Apple announced a whole bunch of new software on Monday during its WWDC keynote, and Camera and Photos were well represented. While many of the big new features come with the release of new iPhones in the fall, there was a good amount announced for
I played around with the new iOS — I installed the beta last night and used it for 12 hours before switching back (I got scared).
Here’s a quick overview of what’s coming for photographers in iOS 13. Watch the full keynote here, the section on Camera and Photos begins around the 48 minute mark.
Camera
Portrait Lighting
The one big addition that is coming to the Camera app has to do with Portrait Mode’s Portrait Lighting. These are the filters you can apply to Portrait photos. There is a new High Key Mono mode, which looks stunning. You will also be able to change the intensity of light in the different modes.
Apple
Photos
Photo Editing
The editing interface has been redesigned in photos. It looks more suited for smaller screens and more detailed. Instead of having a text based menu, it appears it is more visual.
There are also new areas of the photo that you can edit:
- Vibrance
- White Balanace
- Sharpen
- Definition
- Vignette
- Noise reduction
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These are huge updates for editing — vibrance is one of my favorite adjustments, white balance can really make a photo stand out and vignettes will be amazing to have for portraits. I can’t wait for these.
Video editing
All of this is coming to video, according to Apple. Finally, you can do more to a video than just trim it! iOS 13 will allow users to rotate video, apply filters and make other adjustments like you can for photos.
Apple
Organization
The organization of photos is the most noticeable change of iOS 13. There is a redesigned front tab called Photos, which will use machine learning to remove the clutter, such as receipts and white board shots. Craig said it becomes a “diary of your life.”
Photos will take the best photos and organize them in a grid, including videos and Live Photo’s that will auto play. When you go out to the Months view, photos will be organized by events in that time period.
The Years view gives a birdseye view of your library based on the day you are viewing them. Some examples given by Justin Titi included showing photos from the same time of year based on your current situation. In the examples showed, photos from previous WWDC conferences and his daughter’s birthday appear. This is something like TimeHop for photos. Titi said it “brings your library to life” and “makes it easier to browse the greatest hits of your library with one view.” I can’t wait to use it over the course of a year.
This looks like a huge update to Photos. If the iPhone XS was a step forward into computational photography, this seems to be one for computational photo management. In my limited time using it, it felt different than previous versions but I’m excited to spend more time browsing my library with it. Pair all of this with Dark Mode and Photos becomes an even more powerful tool.
The questions I have: Does it automatically give suggestions to delete these duplicate photos? Will it sync across devices?
Apple
Let’s use it!
iOS 13 will come out in the Fall when new iPhones are released. There is currently a developer beta, but Apple strongly warns against “thrill seekers” using it. There will be a public beta in July, and I can’t wait to install it and start using it.
