If you’ve tried to take a portrait shot with your new iPhone 17 Pro, you might have noticed that a feature is missing.
Portrait Mode was first introduced with the iPhone 7 Plus, and it uses depth data to create an artificial bokeh effect in the background of a photo. Since the iPhone 12 Pro, thanks to the LiDAR scanner, Portrait Mode also works in combination with Night Mode – but that seems to have changed with the iPhone 17 Pro.
As noted by many users on Reddit and Apple’s own discussion forums and confirmed in this support document, the feature has quietly disappeared from the latest iPhone models.
How Night Mode on iPhone works
For those unfamiliar with it, Night Mode essentially enables a longer exposure on the camera, which can range from 1 second to 30 seconds, depending on the lighting conditions in the environment. With a longer exposure, the sensor captures more light, resulting in better photos in the dark.
Starting with the iPhone 15 Pro, most regular photos can be converted to Portrait mode – that’s because the Camera app automatically stores depth data in the background. However, on the iPhone 17 Pro, photos taken at night with Night Mode turned on don’t have the depth data needed to be converted to Portrait mode.
Night mode has been a staple of portrait shots for years.
Apple
When users try to manually take a photo at night with Portrait Mode turned on, the option to use Night Mode disappears. Macworld confirmed this behavior by comparing the iPhone 17 Pro Max to previous iPhone models. In older models, combining Night Mode and Portrait Mode is entirely possible, even on iOS 26.
Although some users thought this might be caused by a bug, Apple’s website confirms that Night Mode support when taking Portrait photos is not available for iPhone 17 Pro models.
Why Apple might have made this change
There’s no word from Apple on why they made this decision, but we have a few theories.
Because Night Mode takes longer to take photos, some users who don’t fully understand how the feature works end up getting annoyed when they have to wait a few seconds for the iPhone to take the photo. In some cases, Night Mode is triggered automatically, but the longer exposure can cause users to miss an important moment by moving their phone too quickly.
Combine Night Mode with Portrait Mode, and the delay for taking a photo becomes even longer. And that delay can be the difference between quickly capturing a moment and missing the shot.
But did Night Mode really make a difference for Portrait photos? Are the photos better without it? Here’s what I found out.
The photo taken with Night Mode is brighter, but the iPhone 17’s portrait shot is crisper.
Foundry
While a Portrait photo taken with Night Mode on does indeed look brighter, it also has more noise and more artifacts caused by post-processing. The photo taken with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, on the other hand, looks darker, but also has less noise and more detail.
Another thing to keep in mind is that photos taken with Night Mode are always limited to 12 megapixels, while Portrait photos without it can be captured at 24 megapixels.
Is Apple quietly killing Night Mode?
For now, I don’t think Apple is killing Night Mode. The feature is still available for those who want to use it in regular camera mode. Still, it’s intriguing when a feature that has been available for years simply disappears without explanation.
If you have an iPhone 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max, you’ll have to decide between taking brighter photos at night or using the fancy Portrait effect. At least until Apple decides to bring the feature back, if that ever happens.
