The iPhone 7 Plus camera has a new feature called Portrait mode that uses both lenses to add depth of field to your photographs and simulates the kind of depth of field you would see from a DSLR camera.
It’s a pretty cool feature, if you have an iPhone 7 Plus. I have an iPhone 6S.
Fortunately, there’s an app out there that can do the same thing: Patch Smart Portrait Editor.
This app edits photos to add the bokeh effect that many photographers love. So I decided to give it a try.
Adding depth of field with Patch app
To start with, I opened a photo from my iPhone on the app. The app works best with photos that include one or two people and are from about the waist up.
Here’s a look at my before and after photos:
You can see that the app does a good job of blurring the background.
But it didn’t do this without a little help from me. When I’ve tested the app, it never seems to get things perfect the first time. Fortunately, you can use the paint and eraser tool to tell it which parts of the image should be in focus and which should be blurred.
Here’s what that looks like:
It’s a little difficult to get it perfect editing with your finger on an iPhone. But with a little practice, you’ll get better.
Overall, it’s a great app. You can download it for free, and you can remove the watermark for $2.
Download the Patch Smart Portrait Editor here.