iPhone X Moved From Pixel 2 XL to iPhone X - Disapointing Pictures

[sn0warmy]

Unfortunately, the main reason the Pixel 2 XL camera is so much better isn't a setting based issue (i.e. changing the exposure manually or something on the X camera) but rather the imaging processing that Google has is some magic fairy dust in there. I think the iPhone X has great pics as well, if you're going to take close-ups I recommend using the telephoto lens for those. The regular camera is really good for scenery shots. Its one of the best rear cameras on a phone, but the Pixel 2 XL is just better because of the image processing.

You can take really good iPhone X pics, the iPhone X really shines with scenery pictures more so than closeups.

Pixel 2 XL is a great shooter though. The front facing shots are the best on a smartphone today, that's where it really shines compared to the other top end flagships.

Understood. I guess I'll just have to accept that the image quality coming from the iPhone is going to be sub-par to the Pixel 2, especially in close up type shots. Sadly, in some cases it will truly butcher the photos, like it already has a few times for me. Hopefully Apple will update the image processing to help improve the overall quality.

With that said, I will agree that longer distance scenery shots still look very good:

But man, that 2 XL camera. I'm gonna miss it...

 

[pixel_junkie]

As much of an Apple sheep that I am, I gotta give it to the Pixel on camera quality.

As much as an Android sheep that I am, I don't see it as a clear win for the Pixel. Prefer some of the iPhone X pics, especially in the second set.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

As much as an Android sheep that I am, I don't see it as a clear win for the Pixel. Prefer some of the iPhone X pics, especially in the second set.

Apple does do their Studio Lighting feature quite well, I'll give them that.

 

[Altis]

I've found most of the iPhone cameras starting with the 6 have suffered from very aggressive noise-reduction algorithms that make even daytime+outdoor photos look like water paintings. I don't know why they seem to need to make it so extreme.

The iPhone X is no exception from all the photos I've seen posted. Sure, the JPEG engine tends to make it vibrant and lively looking (which you can do with any photo), but you can never recover detail.

I guess to the average person, as long as it looks fine on their phone screen, it's good enough.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Images are important. But the iPhone really has improved my overall mobile experience in terms of client communication and apps really do feel like they are better polished and smooth on IOS. I'd just like to see if there is a way I can tweak the iPhone images to be a bit better and closer to the quality of the Pixel.

I understand that the Pixel's camera/processing software is better. But considering that the iPhone X received a 97 DXO score compared to the Pixel's 98, I'd expect the difference in quality to be much more subtle than it is.




Do you happen to know what settings I could tweak with the iPhone camera to correct the photo output to be at least somewhat as 'natural' and true-to-life as the Pixel?

Since I had both phones out, I decided to take them both with me on my morning walk with the dog. I wanted to see if in brighter conditions the difference would be less noticeable. It wasn't...

Pixel 2 XL

iPhone X

Pixel 2 XL

iPhone X

Got to be honest, the iPhone pics in this post are visually more pleasing in terms of sharpness and color vibrancy.
[doublepost=1523506751][/doublepost]

I've been a pretty diehard Android (mainly Nexus/Pixel) fan since 2010 with short stints with previous iPhones. However, the redesign of the iPhone X had me intrigued as well as coming to the realization that a lot of the apps I use to communicate and work with my business clients simply perform much better on IOS than they do on Android.

Because of this, I decided to purchase an iPhone X to test for a month or two before potentially making the switch permanently. Overall, I'm happy with the phone, minus my inability to snap good quality pictures with it. No matter what I do, the pictures turn out terrible with this phone, when compared to my Pixel 2 XL. The iPhone X pics always come out either too saturated, too grainy, or simply can't focus on the correct aspect of the photo, even if I try to manually set the focus. ...I just don't get it.

Sadly, so far the iPhone X has provided sub-par pictures to represent memories that my Pixel would have otherwise gotten just right. I'm not here to bash the iPhone X camera, per se. I am simply looking for input from others on some potential settings I could change to fix the image quality to be at least close to what the Pixel 2 provides when just quickly snapping a photo. I'm not one to spend time editing photos after the fact so if that's the solution then my time with the iPhone might be shorter lived than I would have hoped.

