I'm not here to bash Apple and the iPhone camera. All I'm asking for is the option to turn the extra processing off.
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iPhone 13 iPhone camera is overprocessing. Will it ever end?
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Again, we adamantly disagree. In my personal experience with the iP 13 Pro, the iP 14 Pro and the iP 15 Pro Max each one clearly improved upon its predecessor. And I do not use apps to set up pix up manually, I just pay attention to light, composition and movement. But then again I do not attempt the kinds of shots you show above using a phone camera.
In my experience properly lit shots with neither camera nor subject moving generally do not overprocess. However if nthe photog screws up lighting and/or movement the computational photography tries to fix the photog's errors, leading to poor captures thatb look "overprocessed."
There are also film modes available for iPhone, which would likely address your concerns as well.
VSCO, Afterlight, A Color Story, Vistax.ProCamera, my aforementioned Fjorden all offer these.
VSCO, Afterlight, A Color Story, Vistax.ProCamera, my aforementioned Fjorden all offer these.
The ugliest example, IMO, of the current post processing involves text in the background of iPhone 15PM photographs- billboard in a city shot, or posters or books in an indoor shot. The mess made of the text in post processing is extraordinary.
The iPhone camera is tuned as a tool, to take a photo where the thing you're trying to take one of is visible in all situations and it's not necessarily meant to be realistic. If your everyday person is trying to take a photo of one of the signs in the 2nd photo I imagine they'd be pretty pissed if they got something like what you'd shoot on film. iPhones also try to give you a cleaner slate to work with if you edit your photos, so you'll get a brighter pic you can darken and make moody as if it's taken on film. You can't do the opposite with a darker pic because the detail that's not captured just won't be there. You can get a more natural result if you shoot RAW.
I don't think "natural" photos are making a comeback and we'll see phone cameras get brighter and less realistic in order to capture as much detail and serve their utilitarian need better. If I'm a tourist visiting Times Square at night, I'd rather have a very overexposed blurry shot that looks so fake it's almost like a watercolor painting than not be able to take that photo at all.
I also disliked how bad everything looked on the S10 when I had one. Replaced with iPhone 13 and was surprised to see that it absolutely sucked in the exact same way - especially the front camera. Less than perfect lighting and everything's denoised to a smooth blur. I liked the sneak peeks it gave me of the photos before it processed them into a mess. iPhone 15 is beyond better with that and keeps noise instead of making everything look completely flat, maybe because of the higher megapixel count - detail is there in all shots. But they still look HDR-y. I've never been a fan of Samsung's processing in general and find their cameras to be among the worst.
I don't think "natural" photos are making a comeback and we'll see phone cameras get brighter and less realistic in order to capture as much detail and serve their utilitarian need better. If I'm a tourist visiting Times Square at night, I'd rather have a very overexposed blurry shot that looks so fake it's almost like a watercolor painting than not be able to take that photo at all.
I also disliked how bad everything looked on the S10 when I had one. Replaced with iPhone 13 and was surprised to see that it absolutely sucked in the exact same way - especially the front camera. Less than perfect lighting and everything's denoised to a smooth blur. I liked the sneak peeks it gave me of the photos before it processed them into a mess. iPhone 15 is beyond better with that and keeps noise instead of making everything look completely flat, maybe because of the higher megapixel count - detail is there in all shots. But they still look HDR-y. I've never been a fan of Samsung's processing in general and find their cameras to be among the worst.
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Literally my opinion as well. Maybe I should have been more precise and tell I am no way an Apple hater and don’t see myself using any other smartphone than iPhone in nearest future.
A switch to turn off unneeded processing or a natural profile would suffice for most. And since it is on the API level I am pretty sure they can implement that as a feature in next iOS
Post-processing should NOT be mandatory.
It should be something that can be disabled.
This is the only real complaint I have about my 13 Pro.
When it gets replaced, I'll be looking for a phone with a camera that doesn't require me to use that feature.
It should be something that can be disabled.
This is the only real complaint I have about my 13 Pro.
When it gets replaced, I'll be looking for a phone with a camera that doesn't require me to use that feature.
From what I have read so far, A11 Bionic and newer seems to have over-processed shots while A10 Fusion and older do not...
