Daniel Eran Dilger
One of the new features introduced with iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is Retina Flash, which intelligently illuminates the display to serve as a flash for selfies. AppleInsider went hands-on to see if the tech comes close to iPhone's rear-facing True Tone flash.
The front facing camera on iPhones has always been its weakest, although that's been addressed on the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus with a higher resolution 5MP FaceTime sensor (a major jump over the 1.2 MP front facing camera of last year's iPhone 6).
Sensor resolution doesn't matter much, however, if you don't have sufficient illumination. While the iPhone's rear iSight camera has long featured a dedicated LED flash, taking selfies at a party or in a club often suffers from poor lighting.
Taking a page from Photo Booth on the Mac, the new iPhone 6s models can now flash the screen to illuminate selfie shots. And borrowing technology from the rear flash, the new "Retina Flash" intelligently lights the subject with a colored flash, calculated by first flashing a neutral white flash, then almost immediately re-flashing the screen with a selected color, typically an amber hue that delivers a more flattering flash than a pure white screen would.
This extra flash (activated the same way the rear flash is, via an onscreen icon) does a decent job of illuminating selfie faces, although the results (as with any single source flash) may not always be flattering.
In most cases however, having even harshly-lit subjects will be preferable to smiling faces that are too dark to stand out in a dimly lit room, or appear grainy and blurred due to inadequate lighting.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
19 Comments
Wait, so you took a video with the new phone, and wrote an article about the new flash feature, and you couldn't even put in a few sample photos??? What kind of first look is this?
Not that I'm a huge selfie photog… But it is rather brilliant to use the full screen for illumination. Anyone who has lit a set knows that the larger the light source is, the more diffuse and flattering the illumination of your subject. Even a small increase is helpful, perhaps you've seen white bounce cards attached to speed light flashes on SLR photog's cameras. The iPhone screen is like a mini soft box for selfies.
I can't wait to try the new phone out in stores! However, I may change my mind, but to me it seems that the 6s will be something that I will fuss with in the store but won't warrant me buying one. At least immediately. I like the new rose gold though...
I can't wait to try the new phone out in stores! However, I may change my mind, but to me it seems that the 6s will be something that I will fuss with in the store but won't warrant me buying one. At least immediately. I like the new rose gold though...
It's a nice color, but not sure if the real phone look real rose gold... From the website, it looks like a little bit purple, but the other said it's pink...
I am thinking to have 6s too, 64G but have to wait for the review and stuffs come out first and order it...
Shouldn't be rush to have it though...
What a crap article, no samples, no comparisons.