Photographers share stunning photos shot on iPhone XS

As it does almost every year, Apple granted a pair of professional photographers early access to iPhone XS ahead of its release to show off the handset's capabilities. Prior to launch this Friday, travel photographer Austin Mann and former White House photographer Pete Souza on Monday shared images pulled from Apple's flagship smartphone.

Mann, who has been seeded with early iPhone units in the past, was first to post a series of photos from a trip to Zanzibar for PetaPixel.

Many of the photos are stunning, showing the wide dynamic range of the new iPhone's cameras. There are pictures of splashing waves, shots taken while facing directly into the sun, a number of Portrait Mode photos and more.

It does appear that there are still some instances in which Portrait Mode has issues nailing down subject separation, as can be seen in the shot of the beer can. Slight blurring around the top edges of the can show the system is confusing the object with background content. That said, Portrait Mode photos of a boat crew appear spot on.

In a second gallery, Souza shot a slate of photos for the Daily Mail.

All the photos were taken in Washington, D.C., and again show off many examples of low light photography, vivid colors, and Portrait Mode capabilities.

Be sure to check out the full galleries for even more photos.

As the release of iPhone XS and XS Max approaches, we are likely to see more examples of the new handsets' photography functions. Apple constantly touts iPhone as the world's most popular camera, and invests heavily in TV, print and digital ads. One such campaign, "Shot on iPhone," has become a primary means of advertising new iPhone hardware, borrowing photos shot by everyday users and amateur photographers.

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24 Comments

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

About 6 years ago

These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!

dewme 5737 comments · 10 Years

I'm actually impressed that Apple would show a photo (the first one) with lens flare. I suppose the inline processing software could remove the dot since it's a physical limitation of the lenses, but I'm okay with it being there for the sake of full disclosure.

sflocal 6135 comments · 16 Years

lkrupp said:

These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!

Well... I'll say one thing. These photos are beautiful and will be perfectly acceptable for 99% of iPhone users. It's amazing to see how far the iPhone camera has evolved from the early days's of the early iPhones.

That being said... I do a lot of photography. My camera of choice is a Canon 5DMarkIII. I love the camera in my iPhoneX and use it often. That being said, the best shots I've taken with my iPX, along with the photos shown here on this story don't come remotely close to what my full-frame sensor takes. Hands down, I see (for the most parts) the weaknesses in these shots that are clearly attributed to the tiny sensor and the physics involved with the collecting of light for a small sensor versus a large sensor.

Most users will NOT care about that, and that's perfectly okay. Many users will take their photos, and ruin them even more via Instagram filters for nothing more than selfie shots, and impulse photos to fill up smartphone storage, and cloud storage which then fills the pockets of those cloud providers. That's the reality.

When I take my day-to-day photos of whatever is going on around me, my iPhone is perfect because of that well-used saying that the best camera is the one on your person. When I want to take photos that I really care about, then it's a no-brainer and out comes by trusty Canon 5DM3, and (hopefully soon) a pro-level Canon Mirrorless camera.

It's all relative.

rogifan_new 4297 comments · 9 Years

lkrupp said:

These photos are being savaged on MacRumors as horrendous, sub par, and downright ugly. “Fake Bokeh” is the watch word of the day!

Be honest, if you weren’t told would you know these were taken with an XS vs an X? There wasn’t a huge camera hardware upgrade this year so I’m not surprised the photos aren’t blow away better than the X. I’ll be interested to see how they compare to the next Pixel phone. Tech press was raving about its camera last year. I think The Verge said it was superior to both iPhone and Galaxy cameras.

macgui 2457 comments · 17 Years

That being said, the best shots I've taken with my iPX, along with the photos shown here on this story don't come remotely close to what my full-frame sensor takes.
No shit.