Web browsers can't show HEIF images today. We're giving you and your app access to the photo and the depth map, so you can load it up use this to do your own creative effects," Marineau-Mes told app developers. "In iOS 11, we're storing the depth map as part of what we capture. Apple uses the data to blur backgrounds in its portrait mode, but now others can use it for other effects - generating a selfie of you on the moon or some other exotic location, for example. That's just what an iPhone 7 Plus can do with its dual-camera design, so HEIF offers a straightforward way for app developers to use that distance information once iOS 11 starts shipping. ![]() ![]() Here's another thing HEIF can do: store extra data called a depth map that records how far away each part of a scene is from the camera that took the photo. Another use of stacks of photos is to package shots with different focus points that can later be combined for different photographic effects. Apple doesn't take advantage of this particular ability - iPhones generate HDR images before they're saved into a file - but HEIF opens the door for several computational photography technologies like HDR. HEIF also can bundle multiple photos of the same scene, for example shots taken at different brightness levels that you might later want to combine into a single image through a technology called high-dynamic range (HDR) photography. It can bundle multiple frames of an animation and use video compression to shrink the whole package. HEIF is ideal for cinemagraphs that combine moving and still imagery. And if other phone makers want use the same feature, iPhone users should be able to see them more easily if they're recorded as HEIF images. When Apple uses HEIF for its live photos, that'll make it easier for other phone makers or app developers to view them. "The line between photos and videos is blurred, and a lot of what we capture is a combination of both of these assets," said Sebastien Marineau-Mes, Apple's vice president of software, plugging HEIF at a WWDC talk. ![]() It can also hold audio, video and text information, too - imagine a short video clip with a caption that you might post on Snapchat. It also can hold a collection of photos taken in a burst, though Apple isn't using it for that purpose, at least now. It's a good way to store an animated image like an Apple live photo, for example, or one of those eerily compelling half-moving, half-still images called a cinemagraph. HEIF is actually a container that can hold a lot more than just a single image. HEIF offers a lot more than just smaller photo file sizes, and indeed those other features are a big part of why Apple picked it. Q: How does HEIF help modernize photography?
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