iOS 16 Brings New iPhone 13 Camera Features for Portraits and Cinematic Mode - MacRumors
Skip to Content

iOS 16 Brings New iPhone 13 Camera Features for Portraits and Cinematic Mode

by

For iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max users, iOS 16 adds new Camera app functionality. On its iOS 16 website, Apple says that there are two new iPhone 13-exclusive features for Portrait images and Cinematic mode.

iphone 13 pro max display bleen
When using Portrait mode, iOS 16 lets you blur objects that are in the foreground of a photo for a more realistic depth-of-field effect, rather than just allowing for the adjustment of background blur.

In Cinematic mode, blur quality has also improved. Apple says that when recording videos in Cinematic mode, the depth-of-field effect is now more accurate for profile angles and around the edges of hair and glasses.

These two new camera features are exclusive to Apple's iPhone 13 lineup at the current time, but the iPhone 14 is also likely to support these additions.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Next Month With These 12 New Features

Sunday August 9, 2026 1:45 pm PDT by
It is now August, and that means the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are just a month away. The devices are expected to look similar to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but there will still be many year-over-year changes, with rumored features including a smaller Dynamic Island, 5G via satellite, and more. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and a...
Read Full Article
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Next Month With These 12 New Features

Thursday August 6, 2026 7:03 am PDT by
It is now August, and that means the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are just a month away. The devices are expected to look similar to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but there will still be many year-over-year changes, with rumored features including a smaller Dynamic Island, 5G via satellite, and more. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and a...
Read Full Article • 48 comments
iOS 27 Feature Cool

Everything New in iOS 27 Beta 5

Monday August 10, 2026 3:02 pm PDT by
We're a little over a month away from the launch of iOS 27, and Apple is continuing to make changes. The fifth beta of iOS 27 changes the look of some app icons and adjusts Liquid Glass, plus it adds some smaller features that make the iPhone just a little nicer to use. App Icons There are updated Liquid Glass icons for Safari, Siri, Settings, Remote, App Store, and Preview. Some of the...
Read Full Article • 46 comments

Top Rated Comments

T
that be me
55 months ago
I'm hoping for an option to disable smart HDR 4 for the 13 series. I have no idea why it was removed or why there's still no option to turn it off months after it's initial release but it needs to come back.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
svish
55 months ago
Good for 13 users. Hoping to see this and new features later this year on iPhone 14.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
syklee26
55 months ago

I’ll believe it when I see it. Attempts to improve “fokeh” over the last 4 years have been laughable, at best. Apple did improve a tonne of other camera features, it’s legit one of the top phone cameras. But I’m sorry their fake bokeh looks like garbage.
Your expectations on a digital camera is too high. The real bokeh requires physical depth on a lens only available on the dslr or mirrorless.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jprmercado Avatar
jprmercado
55 months ago

I'm hoping for an option to disable smart HDR 4 for the 13 series. I have no idea why it was removed or why there's still no option to turn it off months after it's initial release but it needs to come back.
Yeah, me too. We have a whole thread here in the forums on how aggressive Smart HDR is on the iPhone 13 (aka the “watercolor effect”). Weird how it affects mainly only the iPhone 13 series.

If Apple doesn’t add the option to turn off Smart HDR, I’m hoping they at least adjusted Smart HDR to be, uh, smarter.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GraXXoR Avatar
GraXXoR
55 months ago
Hair looks like ***** in portrait mode. In fact the only things that looks good in portrait mode are bottles, glasses and things without ”holes” like cubes, balls and Plates of food on simple backgrounds.

Given that they have three cameras to work with, with over 2cm^2 of “area” between them to play with means surely they can do better.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adamw Avatar
adamw
55 months ago
More Camera options for iPhone 13 models is great news.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments