iPhone 13 Pro Really bad photos with iPhone 13 Pro (+Max) Merged

[Pandyone]

It all comes down to technique, patience, and knowing your camera and how to set it properly before taking your shot.

I agree with this when it comes to more professional equipment like dslr or mirrorless cameras. However, mobile cameras are designed for point and shoot.
If Apple really expected that their users would plan ahead that much before taking a photo, they would have implemented more manual controls in their own app.

One big complaint about the camera system on 13 Pro for me, is that even if I know much about photography I get inconsistent results.
So even if I would learn more and plan my shots better, the “smart” HDR and other processing doesn’t give me the expected results in the photos.

 

[ToddH]

I agree with this when it comes to more professional equipment like dslr or mirrorless cameras. However, mobile cameras are designed for point and shoot.
If Apple really expected that their users would plan ahead that much before taking a photo, they would have implemented more manual controls in their own app.

One big complaint about the camera system on 13 Pro for me, is that even if I know much about photography I get inconsistent results.
So even if I would learn more and plan my shots better, the “smart” HDR and other processing doesn’t give me the expected results in the photos.

Well then you need to use Halide until Apple fixes the so called inconsistent results. At least you’ll be happier.

 

[PeterJP]

People, stop using the telephoto lens at night and you will get better pictures. Telephoto lens on this phone should ONLY be used outside in very bright light. Otherwise, the phone will just use the wide lens and digitally zoom in 3X. This is what is giving so many of you that painted effect.

While this may be sound advice for the majority, I think I know what I'm doing. I shot 90 and 200mm lenses without image stabilisation at night before, so 77mm should be OK. So I bought the 13Pro because I want that lens, and I want to decide when I will use it. Unfortunately, Apple seems to be telling me a Pro camera phone requires an additional purchase of a decent camera app to get control over the camera. Is it me, or is that contradicting the Pro moniker in the name of the phone?

 

[RUQRU]

I saw this page describing some possible fixes. Anyone see a benefit?
iPhone 13 Photos Blurry And Low Quality?

1. Disable Auto Macro​

2. Turn Off Lens Correction​

3. Use Standard Photographic Style​

4. Disable ‘View Full HDR’​

 

[RobertoDLV]

People, stop using the telephoto lens at night and you will get better pictures. Telephoto lens on this phone should ONLY be used outside in very bright light. Otherwise, the phone will just use the wide lens and digitally zoom in 3X. This is what is giving so many of you that painted effect.

But non pro iPhone have the same painted effect issue and they don’t have the telephoto lens. Or I may have misunderstood your comment in the case you just say : it’s either telephoto lens with bad results or painted effect with wide lens and digital zoom.

 

[RUQRU]

I am seeing improvements with iOS 15.2. Much clearer photos of animal hair. Also when you tap the 3x button it does shift to the 77mm telephoto lens even indoors! You can toggle the macro mode from the camera too.

 

[ediks]

I am seeing improvements with iOS 15.2. Much clearer photos of animal hair. Also when you tap the 3x button it does shift to the 77mm telephoto lens even indoors! You can toggle the macro mode from the camera too.

sounds good, can anyone confirm?

 

[ToddH]

Not sure if I can confirm, but here are my samples with 100% crops. I always shoot raw, but these are unedited jpeg photos

 

[SocialKonstruct]

I bought FirstLight and while the detail is indeed much better, I'm not a fan of the film simulations. They all seem yellow to me. For example, Lesko and Gypsum are compared to Portra, but Portra was very good in saturation, particularly the reds in 400ISO, but the simulations are just pale and yellow. Does Halide offer something like that?

I don't know but I have been using it on straight settings and it works perfectly.

Also I found out something new. STRONG MAGNETIC FIELDS will cause autofocus issues. I just got a MagSafe PopSocket and it prevented me from focusing properly until I removed it and put it away.

