Apple’s latest iPhone-17 Pro has added a bunch of camera upgrades, but one longtime capability quietly disappeared — and many users only noticed now. On the 17 Pro, the combination of “Night Mode” and “Portrait” mode is gone. In practice, that means if you try to take a portrait (i.e. depth-effect / bokeh) shot in a dark or low-light environment, the Night Mode option no longer appears. Portraits can still be taken, and Night Mode still works in regular (non-portrait) photos or selfies — but the two features no longer work together as they did on previous Pro iPhones.
That’s a notable change: since 2020, Pro-level iPhones had allowed portrait shots in low light by combining depth information (often via LiDAR) with extended-exposure Night Mode. For many photographers, that made portraits in dimly lit rooms or nighttime scenes possible — something harder to achieve without that pairing. Now, on 17 Pro, that capability seems intentionally dropped.
It’s unclear why Apple made this decision. The 17 Pro retains its advanced camera hardware and LiDAR sensor, which previously enabled depth-based portrait-night photos. Some speculate technical trade-offs — perhaps related to the new camera layout or increased sensor size — may have made stable night-portrait processing unreliable. Others argue the removal could be about simplifying software or avoiding potential image-quality issues that might arise under long exposure plus depth processing.
For users who often shoot portraits at night or indoors with dim lighting, this feels like a regression. It means using the 17 Pro for portrait photography may deliver good results only under well-lit conditions. That may disappoint those who chose the Pro model expecting full photographic flexibility — especially in nightlife, indoor events, or evening outings.
Whether this change is final or could be reversed with a software update remains to be seen. But for now, the iPhone 17 Pro stands out as the first Pro model in several generations to ship without Night-Portrait support — a surprising move for a phone otherwise marketed heavily around its photography capabilities.
