Lightroom: Support for Apple Portrait Mode (iOS)

The reality is it isn't an Apple 'problem' nor a Lightroom 'problem' ...

Images captured using the Portrait mode on iPhones is not a 'format' ... it is a collection of image process settings that are applied using proprietary software created by Apple. Adobe doesn't have the permission or licensing to replicate those adjustments and Apple is very likely not going to share that secret sauce and Adobe is quite likely not going to pay the freight to purchase the licensing from Apple for same.

It's akin to Adobe or Apple offering to all users your copyrighted works to others as a matter of course. Not really what they are about.

Thanks Butch_M, if that is correct, then yes, I would label that "Apple's" problem in that it requires them to open the format so third party apps can support it like Adobe. Had hoped at least Lightroom could import those files and when exporting them later would retain the portrait edit ability when put back into Apple Photos. But if you are are saying Apple's format blocks that, then I can reach out to Apple, but thought I'd post here to find out exactly what is possible.

Butch_M, I reached out to Affinity Photo by Serif since they like PixelMator are more known for supporting specific Apple tech. And Serif apparently is already working on adding support for Portrait Mode and confirmed it it possible to support that format so you can import, work on the file and export it then import that back into Apple Photo without losing the Portrait feature. So appears actually it is not an Apple limitation but rather back in Adobe's court to add support for it. Hopefully Lightroom is investigating adding the feature like Serif is for a future release.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Lightroom Mobile: Portrait mode on iPhone: The “portrait” tag disappear and the p....

Whenever I take a photo using the portrait mode and edit it with Lightroom Mobile, the “portrait” tag disappear and the photo is moved to the regular pictures album. The depth effect is still visible in the photo.This doesn’t happen using other photo editing tools like Snapseed, so it would be great if Lightroom Mobile could have this feature too.

Now that depth masks are now supported on compatible phones, LR CC should allow editing these images on all devices (shoot on iphone, edit depth map on LR CC MacOS).

To support portrait mode, LR CC should add a field blur tool applied to depth masks to replicate the depth feature. Presets could then also be created for portrait effects.

Indeed pictures taken in Portrait mode with iOS Photo app are still automaticaly imported as JPEG instead of HEIC files in the latest Lightroom CC version.
This means Depth map information is lost for these pictures.
The only way to have depth map is to take the picture within Lightroom, which is limiting.

Hoping maybe we'll see progress on this and Live Photos in the upcoming July Lightroom update unless that planned release is delayed.

Depth masks are supporting in the latest Lightroom but we are unable to export and import to the local database. We can only sync our photos via Adobe Cloud and download it. This will change my workflow and probably mess up my entire iPhone and desktop library