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01st Oct 2018

Users are complaining about a feature on the new iPhone camera

Alan Loughnane

Apple

Accident or deliberate?

Everyone knows that a person’s Instagram is not representative of real life. People can use clever filters and timing to distort reality but it’s effective in convincing a lot onlookers that they’re living a perfect life.

It’s no wonder that Instagram is consistently regarded as the app most detrimental to a person’s mental health.

But it seems that the camera on the iPhone XS camera is adapting a similar technique by automatically fixing your photos for you with aggressive skin-smoothing.

In online forums, Apple has been accused of using a skin-smoothing feature or a “beauty filter” for prettier selfies from the front-facing camera.

One user on Reddit pointed out the difference in the two photos, one from last year’s iPhone X and the other from the new iPhone XS.

iPhone camera

When taking a selfie in a situation where lighting is poor, the iPhone XS appears to be applying a drastic smoothing effect that hide blemishes from peoples’ appearances.

When outdoors the feature is less apparent.

But, it doesn’t seem like there’s any easy way to turn the feature off, which is one of the more worrying aspects of the feature.

In the new XS, Apple introduced a new Smart HDR feature and combined with a system change, Apple has tweaked how it captures photos. Although we’re unsure how they’re doing it, we assume it’s to do with the new A12 chip and next-generation Neural Engine aiding the Smart HDR feature.

Turning off the HDR doesn’t eliminate the smoothing and there’s no camera settings that can be tweaked which stop the feature, but David Pierini, from website Cult of Mac, believes it could be the result of excessive noise reduction.

“Noise reduction tools remove those rogue pixels, but the results often leave a smooth or slightly softer finish to a photo,” he said.

If the changes are being caused by unintentional excessive noise reduction, users won’t be able to change it, but rather it will have to be changed by Apple in a software update.

Other smartphones like the Huawei P20 Pro and the OnePlus 6 all offer skin-smoothing and filters on their cameras but are adjustable and can easily be turned off.

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Topics:

Apple,iPhone