With the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, Apple introduced updated dual and triple-lens camera systems, respectively, and added quite a few new camera features that are worth knowing about.
Photos Outside the Frame
When you take a photo with the telephoto or wide-angle camera on the iPhone 11 Pro or the wide-angle lens on the iPhone 11, there’s a feature that automatically captures what’s outside the frame using one of the other lenses, just in case you accidentally
You can turn this on in the Camera section of the Settings app and take advantage of it when editing pictures in the Photos app. Any photo with a square icon and a star has more outside the frame that can be used when changing the crop of the photo. It’s a bit of a niche feature, but it can come in handy for group shots, landscape images, architecture photos, and other situations where you might want to change the crop of the image after taking a picture.
Photos Outside the Frame doesn’t work on all images all the time and you’re not going to want to leave it on all the time because it disables another feature — Deep Fusion.
Deep Fusion
When you upgrade to iOS 13.2, you’ll get a new camera feature called Deep Fusion, which is something that works in the background and doesn’t need to be turned on. Deep Fusion uses machine learning and the A13 chip in the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro for pixel-by-pixel processing of photos, optimizing for texture, details, and noise reduction in each part of an image.
Night Mode
Night Mode is one of the key features in the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro so you’ve heard of it and probably tried it out if you have one of the new iPhones, but there are a few little tips worth knowing.
Night Mode comes on automatically in situations with low lighting, and you know that it’s activated when you see a yellow icon at the top of the iPhone camera with a little moon icon and a number.
Burst Mode
Holding down the shutter button is actually how Burst Mode works in older iPhones, so if you’re missing Burst Mode, don’t worry, there’s still a method to use it.
Hold down the shutter button for Quick Take mode and then just swipe over to the left instead of the right to activate Burst Mode. Burst Mode takes multiple photos in quick succession and then lets you choose the best of the bunch.
Portrait Mode
When using Portrait Mode on the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, you’re no longer limited to just one lens. On the iPhone XS and XS Max, only the telephoto lens worked with Portrait Mode, but with the new iPhones, Portrait Mode works with both the telephoto and wide-angle lenses.
To swap lenses, swipe over into Portrait Mode, and then tap on the little “2x” or “1x” icons on the left side of the screen to zoom in or out. Using 1x mode will let you fit more into the photo and it’s perfect for scenes with multiple people or objects, while 2x mode is great for zooming in on a single person, pet, or other item.
The iPhone 11 doesn’t have a telephoto lens, so it is limited to the wide-angle lens and no zooming in is possible.
Wider Selfies
The front-facing camera has also been updated with an option that lets you get more in the frame, which is perfect for group selfie shots.
With the front-facing camera activated, tap on the little arrow towards the bottom of the screen to zoom in or zoom out. Zooming in and out only works in standard Photo mode, and you can’t use it with front-facing Portraits.