Phocus Mobile 2 v4.3.0 Adds Automatic Portrait Masking to iPhone and iPad

Hasselblad pushed Phocus Mobile 2 v4.3.0 to the App Store this morning. The headline is automation: tap a portrait, and the app builds the mask for you.

When v4.0 brought local adjustment masks to mobile, every selection was manual. You painted a brush mask, or dropped a linear or radial gradient, and cleaned up the edges by hand. v4.3.0 adds a Portrait Smart Mask that finds the person in the frame from a single tap, on both iPhone and iPad.

A note on support: This post represents my personal exploration and testing, not official technical support or guidance from Hasselblad. If you need assistance with your Hasselblad equipment, please contact Hasselblad directly: customersupport@hasselblad.com for global support, support.us@hasselblad.com for the Americas, or visit hasselblad.com/support for regional options.

Key finding: Phocus Mobile 2 v4.3.0 adds a Portrait Smart Mask that auto-detects the subject from a single tap on iPhone and iPad. Invert it to edit the background independently, refine the edges with brush and eraser tools, and stack it with other masks. The update also adds an eraser to brush masks and improves EXIF retention on export.

What does the Portrait Smart Mask do?

It detects the portrait subject and generates a mask from one tap. From there you adjust the subject on its own, or invert the selection and work the background independently. Hasselblad's announcement lists exposure, highlights, saturation, color temperature, and tint as parameters you can push against the inverted mask.

The mask is not locked once it lands. Brush and eraser tools let you add or remove coverage, so you can fix the spots the auto-detection missed without starting over. Hasselblad calls it the Portrait Smart Mask, and it behaves like any other mask layer: it stacks with brush, linear, and radial masks, and supports duplication and deletion.

To reach it:

1. Open the editing interface.
2. Tap the mask icon in the toolbar.
3. Choose "Select Subject."

What changed for brush masks?

Brush masks picked up two refinements. There is now an eraser for quick corrections when you overpaint, and one-tap inversion to flip the selection after you have brushed it. Combined with the existing flow, size, and feathering controls, that closes the gap between a rough first pass and a clean final mask.

What else changed in v4.3.0?

Two more items, both about output rather than masking:

• Negative value adjustment on the highlight recovery and shadow fill sliders. The changelog states these sliders now accept negative values. I have not tested how that shifts their range in practice, so treat it as reported behavior until I confirm it.
• Improved EXIF retention for exported images. If you finish edits in the app and export from there rather than round-tripping to the desktop, more of the original capture metadata now survives the trip.

Should you update?

Yes. The portrait mask is the kind of feature that earns its keep on an iPad during a culling session, and the brush eraser is a quiet but real workflow improvement. The app sits at a 4.5 rating across 434 ratings on the App Store as of this release. Phocus Mobile 2 v4.3.0 is available now for iPhone and iPad; update through the App Store as usual.

References

1. Phocus Mobile 2 on the App Store
2. Hasselblad on Instagram: Phocus Mobile 2 v4.3.0 announcement