Incredibly, This Magazine Cover Wasn't Taken Using A Camera

Millions of us own this gadget though...
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If you take a look at Billboard’s new front cover you would be hard-pressed to see something that’s out of the ordinary.

It shows cover star Camila Cabelio in extraordinary focus, while the surrounding landscape seemingly blurs into obscurity.

It is, as you would imagine for a magazine of this calibre, an excellent photograph.

Yet this particular Billboard cover image is not like the others, you see rather than being taken with a camera worth thousands of pounds and huge sets of equipment this cover photo was actually taken using nothing but an iPhone.

What you’re looking at is the work of renowned photographer Miller Mobley and Apple’s Portrait Mode on iPhone 7 Plus.

Using the iPhone 7 Plus’ dual-camera Portrait Mode creates a virtual depth-of-field effect where the subject is brought into perfect focus while the background is then blurred.

Open Image Modal
Apple

While a conventional SLR can take these pictures manually, Apple has developed a machine learning algorithm that creates a virtual effect using the two lenses on the 7 Plus.

While still in beta, Portrait Mode is still remarkably impressive.

“It’s amazing as a photographer to see how technology has so rapidly changed now that the phone in your pocket can also be a high-end camera,” Miller Mobley said in a Billboard article about the shoot.

Mobley and Billboard shot the cover feature using both the iPhone 7 Plus and his own camera and then they used both types in the final issue.

You can see behind-the-scenes shots of the iPhone cover shoot here.

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