 

[SocialKonstruct]

The iPhone camera and any other camera ever made is just a tool. Some people think if they buy a $5,000 camera they are going to get professional looking photos. Same with the iPhone, it’s camera is a tool. If you don’t know what you are doing or if you haven’t mastered photography or the camera, then you won’t get good results. If you remember the point & shoot pocket cameras that were popular in the 80’s & 90’s they were much like the iPhone camera today, just point and shoot, people got lousy results from those as well because of the lack of knowledge of how the camera works or they didn’t educate themselves on how to become a better photographer. All I see here are mostly snapshots, no technique or planned shots. Some are better than others. Photography requires patience and skill and a lot of passion. I talk to a lot of people publicly that have the iPhone 12 or 13 pro max and mention how great the camera is and I usually get the reply that they hardly take photos with it! I think to myself, why get the pro model if you aren’t going to take photos and take advantage of the cameras?
So Apple fanboys have nothing to do with the post, I am a professional photographer and I have studied photography for decades now, I know what I’m doing and have trained my eye to see how the camera sees the scene I’m about to capture. It all comes down to technique, patience, and knowing your camera and how to set it properly before taking your shot.

The issue isn't the quality of the iPhone taking inherently optically bad photos. The problem is that Apple removes our ability to access the unprocessed jpeg thus not allowing us to edit the photos ourselves without intervention. Also I like to do a lot of post-processing.

 

[ToddH]

The issue isn't the quality of the iPhone taking inherently optically bad photos. The problem is that Apple removes our ability to access the unprocessed jpeg thus not allowing us to edit the photos ourselves without intervention. Also I like to do a lot of post-processing.

Well I guess that may be why ProRAW is available. Use that if you like post processing that much. I’m the same way, I shoot raw on everything, Lightroom mobile for the edits. As I have mentioned before, use Halide or the Moment app for those jpeg photos. Not sure why everyone ignores that suggestion!!??

 

[PeterJP]

I don't know but I have been using it on straight settings and it works perfectly.

It works perfectly, but the rendering is not to my liking. My son's pale skin looks horribly explicit on straight settings and yellow in the film simulations I mentioned. It's much better than the Playboy plastering on his skin with the Apple camera app that make the photo look like a cheap Samsung phone with the default app (I have used Samsung extensively and a third party app is a complete must there, because the cameras are pretty good as well). But it's still very unpleasant. I guess I'm spoilt by Fujifilm. Their JPGs straight out of camera with film simulations are so good I turned off RAW completely.

 

[ringomainichi]

I searched my photos to see if there were any where the photo app used the wide lens when I selected the telephoto lens. It usually used what I selected, except in dim light, but I found a few that used the wide even with plenty of light.
I found a shot where it used the telephoto, then I took another of the same scene and somehow it used the wide lens and digitally zoomed, even with bright light.
Here are 100% crops of the photos, along with the image info screens for the photo, the top focal length in mm is the actual lens, the bottom mm is the apparent focal length after digital zoom, if any.
Here it used the 77mm f2.8 telephoto, and in the info screen the two mm numbers match.

Here is another 100% crop where it used the 26mm f1.5 wide lens, then digitally zoomed, i.e. cropped and scaled, as if it used 77mm. I did not digitally zoom it myself at the time, I had selected the telephoto lens. In the info screen, the lens used was 26mm f1.5, but the other number, the effective focal length, is zoomed to 77mm.

For comparison, I took an image of the same scene with a big SLR camera, a 10 year old Sigma SD1 with an APS-C size sensor that has a vertical pixel resolution close to the iPhone 13. It has a zoom lens that I set to 76mm, close to the iPhone tele. (Ignore the time stamp, the camera clock wasn't set correctly). Here is a 100% crop from the SD1 with an iPhone info screen.

I am not expecting photos from a pocket phone to be like a big SLR, I'm just showing what's possible with another camera.

Also, here is a 100% crop iPhone image of the scene where I selected the wide 26mm lens: the mm focal lengths in the info screen match. You can see how much it would have to zoom in to get an effective 77mm focal length.

If an image from the phone looks blurry, try pressing the (i) icon and check the info screen, if the mm focal lengths don't match, digital zoom was used, intentionally or not. An app like Halide or ProCam will give direct control over the lens, but you also have to take more control over brightness, focus distance, etc.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

I still keep an old 7 Plus as it is the most beautiful phone and love the black metal back. The new phones can't compete on design values even if they are ten times more powerful. I don't use the old 7Plus but just love looking at it! And holding it as it is so light and fits in your hand so much better than my current 13 PM.