Anyone wanting to compare photos:
Anyone wanting to compare photos:
- iOS 9 iPhone 6s to iOS 15 iPhone 6s
- iOS 10 iPhone 7 to iOS 15 iPhone 7
- iOS 11 iPhone X to iOS 16 iPhone X
- iOS 12 iPhone XS to iOS 17 iPhone XS
- iOS 13 iPhone 11 Pro to iOS 17 iPhone 11 Pro
- iOS 14 iPhone 12 Pro to iOS 17 iPhone 12 Pro
- iOS 15 iPhone 13 Pro to iOS 17 iPhone 13 Pro
- iOS 16 iPhone 14 Pro to iOS 17 iPhone 14 Pro
totally agree. I took a picture of a bug colony for my boyfriend (we use them to feed our frog) and the patterning on the bugs was great in the viewer. Hit the capture button and it became a brown blob with artifacting around the body. I can’t even get a good photo of my cat or the frog itself unless it’s natural lighting and even then it still doesn’t match the viewer like the viewer seems to do a far better job of producing an image. Then the actual capture button does, which is the only way to get the full resolution image. It’s like what on earth are they doing? I’m shooting with an iPhone 13 Pro Max. I miss when I had my Canon EOS 60 D.
Exactly what I tried to tell about. What iOS camera API supposedly does is they first apply MASSIVE amount of noise reduction (and by MASSIVE I mean literally a lot) which kill all natural detail sensor was able to grab, then they add artificial detail by pumping clarity and sharpness (which further makes it look like old CCTV footage) and then, icing on the cake – they desaturate slightly to kill color noise threshold.
Natural noises should not be removed because they give proper illusion of image clarity. When these get removed it shows how incapable smaller image sensor is. It is a pity Apple still does it, I would expect this from Samsung or Pixel because they have been pioneering this “feature” to bring illusion that tiny mobile sensor can compete with APSC (plot twist: it cannot, and never would. Its physics, some computational math is no contender)
The over-processing is terrible on iPhones. My 15 Pro is a complete disappointment. You can't even turn it off shooting ProRAW with the default camera app. I tried using Lightroom as a camera and that does sort of work because it kills nearly every built in camera enhancement but it really does show you how terrible what comes off the sensor is. It's just three crap cameras stuck to the back of a phone with a lot of software covering the gaps.
End game is I don't bother using the iPhone for anything other than what I call "administrative photography" (mostly pictures of my electricity meter and random stuff that isn't really photography. It's not even great for that. Next time I buy a non -Pro suffixed device instead.
I'm never getting this out of any smartphone. (Nikon Z50 + 18-140mm lens):
It really doesn't bother me lugging that proper camera around.
End game is I don't bother using the iPhone for anything other than what I call "administrative photography" (mostly pictures of my electricity meter and random stuff that isn't really photography. It's not even great for that. Next time I buy a non -Pro suffixed device instead.
I'm never getting this out of any smartphone. (Nikon Z50 + 18-140mm lens):
It really doesn't bother me lugging that proper camera around.
Or, don't use the native Camera app, but find one that shoots with less processing.
I get it, I don't love the hyper processing either. Every digital camera does some processing or the images would look flat and awful. But some tend to use profiles that are tuned more to what we've been used to seeing with film.
Fact is, what a "normal" photo looks like is a moving target, subject to the technology of the time. Hearing a lot of pearl-clutching about "real" photos, but honestly, standards and tastes change. Go back and look at photos from the 1960s or 70s is you don't believe me.
The great news is, if you don't like the iOS Camera app's processing, you can just use a different one that shoots the way you'd prefer. I do that sometimes in situations where HDR makes a full ****-show out of golden hour portraits (to cite the most egregious offender).
Phone images aren’t meant for gallery hanging, they’re meant to be glanced at in someones social media feed and liked or disliked in an instant. It’s pretty well documented that people prefer contrasty, oversaturated images on first glance. The artifacts don’t become apparent until you study it. This is even before people start turning on “filters” that make their eyes bigger and improve their facial coloring and whatnot. The photos direct from camera aren’t meant to be art, they’re meant to be chit chat and filler.
Raw is how Apple gives us access to a less (almost certainly not un-) processed image. If you want to control the image, that’s how. You can’t discount the raw interface and then complain we can’t turn processing off. Apple almost certainly won’t give jpegs of underprocessed images because then Apple gets blamed for the users lack of skill.
Raw is how Apple gives us access to a less (almost certainly not un-) processed image. If you want to control the image, that’s how. You can’t discount the raw interface and then complain we can’t turn processing off. Apple almost certainly won’t give jpegs of underprocessed images because then Apple gets blamed for the users lack of skill.
The problem is the photos are oversaturated not over processed. Turn the saturation down and you’re set. It will even keep the setting.
