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Google Photos for iOS adds portrait depth editing

Google Photos for iOS adds portrait depth editing

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And Color Pop will give your images more punch

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Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

In early October, Google rolled out a depth-editing feature for Google Photos on Android, allowing users to adjust the bokeh intensity of their portrait photos. A month later, that same feature has now come to the iOS version. For any portrait images you’ve taken, you can adjust the blur and also tap to change the focus area of those shots.

Google seems to be doing its own processing when you move the depth slider around; the results are noticeably different — in some cases, better — than what I get with Apple’s Photos app. There are several other camera and photo editing apps that can utilize the depth data from the iPhone to increase or decrease bokeh. Tapping an area of the photo to change the focus didn’t make a huge difference in my short time testing that feature. Dialing back the blur basically does the same thing.

But I do like the Color Pop option that’s also new (on iOS) with this update. Tap on your main subject and it will remain in color, but the rest of the photo will be desaturated to black and white. It takes some tapping around to hit the right spot if you want the whole subject to be in color. Color Pop was previously something that the Assistant section of Google Photos would apply to some shots automatically, but now you can do it manually for any portrait image you want.

Both depth editing and Color Pop should be available now if you’re running the latest version of Google Photos on your device. Open up a portrait shot, tap the edit button (you’ll see Color Pop appear as the first filter option), and then hit the edit button a second time to get to the depth slider, which is beneath the existing bars for light and color.