For some context, I just took some back to back photos to provide an example. This was literally just "point and shoot" to represent the typical way I'd snap a picture in the moment.

iPhone X

Pixel 2 XL

iPhone X

Pixel 2 XL

And another crappy one from the iPhone X

I don't think anyone could argue that the image quality from the iPhone outperformed the Pixel in this case. It makes the edges of the dog bed look red, when in real life they are grey/tan (as properly colored in the Pixel 2 XL pics). It also removed a ton of detail from her fur where the Pixel was able to properly capture that detail. Unfortunately, this is a proper representation of the pictures I've been taking with the iPhone X over the last week I've had it.

...and here's another I took of my brother-in-law and my nephew. This picture doesn't remotely represent the true color and detail of that moment. It made the red pillow WAY more punch-y than it is in real life, it soften/blurred the skin tone and removed a ton of detail from both of their faces, as well as my brother's arm. And the space between the pillows and the wall just look super grainy.

In the end, I'm looking for input on settings I may be able to change to correct this poor image quality. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Have you tried scrubbing the key photo for different take on the photo?

 

[Sydde]

There are a handful of free apps that make handy little photo editors, where you could turn down the saturation a tad, adjust the sharpness, add captioning or circle stuff you want to point out. I have tried several (caveat: on my iPad) and settled on Aviary for its clean interface. It saves a copy without removing the original. I had one image that was of a photograph not shot straight on and found it had a tool that let me rotate in 3D to flatten it out. Most of your pics look like it could easily address your complaints, though it would be a little bit of work.

 

[Kram Sacul]

The X takes really great pics. You just have to be careful of the highlights from getting too hot and know how to expose properly. Be a better photographer. Shooting in raw format opens up a lot of options too.

 

[DNichter]

LOL! Doubtful.




I'd argue that it's more than just a "slight" difference. But really, as I mentioned before, I do love everything else about the X and in my short stint with IOS, I really do feel that the overall experience with UI feel and app behavior is much more fluid and polished than even the most updated Android 8.1 is.

In the end, I'm just hoping some settings tweaks in the camera will help tone down the pictures the iPhone X takes, to make the outcome more natural. I don't expect to get the same level of finite detail as the 2 XL can produce. I just want to get the iPhone to stop trying to over-process or over-enhance the pictures.




Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous. Especially considering the DXO scores are nearly the same (97 vs 98). Kind of just shows how biased DXO is. And now I can't help but laugh at those Youtube reviewers who swear that the iPhone's camera is still the best.

But I still don't want to give up the iPhone as I'm getting very comfortable with IOS and I think I already prefer it over even the purest form of Android on the 2 XL. If I have to live with sub-par photos then so-be-it. But there's gotta be a way to improve the iPhone image quality. Especially since the issues I'm experiencing seem to be software related.

Well it's a personal opinion, but respect your point of you. To me, they don't look all that much better. Some of the X pictures actually look better to me too. Oh well, Pixel is a quality phone.

 

[960design]

For some context, I just took some back to back photos to provide an example. This was literally just "point and shoot" to represent the typical way I'd snap a picture in the moment.

Thanks for the pics, but I stopped right after I saw the first iPhoneX picture is highly compressed and all exif data is stripped away, whereas the Pixel2 is not as highly compressed. Pretty sure the forum has the most to do with this and not the OP's original intent was to degrade the iPhoneX's images. It is difficult to make a fair comparison.

As an aside, I have read that the Pixel2 has quite an amazing camera. I tend to use my iPhoneX more for photography than before as it does take pretty good pictures:
https://william.960design.com/venice/#IMG_0091.jpg

Linking directly to prevent forum compression.

 

[AlphaGuitarist]

Perhaps I'm a far outlier, but I prefer the iPhone X photos posted in this thread, including the ones with the white house and the bench. They seem to have more definition/contrast than the ones shot with the Pixel 2XL.

 

[pixel_junkie]

I went and tested Pixel's portrait mode. Had issues right off the bat, stuff that the X does not do - in the areas where it separated the subject from the background, looked awesome, sharp, crisp but there were parts of the image that were not blurred out and should have been. In other words, the effect was not applied uniformly which was a dead giveaway that the background blur is artificial. iPhone X portrait mode has never done that out of hundreds of images taken that way.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Perhaps I'm a far outlier, but I prefer the iPhone X photos posted in this thread, including the ones with the white house and the bench. They seem to have more definition/contrast than the ones shot with the Pixel 2XL.

I think the folks who lean a lot more towards Pixel pics are judging based on a more technical perspective instead of just a visually appealing perspective.