This exactly, smartphones have brought cameras to billions, and they post them online, and Apple with their camera app caters to them as they are in the majority.
And every year some professional photographers are featured by Apple and they know and understand how to manipulate photos
Shooting in RAW is really your only option. Using RAW turns off a lot of the processing done on the iPhone.
Unfortunately I don’t think this is going to change. It is a general social trend and Apple isn’t even the worse offender. People want “pretty” not “real” in their snapshots.
Unfortunately I don’t think this is going to change. It is a general social trend and Apple isn’t even the worse offender. People want “pretty” not “real” in their snapshots.
I think we’re finding that people want “striking” not “pretty”.
Looks like I am not the only one to talk about this issue. Here is take from official Apple discussions forum, but this time the criticized device is iPhone 14 Plus. OP is using his iPhone to basically scan his oil paintings in RAW, and he also noticed that even new implementation of RAW on iPhones is horrible – you get images which are impossible to work with.
It is quite interesting comparing to what competition has. Never had this problem with my old Galaxy s10+ either (phone is year older than my next iPhone 11 Pro). I.e. when I shoot RAW it was literally same picture as JPEG in terms of exposure but without sharpening, noise reduction, clarity improvements and oversaturation.
For sure, maybe it doesn’t really matter for most photography styles. But for mine, I always get soapy images because I often need phone to perform in low light situations. I mean, it even got a camera bump, it gotta perform in lower light situations (not even asking in full darkness, for example in the evening).
Another example taken with my SE3 (same sensor as 13, no difference). I did 0 edits to photo, on paper it looks ok, until you zoom it.
And here is zoom.
See these little shadows in the background of the dark leaves? This is what I call “overcooked”. Either this happened because of HDR or due to some errors. And thats another reason why algorithms are bad friends when it comes to photography.
Now lets look at the sky.
Completely…clear? But it shouldn’t be. You can see there is some sort of varying pattern, this is how noise reducer in iPhone works – it kills white noise and then overcompresses image multiple times which results in “retro console glitch” type of visual artifacts.
Well, I had even worse sort of artifacts on my 11 Pro when camera divided sky into 3 different color layers, again regular person probably won’t notice but the second you zoom it in you get angered. Since most of my shots died with the phone, I cannot show examples, but I guess I had some old backup on my SSD, will post it if I find
It is quite interesting comparing to what competition has. Never had this problem with my old Galaxy s10+ either (phone is year older than my next iPhone 11 Pro). I.e. when I shoot RAW it was literally same picture as JPEG in terms of exposure but without sharpening, noise reduction, clarity improvements and oversaturation.
For sure, maybe it doesn’t really matter for most photography styles. But for mine, I always get soapy images because I often need phone to perform in low light situations. I mean, it even got a camera bump, it gotta perform in lower light situations (not even asking in full darkness, for example in the evening).
Another example taken with my SE3 (same sensor as 13, no difference). I did 0 edits to photo, on paper it looks ok, until you zoom it.
And here is zoom.
See these little shadows in the background of the dark leaves? This is what I call “overcooked”. Either this happened because of HDR or due to some errors. And thats another reason why algorithms are bad friends when it comes to photography.
Now lets look at the sky.
Completely…clear? But it shouldn’t be. You can see there is some sort of varying pattern, this is how noise reducer in iPhone works – it kills white noise and then overcompresses image multiple times which results in “retro console glitch” type of visual artifacts.
Well, I had even worse sort of artifacts on my 11 Pro when camera divided sky into 3 different color layers, again regular person probably won’t notice but the second you zoom it in you get angered. Since most of my shots died with the phone, I cannot show examples, but I guess I had some old backup on my SSD, will post it if I find
Great ... Can we please get the option to turn it off and/or tweak it?
This is my phone, not Apple's
Their preferences for the photos out of the camera App are not mine
I wouldn’t be too quick to assume modern Samsung phones are any better.
They are the ones that were using AI to replace objects in your photos - like the moon - without even telling users that’s what they were doing.
Talk about the epitome of fake!
They are the ones that were using AI to replace objects in your photos - like the moon - without even telling users that’s what they were doing.
Talk about the epitome of fake!
When I started to take photography seriously, I had the same concern, disappointment, etc. However, not long into research, I realized… It’s fine:
Yes.
Apple highlights best photos shot on iPhone around the world
iPhone photographers around the world shared their best photos for the Shot on iPhone Challenge, capturing shots with the world’s most popular camera.
www.apple.com
The extreme importance of technique and the science is something I am still learning. Some relevant tidbits: