IPhone 10 had portrait mode but I only used it like a macro lens for flowers.  I purchased the iPhone 11 Pro for the camera. Max was to help me see better. So let’s begin.

The first portrait I tried was a selfie on stage light.

This is me. I am seated with a white wall behind me. This can only be described as beginners luck. Why?  I got the perfect black background.

I’m skipping some of the exploration process to stay with portraits. By the time I took this next portrait I had played around with indoor plants. I discovered less light and dark backgrounds. So we have a gorgeous dog. Doggie portraits here we come. I had a plan. In my plan I got Moishe the Tervuren to sit and wait on dark rug and lighter wall. Moishe got tired of my fussing so he laid down. This portrait is not a total failure.

I like his face. He’s trying the ‘I’m gorgeous you won’t make ma stay sitting will you?’

My next attempt.  It’s not a bad portrait.  I like the lighting and Moishe’s pose.  The background is not great but I had it on stage light and expected black.  No such luck.

By now my poor husband is literally jumping up and down in his seat.  He wants to get his hands on my new phone and camera.  I give in since my efforts were going in the wrong direction.

He put it on portrait and stage light.  Here’s what happened.

This is wonderful.  It is on portrait stage light mono.  By now I’m growling.  Here’s where I was going wrong.  My vision isn’t wonderful.  I was missing a key element.  When you set up your camera for a portrait stage light, the words indicating the stage light setting have to be high-lighted in yellow.  If it isn’t the setting doesn’t work.  Glacoma is stealing my visual edges so I simply didn’t see or notice this.  Nor did I notice it anywhere in the how-to’s I read.  Could have been there, but I missed it.  So Ah-Ha happens.

I like this casual portrait of my long suffering spouse.  I snapped without warning.

There is much more to the portrait mode.  I will cover that next time.