CapturePhotoOutput class

A capture output for still image, Live Photo, and other photography workflows.

CapturePhotoOutput provides an interface for capture workflows related to still photography. In addition to basic capture of still images, a photo output supports RAW-format capture, bracketed capture of multiple images, Live Photos, and wide-gamut color. You can output captured photos in a variety of formats and codecs, including RAW format DNG files, HEVC format HEIF files, and JPEG files.

To capture photos with the CapturePhotoOutput class, follow these steps:

Create an CapturePhotoOutput object. Use its properties to determine supported capture settings and to enable certain features (for example, whether to capture Live Photos).
Create and configure an CapturePhotoSettings object to choose features and settings for a specific capture (for example, whether to enable image stabilization or flash).
Capture an image by passing your photo settings object to the capturePhotoWithSettings method along with a delegate object implementing the CapturePhotoCaptureDelegate class. The photo capture output then calls your delegate to notify you of significant events during the capture process.

Some photo capture settings, such as the flashMode property, include options for automatic behavior. For such settings, the photo output determines whether to use that feature at the moment of capture—you don’t know when requesting a capture whether the feature will be enabled when the capture completes. When the photo capture output calls your CapturePhotoCaptureDelegate callbacks with information about the completed or in-progress capture, it also provides an CaptureResolvedPhotoSettings object that details which automatic features are set for that capture. The resolved settings object’s uniqueID property matches the uniqueID value of the CapturePhotoSettings object you used to request capture.

Enabling certain photo features (Live Photo capture and high resolution capture) requires a reconfiguration of the capture render pipeline. To opt into these features, set the setHighResolutionCaptureEnabled, setLivePhotoCaptureEnabled, and setLivePhotoAutoTrimmingEnabled properties before calling your CaptureSession.startRunning method. Changing any of these properties while the session is running disrupts the capture render pipeline: Live Photo captures in progress end immediately, unfulfilled photo requests abort, and video preview temporarily freezes.

Using a photo capture output adds other requirements to your CaptureSession object:

A capture session can’t support both Live Photo capture and movie file output. If your capture session includes an CaptureMovieFileOutput object, the setLivePhotoCaptureSupported value becomes false. (As an alternative, you can use the CaptureVideoDataOutput class to output video buffers at the same resolution as a simultaneous Live Photo capture).

A capture session can’t contain both an CapturePhotoOutput object and an CaptureStillImageOutput object. The CapturePhotoOutput class includes all functionality of (and deprecates) the CaptureStillImageOutput class.

The CapturePhotoOutput class implicitly supports wide-gamut color photography. If the source CaptureDevice.activeColorSpace value is AVCaptureColorSpace_P3_D65, the capture output produces photos with wide color information (unless your CapturePhotoSettings object specifies an output format that doesn’t support wide color).

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ios library