iOS 15 Beta Automatically Removes Lens Flare From iPhone Photos

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 4 Aug 2021

iPhone 12 rear

Lens flare in photos is a common issue with iPhones, with the problem getting progressively worse on newer iPhones. It looks like Apple will use a bit of software magic in iOS 15 to fix the lens flaring issue on iPhones.

Apple seems to have tweaked the iPhone image processing in the latest iOS 15 beta 4 to remove the green orb lens flare. The change was first reported on Reddit. Apple has not highlighted this change anywhere, but it looks like an underlying change from the company.

So I’ve noticed something that I haven’t seen reported elsewhere; whilst out and about I took this photo and thought it was ruined / needing to be edited later due to the lens flare (as I’ve done numerous times in previous photos with the iPhone 12 Pro as it’s so prone to lens flares). However, I got home and noticed the lens flare has automatically gone in the original photo despite it being obviously there still in the live photo, meaning the automatic post processing has gotten smart enough to remove lens flares now!

Other iPhone users have also chimed in on the Reddit thread, confirming they also see fewer lens flare-related artifacts in their photos on the latest iOS 15 beta. However, whatever improvements Apple has made only seems to work fine when taking pictures of grass, sky, and other textures. In other scenarios, the processing fails to remove the lens flare.

The lens flaring issue in iPhone photos is most obvious when taking photos with the camera pointing in the sun’s direction and when capturing photos in low-light with street lights.

Have you also noticed reduced lens flare artifcats in your iPhone photos with the latest iOS 15 beta? Drop a comment and let us know!