Camera app skin tones and highlights are terrible

[chunky_mike]

Hey all,

I'm an iPhone 7+ user for the past couple of months. Overall, I think its a great phone and I've really enjoyed using it. I bought it specifically for the portrait mode and overall I'm pretty thrilled with the effect, especially for quick and dirty portraits. Definitely the best smartphone camera that I have ever used regularly- there are lots of features of the app that I appreciate. However, I have some issues that I wonder if other people have had as well.

1. Flesh tones: honestly, the flesh tones on the iPhone camera are terrible. I'm Asian, and I can always tell which photos I have that are taken with the cell phone because skin tones are an awful orange'ish pink color. This is with Asian as well as Caucasian skin tones. It drives me crazy because otherwise the camera is pretty nice. Compared to the colors in even a basic DSLR, it is pretty terrible.

2. No RAW shooting: I get that many people who shoot w/ their iPhones just will want to shoot JPG or the new format that they are coming out with, but ever since shooting with Lightroom Mobile, I am amazed at home much better the pictures are when shot in raw and highlights pulled back. It is amazing to me how much information is lost when using just the iPhone camera app. RAW files are large and unwieldy and it takes some time and love to get them looking their best, but wouldn't it make sense to give the user at least an "opt-in" option to shoot in RAW? I would so love to be able to shoot in Portrait mode in RAW so that at least I have a shot of pulling back highlights, correcting the color and WB as best as I can. It would seem to be a fairly easy fix to me.

I would pay good money for an app that is just a camera app that lets you shoot "Portrait" mode in RAW and perhaps had filters that would emulate some of the color profiles of certain brands, like Canon or Fuji.

I realize that I am being anal, and that most iPhone users don't really care that much about their iPhone camera vs DSLR's or what not, but honestly, if there were some simple software improvements- this could be a really decent camera replacement. What do you guys think?

cheers,
Mike

p.s. has anyone tested out the IOS 11 portrait mode enhancements? I find it strange and curious that they can just activate optical image stabilization in a product a year after it was released. Why not have it active when the product shifts? Haven't had the guts to install it myself yet.

 

[MattXDA]

Loads of apps support RAW, it’s been a feature for a while. However, I’m not sure of any which allow Portrait mode effects

 

[chunky_mike]

Loads of apps support RAW, it’s been a feature for a while. However, I’m not sure of any which allow Portrait mode effects

Sure, I realize that there are other apps that can shoot RAW, in fact I mention using LR Mobile above. However, as you mention there aren't any to my knowledge that can shoot in the portrait mode, which was the main reason that I got an iPhone 7+. It would be really great for Apple to give us access to the RAW files from the native camera app- at least give us the option. I'm surprised that there haven't been other people clamoring for this feature.

 

[MattXDA]

Sure, I realize that there are other apps that can shoot RAW, in fact I mention using LR Mobile above. However, as you mention there aren't any to my knowledge that can shoot in the portrait mode, which was the main reason that I got an iPhone 7+. It would be really great for Apple to give us access to the RAW files from the native camera app- at least give us the option. I'm surprised that there haven't been other people clamoring for this feature.

Definitely, I have talked to the head of the iOS camera division over email and RAW support in the camera and photos app is probably planned at some point but does also have some logistical issues such as people turning it on and using a large amount of storage space without realising.

 

[chunky_mike]

Definitely, I have talked to the head of the iOS camera division over email and RAW support in the camera and photos app is probably planned at some point but does also have some logistical issues such as people turning it on and using a large amount of storage space without realising.

Thanks, that is encouraging that it is in the works. I'm personally amazed how much better the iPhone RAWs (frequently) look after a little bit of massaging. Yeah, I wonder if some kind of "opt-in" would be possible, along with some kind of RAW management system that would help you to apply changes across numerous files, export more than one at once, and batch delete the ones that you are done editing. I'd pay $ for an app that did that- even if it was an upgrade that Apple made you pay for. Perhaps that could be the paywall that could prevent novices from accidentally filling up their iPhones with huge RAW files.