Apple has revealed it shall fix a bug, dubbed ‘BeautyGate’, that causes images taken on the front-facing TrueDepth camera system on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max to appear to have a skin-smoothing filter effect within the upcoming iOS 12.1 software release.
Speaking to The Verge, Apple for the first time publicly acknowledged the ‘BeautyGate’ bug, claiming Smart HDR is to blame for the skin-smoothing effect.
Luckily, it appears that by tweaking how Smart HDR works, Apple will be able to allow iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max to take sharper images and avoid the inconsistencies which causes blurrier shots which appeared to apply a Snapchat-like filter onto images. The Verge said:
Essentially, Smart HDR was choosing the wrong base frame for HDR processing when you took a selfie. Instead of choosing a frame with a short shutter speed to freeze motion and preserve detail, it would sometimes choose a frame with longer shutter speed. The front camera also does not have optical image stabilization, so it takes blurrier shots at the same shutter speed as the rear, stabilized camera. The result is a loss of detail that looks like smoothing on the front camera.
iOS 12.1, expected to launch next week, will bring 70 new emoji characters, group FaceTime calling and more. The release of the software will likely coincide with the launch of Apple’s new, redesigned Face ID-equipped iPad Pro models.