I think the pixel takes amazing pictures also but don't agree that the X pics are poor in comparison.

 

[sn0warmy]

Got to be honest, the iPhone pics in this post are visually more pleasing in terms of sharpness and color vibrancy.
[doublepost=1523506751][/doublepost]

Have you tried scrubbing the key photo for different take on the photo?

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, what does "scrubbing the key photo" mean?

There are a handful of free apps that make handy little photo editors, where you could turn down the saturation a tad, adjust the sharpness, add captioning or circle stuff you want to point out. I have tried several (caveat: on my iPad) and settled on Aviary for its clean interface. It saves a copy without removing the original. I had one image that was of a photograph not shot straight on and found it had a tool that let me rotate in 3D to flatten it out. Most of your pics look like it could easily address your complaints, though it would be a little bit of work.

Thanks! I think I'll give Aviary a try. A little extra work to improve the quality is not a problem and could be fun to learn.

Thanks for the pics, but I stopped right after I saw the first iPhoneX picture is highly compressed and all exif data is stripped away, whereas the Pixel2 is not as highly compressed. Pretty sure the forum has the most to do with this and not the OP's original intent was to degrade the iPhoneX's images. It is difficult to make a fair comparison.

As an aside, I have read that the Pixel2 has quite an amazing camera. I tend to use my iPhoneX more for photography than before as it does take pretty good pictures:
https://william.960design.com/venice/#IMG_0091.jpg

Linking directly to prevent forum compression.

Very fair. I didn't mean to manipulate the iPhone photos, by any means. But emailing them to myself was the only way I could get them to come through as JPEG, rather than HEIC. However, even when I look at the photos in the built in Photos app on the iPhone, as well as on my computer in Google Photos after they were auto-uploaded, the images still look the same (punch-y, grainy with details pulled out, and some aspects are overly vibrant).

Nevertheless, that picture you took does look fantastic!

I went and tested Pixel's portrait mode. Had issues right off the bat, stuff that the X does not do - in the areas where it separated the subject from the background, looked awesome, sharp, crisp but there were parts of the image that were not blurred out and should have been. In other words, the effect was not applied uniformly which was a dead giveaway that the background blur is artificial. iPhone X portrait mode has never done that out of hundreds of images taken that way.

Funny, I found the Pixel's portrait mode to be absolutely phenomenal. I'd post samples but I don't know if I want to plaster pics of my wife on a tech forum.

Admittedly, I haven't tested portrait mode on the X yet. I'll definitely do that soon.

I think the folks who lean a lot more towards Pixel pics are judging based on a more technical perspective instead of just a visually appealing perspective.

I think the pixel takes amazing pictures also but don't agree that the X pics are poor in comparison.

I disagree. I'm probably one of the least technical image/photo people in this thread. But I prefer the Pixel photos because they provide a much more accurate "true to life" example of what the scenery actually looked like. It looks exactly as it would if you were standing in the spot right next to me. On the other hand, the iPhone photos look overly edited.

 

[eyeseeyou]

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, what does "scrubbing the key photo" mean?

No worries.

For Live Photo’s you can change the “key photo”. Not guaranteeing this will help but it’s highly possible that one of the frames will contain a version of the pic that’ll fit your preference without having to edit it.

Just select a Live Photo and tap edit.

 

[sn0warmy]

View attachment 758063

No worries.

For Live Photo’s you can change the “key photo”. Not guaranteeing this will help but it’s highly possible that one of the frames will contain a version of the pic that’ll fit your preference without having to edit it.

Just select a Live Photo and tap edit.

This is a great suggestion. Thank you. I'll definitely give that a try next time I'm taking photos. Live Photos are new to me. The Pixel has this feature as well but I disabled it immediately.

 

[eyeseeyou]

This is a great suggestion. Thank you. I'll definitely give that a try next time I'm taking photos. Live Photos are new to me. The Pixel has this feature as well but I disabled it immediately.

It’s not for everybody but in my situation with pics of moving kids it’s mostly helpful. Makes for some funny gifs to post too if you’re into that sort of thing.

Also have you tried using hdr and comparing hdr pics to standard pics?

 

[rockitdog]

The X really struggles with indoor (lower light) photos. I’ve seen horrible red eye from X pics that aren’t present in iPhone 8Plus pics- many YouTube videos about this. I think the camera on the X is a letdown.

 

[sn0warmy]

It’s not for everybody but in my situation with pics of moving kids it’s mostly helpful. Makes for some funny gifs to post too if you’re into that sort of thing.

