This feature announced on the iPhone 17 could be a big news for photographers

 

Feature teased for iPhone 17 could mean better depth-of-field control | Macro shot of Tower Bridge reflected in an eye

The information Yesterday, a report focused on Apple’s work on a foldable iPhone, but it also included a reference to an iPhone 17 feature that could be a big deal for photographers.

The article suggests that at least one model will include, for the first time, a variable aperture, allowing for greater control over depth of field…

What does variable aperture mean?

Aperture is the name given to the size of the hole through which light passes from the lens to the sensor. With traditional cameras, aperture blades in the lens body provide mechanical control over this size, either by rotating a ring on the lens or by selecting it on the camera body, which then transmits this setting to the lens.

You can see an animation of this here:

All things being equal, the larger the aperture, the more light reaches the sensor, but also the shallower the depth of field.

Depth of field control

Photography is basically the process of directing the viewer’s attention to the things you want them to see. After composition (framing the photo to include or exclude certain elements), depth of field is arguably the second most important tool at your disposal.

For some shots it is important that everything is in focus. In this example the girl in the foreground, the couple in the middle and the pier building in the background are all important. So a narrow aperture is used to ensure everything is in focus.

On the other hand, there will be other shots where you want to focus on your subject – whether it’s a person or an object – and make the background blurry.

Or you may want the focus to be on your subject, but leave enough background to give a sense of context.

Two approaches on the iPhone

Current iPhone models have a fixed aperture and a wide aperture. This is because the sensor is much smaller than that of a dedicated camera, so it needs all the light it can get to avoid noisy images.

In theory, this means that the depth of field is shallow. In practice, however, almost everything will be sharp unless you’re very close to the subject – and that’s because camera phones have small sensors.

Until now, Apple offered two methods for creatively creating shallow depth of field. The main one was Portrait mode, which uses computational photography to create an artificial blur. Early versions of this mode weren’t very good, but it’s gotten more and more realistic over time.

The second effect is the natural bokeh achieved with longer focal lengths. The addition of the 5x lens means that while we can’t yet achieve the extremely shallow depth of field control possible with Portrait mode, we are now better able to separate the subject from the background.

What can we expect from the iPhone 17?

Here is what The information I had to say:

Apple is also planning a notable camera upgrade for at least one iPhone model next year, adding the ability for users to control the size of the aperture with a mechanical system, according to two people with direct knowledge of the feature.

In itself, that doesn’t mean much. As mentioned earlier, this small sensor still only allows for limited control over depth of field. But any improvement in maximum aperture would still be a useful step forward.

But more importantly, this tells us about how Apple thinks. A mechanical aperture is not an easy thing to implement in a smartphone, as it adds both complexity and cost. The company wouldn’t do it without a good reason.

So this suggests to me that Apple is focusing on improving depth of field control, and variable aperture may just be one piece of the puzzle.

The biggest improvement Apple could make here – and one that would result in better image quality across the board – would be to increase the sensor size. It’s tricky given the space constraints of a smartphone, but even a relatively modest increase would make a substantial difference.

A later report indicates that Sony and Samsung will compete for Apple’s sensor market in the future, which should accelerate the pace of innovation in this area.

There’s no indication that sensor improvements will be coming to the iPhone 17, but Apple’s apparent willingness to invest in improving depth-of-field control makes me optimistic about what might come next.

Photos: Ben Lovejoy

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