Right.....it's a learning curve, working with this new feature on the XS and XS Max! I think I prefer the Focos app, as with that one the camera can be either in portrait or landscape mode and can also be focused more closely to the subject, as when shooting a macro. Haven't actually compared the two apps yet, and it's been a little while since I last experimented with Focos, which I had gotten to use with the iPhone X. Anyway, with the XS and XS Max and Apple's new feature, the trick is definitely to be mindful of the subject itself -- larger ones work better than small ones -- and of the distances between it and everything around it, being especially careful of the plane of focus, as that is what is important. Also, and I should have mentioned this in my other post, of course it's not necessary to go "all the way" with the blur effect, there are various stops which can create possibly better results with foreground and background. In this case I wanted to see what would happen when I maxed out the blur. I had a heavy finger on that slider!
All that aside, it has been a grey and cloudy day here so that image is also a nice test of the camera's ability to capture something fairly decent even in dull but even, shadowless lighting without much opportunity for contrast. Obviously one can kick up the contrast, saturation and such in post-processing but I was pleasantly surprised at the results I got even before taking the image into Luminar. I didn't want to mess with contrast and such in this case as I was interested in how the iPhone's camera itself had handled the lighting situation and the blur effect, so basically for my own edification and for sharing with you all, just a little cropping and resizing of the image was enough. Obviously this particular photo is not destined to be a wall-hanger!
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Now HERE's a wonderful example of great use of bokeh!! Using a "real" camera and lens, subject and background/foreground are perfectly controlled and placed in terms of sharpness and softness so that the viewer's attention goes right to the subject and at the same time takes in the whole scene and sees the story..... Well done!
Yes, a “real” camera but a Lensbaby for selective focus.
Sunflowers
