The iPhone’s depth effects feature allows you to overlay overtime on your lock screen. Here are some tips for making the feature work and choosing the right photo.
What is the Lock Screen Depth effect?
Depth Effect is a soft effect that puts the elements on your iPhone wallpaper in time. Apple has previously used this effect on the Apple Watch face using Portrait mode. But with the arrival of iOS 16, the effect works with many photos thanks to the iPhone’s ability to recognize different things. Below is an example of the effect. The original image, taken on the iPhone 13 Pro, is on the left, the resulting iOS 16 lock screen is on the right:
iOS 16 depth effect lock screen
Tim Brookes / Useful Geek
The “Black and White” filter is applied by clicking left on the photo in the lock gallery. Good subjects for deep impressions include people, animals, plants, some landscapes, and even some cities.
For the effect to work, make sure the depth effect is turned on under the ellipsis (…) when setting your wallpaper. Deep Impact Changes
Choosing the perfect photo for a deep impression
The deep impact of the lock screen continues with the iPhone’s ability to separate themes from the Photos app. Separate simply means separating subjects such as people, pets or other objects in a photo from the background. Based on our testing, the subjects you can isolate using the photo tool can also be retained over time. However, this is not an absolute rule. Some pictures that we can use with a deep impression show the natural environment in the urban area.
These include natural valleys or mountains and man-made buildings or city skylines that cannot be isolated from the Photo app. Ultimately, it’s a game of trial and error. Some wallpapers that you expect to have a deep impact don’t, while others may surprise you. Experiment with what you have and see what you can find!
A depth effect lock screen with mountains against the sky
Tim Brookes / Useful Geek
Subject position
When it comes to taking pictures of your locks, some subjects are better suited than others. For example, if you’re dividing an image into horizontal segments, you’ll want your subject to fall on the dividing point between 15 minutes and 2 minutes. The deep impression image is divided into four parts
Acquiring images this way gives you the sharpest resolution since you don’t need to crop and zoom in the image to get the desired results. Of course, you can use pinch-to-zoom to crop your image and move the subject into position. Not all photos will work with this effect, even if you expect it. Usually the iPhone can’t separate the subject. Isolated words can result from an “active” background, a poorly understood subject (such as clouds or a city skyline), or a poor image.
Creating a deep effect lock screen
You can set the lock wallpaper in several ways. The first is to use the lock screen switcher, which is accessed by tapping and holding your lock screen.
From there, click the plus “+” button, then click “Photo” to find a photo from your media library to use as your lock screen. Choose a wallpaper from the lock screen selector
Unfortunately, using this method, there is no way to know if the depth effect will work on the image until you touch it. And if you cancel, you’ll be redirected to your photo library again. There is a better way. Open the Photos app and start scrolling. Find the image you like, then click the “Share” button and then click “Use as wallpaper” from the list of options at the bottom of the screen.
“Use as wallpaper” in photos
You will be taken to the lock gallery, where you can click to move and move your images around. If you don’t like the image, click “Cancel” to go right back to where you were in the photo library. After choosing your image, make sure to customize your lock screen. Then click “Done” to save it.
Widgets must be disabled for this to work
If you add a widget to the iPhone lock screen that uses the depth effect, the effect will be automatically disabled. For now, you have to choose between the two.
Circle widget for iPhone
Fortunately, if you use the lock screen gallery properly (tap and hold your lock screen to reveal a list of saved wallpapers), you can create multiple lock screens to suit your mood. or your needs, from a small screen with a deep depth. effects on the target screen are not full of widgets.
Download deep effect lock screen
You don’t have to take your own photo for the effect to work. You can retrieve photos from the web in Safari by adding them to your photo library.
Long press the image, then select “Save as Photo” to add the image. then use the lock gallery or photo app to set the image as wallpaper.
Most iPhone wallpaper apps available before iOS 16 have adopted the new system, although many of them are full of in-app purchases. Unsplash is a popular app for targeting free content, but Lockd, Wallpaper Now and Wallpaper Lock+ are also worth checking out.
The installed and compared wallpapers also work
Tap and hold on your lock screen to open the lock screen gallery, then tap on the plus “+” button and check out some of the other comparison articles that scroll down the screen. For example, “Shown” includes Apple’s iOS background, also found under the “Summary” banner. And “suggestions” will give you some suggested images that can work well and have a deeper effect. The weather and sky backgrounds also make good use of depth effects, with earth or moon patterns covering a short period of time.
