When you’ve tried to take a portrait shot along with your new iPhone 17 Professional, you may need observed {that a} function is lacking.
Portrait Mode was first launched with the iPhone 7 Plus, and it makes use of depth information to create a synthetic bokeh impact within the background of a photograph. Because the iPhone 12 Professional, because of the LiDAR scanner, Portrait Mode additionally works together with Evening Mode – however that appears to have modified with the iPhone 17 Professional.
As famous by many customers on Reddit and Apple’s personal dialogue boards and confirmed on this assist doc, the function has quietly disappeared from the newest iPhone fashions.
How Evening Mode on iPhone works
For these unfamiliar with it, Evening Mode primarily allows an extended publicity on the digital camera, which may vary from 1 second to 30 seconds, relying on the lighting situations within the surroundings. With an extended publicity, the sensor captures extra gentle, leading to higher photographs at the hours of darkness.
Beginning with the iPhone 15 Professional, most common photographs might be transformed to Portrait mode – that’s as a result of the Digital camera app robotically shops depth information within the background. Nevertheless, on the iPhone 17 Professional, photographs taken at evening with Evening Mode turned on don’t have the depth information wanted to be transformed to Portrait mode.
Evening mode has been a staple of portrait pictures for years.
Apple
When customers attempt to manually take a photograph at evening with Portrait Mode turned on, the choice to make use of Evening Mode disappears. Macworld confirmed this conduct by evaluating the iPhone 17 Professional Max to earlier iPhone fashions. In older fashions, combining Evening Mode and Portrait Mode is completely potential, even on iOS 26.
Though some customers thought this is likely to be attributable to a bug, Apple’s web site confirms that Evening Mode assist when taking Portrait photographs will not be obtainable for iPhone 17 Professional fashions.
Why Apple may need made this transformation
There’s no phrase from Apple on why they made this resolution, however we’ve a couple of theories.
As a result of Evening Mode takes longer to take photographs, some customers who don’t totally perceive how the function works find yourself getting irritated once they have to attend a couple of seconds for the iPhone to take the photograph. In some instances, Evening Mode is triggered robotically, however the longer publicity could cause customers to overlook an necessary second by transferring their cellphone too rapidly.
Mix Evening Mode with Portrait Mode, and the delay for taking a photograph turns into even longer. And that delay might be the distinction between rapidly capturing a second and lacking the shot.
However did Evening Mode actually make a distinction for Portrait photographs? Are the photographs higher with out it? Right here’s what I came upon.
The photograph taken with Evening Mode is brighter, however the iPhone 17’s portrait shot is crisper.
Foundry
Whereas a Portrait photograph taken with Evening Mode on does certainly look brighter, it additionally has extra noise and extra artifacts attributable to post-processing. The photograph taken with the iPhone 17 Professional Max, however, seems to be darker, but in addition has much less noise and extra element.
One other factor to bear in mind is that photographs taken with Evening Mode are all the time restricted to 12 megapixels, whereas Portrait photographs with out it may be captured at 24 megapixels.
Is Apple quietly killing Evening Mode?
For now, I don’t assume Apple is killing Evening Mode. The function continues to be obtainable for individuals who wish to use it in common digital camera mode. Nonetheless, it’s intriguing when a function that has been obtainable for years merely disappears with out rationalization.
You probably have an iPhone 17 Professional or 17 Professional Max, you’ll need to determine between taking brighter photographs at evening or utilizing the flowery Portrait impact. A minimum of till Apple decides to deliver the function again, if that ever occurs.