Also have you tried using hdr and comparing hdr pics to standard pics?

I have not. I'll turn HDR on and see what difference that makes.

 

[ultravegeta1981]

Had both and the pics on the pixel are slightly better. My iphone 8 shoots nearly equal picture quality as the pixel 2. By NO means is the camera on the iphone average. I do miss fast focus i had with the pixel 2 and the galaxy s8. It was instant. And yes,indoor shots are still average on the iphone,but also on the s8 and pixel 2.

 

[sumsingwong]

Turn down the contrast a smidge on the iPhone photos.

 

[fred98tj]

Turn down the contrast a smidge on the iPhone photos.

And how are you proposing to the OP to do that?

 

[BugeyeSTI]

And how are you proposing to the OP to do that?

I think he is suggesting to use an app like Focos..

 

[sumsingwong]

And how are you proposing to the OP to do that?

There are so many photo editing apps in the App Store. I use PS Express. It can also be done in Focos App.

 

[CLS727]

Maybe I'm just crazy but those pictures look the same to me.

I can't understand how people can think this kinda stuff is a big deal.

 

[Boostedhatch]

I've been a pretty diehard Android (mainly Nexus/Pixel) fan since 2010 with short stints with previous iPhones. However, the redesign of the iPhone X had me intrigued as well as coming to the realization that a lot of the apps I use to communicate and work with my business clients simply perform much better on IOS than they do on Android.

Because of this, I decided to purchase an iPhone X to test for a month or two before potentially making the switch permanently. Overall, I'm happy with the phone, minus my inability to snap good quality pictures with it. No matter what I do, the pictures turn out terrible with this phone, when compared to my Pixel 2 XL. The iPhone X pics always come out either too saturated, too grainy, or simply can't focus on the correct aspect of the photo, even if I try to manually set the focus. ...I just don't get it.

Sadly, so far the iPhone X has provided sub-par pictures to represent memories that my Pixel would have otherwise gotten just right. I'm not here to bash the iPhone X camera, per se. I am simply looking for input from others on some potential settings I could change to fix the image quality to be at least close to what the Pixel 2 provides when just quickly snapping a photo. I'm not one to spend time editing photos after the fact so if that's the solution then my time with the iPhone might be shorter lived than I would have hoped.

For some context, I just took some back to back photos to provide an example. This was literally just "point and shoot" to represent the typical way I'd snap a picture in the moment.

iPhone X

Pixel 2 XL

iPhone X

Pixel 2 XL

And another crappy one from the iPhone X

I don't think anyone could argue that the image quality from the iPhone outperformed the Pixel in this case. It makes the edges of the dog bed look red, when in real life they are grey/tan (as properly colored in the Pixel 2 XL pics). It also removed a ton of detail from her fur where the Pixel was able to properly capture that detail. Unfortunately, this is a proper representation of the pictures I've been taking with the iPhone X over the last week I've had it.

...and here's another I took of my brother-in-law and my nephew. This picture doesn't remotely represent the true color and detail of that moment. It made the red pillow WAY more punch-y than it is in real life, it soften/blurred the skin tone and removed a ton of detail from both of their faces, as well as my brother's arm. And the space between the pillows and the wall just look super grainy.

In the end, I'm looking for input on settings I may be able to change to correct this poor image quality. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I noticed this too with blue colors. It didn’t look anything like the blue in real life
[doublepost=1523681135][/doublepost]

Images are important. But the iPhone really has improved my overall mobile experience in terms of client communication and apps really do feel like they are better polished and smooth on IOS. I'd just like to see if there is a way I can tweak the iPhone images to be a bit better and closer to the quality of the Pixel.

I understand that the Pixel's camera/processing software is better. But considering that the iPhone X received a 97 DXO score compared to the Pixel's 98, I'd expect the difference in quality to be much more subtle than it is.




Do you happen to know what settings I could tweak with the iPhone camera to correct the photo output to be at least somewhat as 'natural' and true-to-life as the Pixel?

Since I had both phones out, I decided to take them both with me on my morning walk with the dog. I wanted to see if in brighter conditions the difference would be less noticeable. It wasn't...

Pixel 2 XL

iPhone X

Pixel 2 XL

iPhone X

The pic with the chair the iPhone looks better looks and the shadow of the chair and how detailed it looks compared to the other camera. You can see the holes in the shadow.