I both agree and disagree. I definitely believe the 7 and 7 Plus were the peak of that design language. I prefer the square sides of the 5-series and now the 12 and 13s. It's easier to hold and IMO the design is better. That being said, the rounded, pain-in-the-butt-to-find-a-good-screen-protector 6-8 series does hold a special place in my heart. But at the end of the day, usability, battery life, storage, and camera quality are what counts so I'll keep my heavy-as-a-brick 13 PM.

 

[magnetic_electrique]

Anyone else getting a yellow blotch when taking pictures of screens?

 

[dallegre]

Anyone else getting a yellow blotch when taking pictures of screens?

That looks like moire caused by the pixel pattern on the screen. It will happen with just about any digital camera.

What is Moiré and How it Can Ruin Your Photos

Moiré can ruin your photos by adding wavy patterns to them. It occurs when an image is captured with a high-resolution camera that has no low-pass filter.

photographylife.com

 

[magnetic_electrique]

That looks like moire caused by the pixel pattern on the screen. It will happen with just about any digital camera.

What is Moiré and How it Can Ruin Your Photos

Moiré can ruin your photos by adding wavy patterns to them. It occurs when an image is captured with a high-resolution camera that has no low-pass filter.

photographylife.com

That makes sense. My iPad doesn’t do it which is why I was curious.

 

[Teedeechian]

So IOS 15.2 update didn't fixed this? ?

 

[Jldaviscmd]

That makes sense. My iPad doesn’t do it which is why I was curious.

iPad probably doesn’t have the resolution required to see the moire effect.

 

[ian6969]

I am seeing improvements with iOS 15.2. Much clearer photos of animal hair. Also when you tap the 3x button it does shift to the 77mm telephoto lens even indoors! You can toggle the macro mode from the camera too.

Very limited testing with me so far, but I think I’m seeing more realistic skin tones and less aggressive brightening. When viewing a photo directly after taking it, the initial blury shot and the deep-fusion final version seem much closer in colour and brightness, the main difference is sharpening.

 

[magnetic_electrique]

iPad probably doesn’t have the resolution required to see the moire effect.

Makes sense. Thanks!

 

[ToddH]

So IOS 15.2 update didn't fixed this? ?

Images are fantastic on my iPhone. When an image is open on the iPhone and you double tap to zoom in, that is 100%. If y’all go beyond that and start looking for defects, then you are looking for issues to possibly complain about…

 

[zlodeymk]

Images are fantastic on my iPhone. When an image is open on the iPhone and you double tap to zoom in, that is 100%. If y’all go beyond that and start looking for defects, then you are looking for issues to possibly complain about…

What about selfies? I just upgraded from my 6s and they are much worse than what my old phone does. I'm speechless.

 

[ToddH]

What about selfies? I just upgraded from my 6s and they are much worse than what my old phone does. I'm speechless.

The front or selfie camera looks best when shot in ProRAW. I just did a comparison and the ProRAW is much sharper and cleaner. Apple hasn’t changed the f/ratio of the front camera in years, the sensor has changed some though. I think the way the iPhone takes jpeg photos and applies the smart HDR and computational photography, & deep fusion is set up that way for a majority of the iPhone owners as a majority of them aren’t photographers. So the use of styles, hdr, etc is there to help those low information photographers take better photos. Those of us who are photographers don’t shoot jpeg, we shoot RAW. The best quality comes from raw files. All the photos that Apple shows during an iPhone release keynote are done by pros most likely using ProRAW. I think that’s why Apple released ProRAW so the compressed jpeg is taken out of the equation so better results can be obtained.

My selfie was at ISO 800. Fairly high for in the house. Here is the technical information on each camera obtained from the Halide app.

 

[zlodeymk]

I just tried Halide and the result was not much different compared to stock. Here’s the main catch that really pisses me off: while taking the photo both in the stock app and in Halide you will see yourself in this dark grain, and only AFTER you did the shot, you can see a more or less ok image in the gallery. This is astounding degeneracy, so much for the computational cores the iPhone has. I hate how it makes selfies in the low light, whether it’s stock or Halide. Stupid.