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Take a Portrait mode selfie with your iPad camera

Take Portrait mode selfies with the front-facing camera on supported iPad models. This feature keeps your face sharp while beautifully blurring the background and foreground. On some iPad models, you can also apply Portrait Lighting effects and adjust the amount of background blur.

Take a portrait

  1. Open Camera 👁 Camera
    on your iPad.

  2. Select Portrait mode.

  3. Hold your iPad in front of you, then frame yourself in the portrait box.

  4. Tap the Shutter button to take the shot.

Change the Portrait Lighting effect

On models that support Portrait Lighting, you can apply studio-quality lighting effects to the selfies you take in Portrait mode.

  1. Open Camera 👁 Camera
    on your iPad.

  2. Select Portrait mode.

  3. Hold your iPad in front of you, then frame yourself in the portrait box.

  4. Drag 👁 the Portrait Lighting control
    to choose a lighting effect:

    • Natural Light: The face is in sharp focus against a blurred background.

    • Studio Light: The face is brightly lit, and the photo has an overall clean look.

    • Contour Light: The face has dramatic shadows with highlights and lowlights.

    • Stage Light: The face is spotlit against a deep black background.

    • Stage Light Mono: The effect is similar to Stage Light, but the photo is in classic black and white.

    • High-Key Light Mono: The effect creates a grayscale subject on a white background—iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation and later) and iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation and later) only.

  5. Tap the Shutter button to take the shot.

Adjust Depth Control in Portrait mode

On models that support Depth Control, use the Depth Control slider to adjust the level of background blur in the selfies you take in Portrait mode.

  1. Open Camera 👁 Camera
    on your iPad.

  2. Select Portrait mode.

  3. Hold your iPad in front of you, then frame yourself in the portrait box.

  4. Tap 👁 the Depth Adjustment button
    on the right side of the screen to show the Depth Control slider.

  5. Drag the slider left or right to adjust the effect.

  6. Tap the Shutter button to take the shot.

After you take a photo in Portrait mode, you can use the Depth Control slider in the Photos app to further adjust the level of background blur. See Blur the background in portraits.

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