I’ve been using iOS 17 for six months, almost since the first beta version released after its presentation at WWDC 2023. Since then, I’ve taken advantage of some of the new features coming to native applications. The improvements made to the “Reminders” application have completely won me over, but the “Photos” application is not left out.
In iOS 17 we find editing news and other utilities related to our photos. Some of these were presented by Apple with great fanfare, but others were more hidden. Below I present the most notable ones.
Change the focus of portraits that we already have in the gallery
Since its debut in 2016 on the iPhone 7 Plus, the iPhone camera’s portrait mode has continued to improve. One of its first new features was being able to modify the intensity of the blur. What we find in iOS 17 is the possibility of completely change the targeted item from the ‘Photos’ app.
All you have to do is open the photo in question and click on ‘Edit’. It will then be a matter of move the yellow box to put it at the center of what we want to focus on. Intelligently, the iPhone will focus on that whole part and blur what was previously in focus. Very useful when a portrait doesn’t turn out as expected.
Removing background from photos is now much more precise
For years, there has been a little-known trick to remove background from one or more photos at once on iPhone. So this is not new in iOS 17. However, it is a function that I use often and I discovered that in this version it has been greatly refined. Until iOS 16 it was very efficient, but sometimes it made cropping errors and took parts it shouldn’t have or the other way around. It almost never fails anymore.
The problem consists of select multiple photos and save them to “Files”. Then we must locate them in this application, select them all and in the options choose “Remove background”. After a few seconds, all these photographs will appear in PNG format and without having deleted the originals, either from the ‘Files’ folder or from the ‘Photos’ application.
Differentiate animals as if they were people
No two animals are the same, but they are very similar. More if they share race. For this version of iOS a series of algorithms have been applied capable of Differentiate them even when it’s difficult, making it my favorite feature of iOS 17. For years, we’ve had People Albums that can identify and tag other people’s photos to make it easier to find the photos they appear in. Well, now we have the same thing, but with pets.
Simply open the photo of the animal in question and look at the box that appears with its head in the corner, touch it and press the button possibility of identifying it with a name. And that’s where the magic happens.
And extra tip What I add to this (also valid for people) is to take advantage of its potential in searches for the ‘Photos’ application. For example, search for the animal’s name next to ours to find all the content in which we appear. Or to locate only the videos, put their name then “videos”.
Search for symbols (ideal for doing laundry and no kidding)
We’ve reached a technological point where the iPhone can wash your clothes… Well no. It’s not true, even if one day you least expect it. For now, this is an intermediate step thanks to a improving visual search which was already released in iOS 16 and now even allows us to detect symbols on clothing labels.
You’ve probably already come across these strange symbols on labels that indicate how to wash the garment and at what temperature, but you don’t know how to interpret them. Enough take a photo of the labelopen the image in “Photos”, swipe up and get this information.
Always straight photos. THANKS
I’m by no means a photography expert, but I have the basics and always apply the tips to take better photos with the iPhone. For these purposes, the grid is always activated on my mobile. However, with iOS 17, an additional item has been added that will allow no need to straighten photos when editing being able to make them straight.
This is not new for “Photos” per se, but it is new for “Camera”. And it is simply the presence of a level on the screen that should appear as a straight yellow line to indicate that we have the iPhone directly. Obviously, it will be a little less for those with a clinical eye in photography, but for inexperienced and intermediate users, it’s a luxury.
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