As Samsung’s first smartphone to offer dual cameras, the Galaxy Note 8 carries more than a few neat photography tricks up its sleeve. One of those features is Dual Capture mode, which allows you to take two pictures at the same time — a standard wide angle shot, and another Live Focus version, which zooms in on the subject while applying a bokeh effect to the background, similar to the Portrait Mode in the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X.
Shooting in Dual Capture modes is pretty simple, once you know how to access the feature. Here’s how to get started.
1. Open the Camera app.
2. Tap the Live Focus option centered just above the shutter button. This puts you in Live Focus mode, where you’ll be presented with a slider to control the strength of the depth-of-field effect. You’ll be able to see the background blur applied in the viewfinder in real time before you take the shot, but the Note 8 also allows you to manipulate the bokeh in the Gallery later on if you want.
Take the picture now, and you’d only get the Live Focus photo — but we want to capture both the Live Focus and regular exposures together.
3. Tap the Dual Capture icon up top, which should appear as a square with a dotted square behind it.
Tapping Dual Capture turns the icon yellow and informs you that the phone will save both images simultaneously. Now you’ll receive two versions of every picture you take.
But what about when you want to view them later? The Note 8 won’t save Dual Capture photos as two separate files side-by-side; instead, it places a toggle below the photo in the Gallery, allowing you to go back and forth between the Live Focus and normal versions with just a tap.
This works well in the Gallery, but if you want to export the normal exposure specifically to a photo editing or library app, you’ll need to save it separately. To that, select the Save As New File option in the top right corner. When you tap it while looking at the standard image, that photo becomes its own file, which you can edit and share to your heart’s content.
