As good as smartphone cameras have gotten, they struggle to capture photos with a high degree of bokeh — where the background is kept artistically out of focus while the subject in the foreground is nice and sharp. But the Samsung Galaxy S5 has a neat feature where you can simulate the effect.
In some picture-taking modes, the GS5 lets you designate a specific subject; tap the person or object you want to be in focus and snap the pic. Once you’ve got it, you can open the pic in Portrait editing mode, which lets you choose if you want the background blurred or “defocused.” You can change the amount of blur by simply sliding your finger across the screen, just like in many editing apps.
In our hands-on with the editing feature, we thought it worked well, although if you don’t designate a subject you many not be able to blur some parts of the background. After snapping a pic of Mashable‘s Christina Warren, we tried to blur everything behind her, but the camera appeared to also include a couple of guys in the background as subjects (possibly via face detection), keeping them sharp even as the background blurred considerably.
Still, not bad for a feature that you’ll probably use more often with just one person in the frame. We look forward to giving the Samsung Galaxy S5 and its camera a thorough look when the smartphone goes on sale in April.
Source: Mashable
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