can take some fantastic photos, it has a pretty disappointing limitation: you can’t take advantage of Apple’s portrait mode to take high-resolution and detailed portraits unless the subject is a person. Third-party camera app Halide recently announced that it’s working on a solution for the issue, and now it’s out as part of its latest software upgrade. Halide version 1.11 brings Apple’s Portrait Effects to anything, so you can take some detailed photos (with the mode’s characteristic blurry background) of your pets and various objects.
Here it is: @halidecamera 1.11 unlocks a really solid Portrait Mode for *everything* on the XR. I love the iPhone XR, and it’s really nice to be able to take beautiful portrait shots of my (also single-camera, space grey) cat or other cool things.
I mean, look at these! pic.twitter.com/oeeOqIykiC
— Sebastiaan de With (@sdw) October 29, 2018
Update: Apple has approved Halide 1.11 and it’s available right now. Enjoy! https://t.co/TxlGDq41kF
— Halide (@halidecamera) October 30, 2018
To shoot doggos and objects in portrait mode, simply tap on “Depth” within the app. That will create “depth maps” for the photos you take, which Halide will then run through its custom blur to get a bokeh, making the image look like it was taken by the more expensive iPhone XS. Halide admits that the app might still produce shots of a lower quality than what dual-camera iPhones can produce. But if you want to take some nice portrait-style photos of anything that isn’t human with an XR, the app sounds like it’s worth a try.
Source: Halide (Twitter), iTunes
