How to use vertical lighting mode on iPhone camera

Portrait Lighting is a powerful photography tool available on new cameras on iPhone models. Apple intended to bring studio-quality effects to the camera app by analyzing light on a subject in real-time in portrait mode, and the result is the vertical lighting mode feature.

There are five different studio effects to choose from, in portrait lighting mode. They're simply called Natural Light, Studio Light, Contour Light, Stage Light, and Stage Light Mono, and each tries to add a professional touch to your photos.

If you are one of those iPhone users who is interested in taking advantage of these unique effects, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will discuss exactly what each of these effects does and how you could use Portrait Lighting on your new iPhone.

How to use vertical lighting mode on iPhone

To take advantage of this tool, you will need at least an iPhone 8 more or later. Without further ado, let's take a look at the steps below to learn and get started using these vertical lighting effects.

1. Open the standard "Camera" app from the home screen of your iPhone.
   

1. Tap "Portrait", located right next to the highlighted photo section, as shown in the screenshot below.
   
2. Now, you are in the dedicated vertical lighting section of the camera app. Here, you can scroll through the five studio effects and select the one you prefer. First, we have the "Natural Light" mode, which is nothing more than the standard Portrait mode that adds a shallow depth of field, also known as the so-called "bokeh" effect.
   

1. Next, we have "Studio Light". In Layman's terms, this mode increases the exposure, making the image noticeably brighter than "Daylight."
   
2. Continuing, we have the “Contour Light”, which is an effect that casts shadows on the subject and even defines its edges for a slightly sharper bokeh.
   
3. Lastly, we have “Stage Light” and “Stage Light Mono”, a unique effect that analyzes the depth of the image and cuts the background while maintaining illumination of the subject for a studio-like portrait feel. You simply need to make sure that the subject is placed inside the circle before pressing the "Capture" button.
   
4. As you can see here, it is not always perfect. Sometimes this mode is unpredictable, but generally works best when you take a photo of someone's face. Stage Light Mono is more or less the same as Stage Light, except that the result is black and white or monochrome.
   

And now you know how to get started with Portrait Lighting on your new iPhone.

The camera's user interface provides subtle cues to help you get a good portrait shot, for example you will be asked to zoom further away from the subject if you are close enough and the selected Portrait Lighting effect will be highlighted in yellow each time That ”re clear to take a photo.

If your iPhone has a dual or triple camera setup, this mode will use the 2x telephoto to take the portrait photo. This telephoto lens is typically lower compared to the standard wide lens when it comes to overall quality and noise levels, so if you are trying to take a portrait photo indoors or in low light conditions, you will quickly notice noise in your results.

With that said, it's worth noting that if you're using an iPhone XR or iPhone 11 (or better) that lacks a dedicated telephoto lens, portrait lighting mode only works on people. Also, with the exception of iPhone 8 Plus, all recent iPhones can also use the front camera to take selfies.

Not satisfied with the lighting mode you used? Don't worry, you can always edit and switch between lighting effects at any time within the Photos app. If you are using an iPhone XS or later, you can also adjust the background blur with the Depth Control slider located just below the lighting effects.

It's been over two years since the feature was made publicly available, and Apple has continued to tweak and improve Portrait Lighting with each major software update, so we could expect more improvements to the feature over time.

Did you manage to capture some stunning Portrait mode photos on your new iPhone? How consistent were your results and how often do you think vertical lighting will be useful? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below.