Submitted by memology707 t3_11vhrk2 in iphone
About a month ago I bought the 14 and everything has been amazing so far except for the camera. All the photos seem unnatural and heavily processed including the night photos which I expected to be good. Any setting I can change to make the quality better and make the pictures seem natural?
Honestly very dissatisfied with my 14 + camera. Great at big open scenes but stuff up close looks washed out. I think my xr took better photos tbh.
I have the 13 and the camera is probably the exact same, my pictures are also very mediocre.
I use ProCamera and turn off all processing. And when I do care about the photo I photograph in RAW and not ProRAW. But native iPhone photos suck hard, the newer model the worse.
Did you buy your iPhone from an Apple store?
Unfortunately, Apple really screwed up (in a lot of customersā eyes) with their AI processing. When using the phone like normal, like an average everyday user, their idea was that you take a picture and it comes out looking āprofessionalā using their post processing. Honestly, this has done alright on their previous model iPhones, but the iPhone 14s just didnāt adapt well for some reason. I too noticed this right off the bat when I took my first photos on my iPhone 14 Pro Max. They actually didnāt even look too bad, but then I went to Walgreens to print some of those photos, and my God were they horrid.
To remove the artificial post-processing, you will need to take photos in āProRAWā, as this is the setting designed more for the professional photographers. The photos are taken in an uncompressed format (so the file size will be significantly larger), but there is no automatic post-processing applied to ProRAW photos (unless you are using āNight Modeā). ProRAW is designed to capture the photo without any tweaks being done by the software, this way the photographer can apply their own custom edits as necessary without AI interfering.
Now again, while ProRAW will utilize the camera without the AI post-processing, the file sizes will be significantly larger. As an example, I took two photos of the exact same item. One is in normal format, the other in ProRAW. I forced the camera to take both photos using the 12MP lens:
Photo #1 (Normal Format): 12MP @ 910 KB
Photo #2 (ProRAW Format): 12MP @ 17.3 MB
That means Photo #2 takes up approximately 20 times more storage than Photo #1
Now, if youāre not using an iPhone Pro, then the highest resolution photo you can take is 12MP. As you probably know, the āProā models have a 48MP camera. When taking a photo in the normal format, the highest resolution will still be 12MP, but in ProRAW format, the resolution will be 48MP on the Main Camera. Again, to compare the two formats:
Photo #1 (Normal Format): 12MP @ 1.1 MB
Photo #2 (ProRAW Format): 48MP @ 61.6 MB
That means Photo #2 takes up approximate 60 times more storage than Photo #1
While it would take a while to really put a dent in your storage with uncompressed photos alone, there is still a way to take the photos in ProRAW (so you can avoid the post-processing) while having the photo only take up as much storage as the normal format.
I personally use an app called āJPEG to PNGā which lets you convert your ProRAW photos into .jpeg or .png files, at the same time, it compresses the ProRAW photo down to the file size of the normal format. The app is completely free, and you can do unlimited conversions. This is the best free app I was able to find that didnāt make you buy a subscription after your first few conversions. I highly recommend it.
Also, luckily, we donāt have the same issue with post-processing when recording videos, but I did want to mention another app called āMovP4ā in case you ever come up with a need for it. It literally does the same thing as āJPEG to PNGā, but for videos instead. Meaning, you can take the ridiculously large, uncompressed ProRes videos and convert to a .mp4 file (which greatly reduces the file size). For example, I converted a 40 second ProRes video from 3.87 GB down to a 128.1 MB .mp4 file. Again, this app is also completely free, and doesnāt make you buy a subscription after a few conversions.
I have attached screenshots of both apps within the App Store so you know which apps Iām referring to. Neither of these apps are anything fancy, they donāt convert to every file format under the sun. However, they do convert to the most commonly used image and video formats easily, quickly, and for free. So, thereās no reason to complain!
Sorry for the extremely long answer, however, I really hope it helps!
Nope, but bought it from an official well reputed seller. Also verified it on the first day i bought it using the serial number
That's just new iPhone. Sucks to suck
Ngl, the performance on this phone is too good to buy a new phone. Guess Iāll just wait for apple to hopefully fix it in the upcoming updates or at least give us an option to turn off processing cause youāre right about the 3rd party applications being extremely infuriating to use since half of them require us to pay for an app which arenāt the best anyways.
I wouldnāt trust it even if you verified it! You probably got scammed, and itās a fake iPhone (you can tell if it is from the cameras) if I were you, I would visit an Apple store and get it checked!
Oh please, donāt spread bullshit like this. The iPhone 14 series has a terrible camera, this is common knowledge.
Probably not, since someone I know also has the iPhone 14 and theyāre identical in every aspect including the quality and since we bought it from different places, I doubt both us got scammed but thanks for your concern anyways and in case I do visit the store, i will make sure to get it checked for authenticity. Also i bought apple care+ which indicates my device being genuine on the official checkcoverage website.
Then maybe thereās something defective with your camera, because I have the iPhone 14 pro max and never had an issue with the camera, and all my pictures are crystal clear and very good quality!
I used Samsung phones for like 10 years and got a 14 pro max and thought the camera will be good since itās an iPhone and everyone usually says the cameras are pretty decent. Iāve been very disappointed with how a lot of the photos come out.
Itās a phone. Why do people expect it to paint the Mona Lisa ? Phones have a lot of tricks up their sleeves these days to mask the fact they have a tiny sensor and limitations of physics. But at the end of the day itās still just a phone, not a miracle.
If itās a shot Iām serious about my preference is to take out my camera and brush up on my photography skills, but maybe Iām biased from spending so many years making a living behind a camera š¤·š»āāļø
Itās REALLY that good?
I came from an iPhone X straight to a 14 pro a few months ago, and aside from it being slightly quicker loading general day to day stuff itās pretty much the same if Iām honest.
The camera is no real improvement either as you say. The addition of a wide lens is a bonus, but overall I much preferred the results from my old Xās camera.
But day to day performance is somewhat lacklustre for a flagship phone when compared to a 5/6 year old flagship phone.
I get your point to some extent but for me personally, this has been a MASSIVE performance upgrade for me due to the fact that Iām coming from a 6 year old outdated android device.
I used proRAW but it still made the AI enhancement.
AI enhancement can look āCrystal Clearā to the untrained eye. Donāt get me wrong, if the AI enhancement gets it right, it gets it right.
Sometimes it just overproduces it to the point of some parts looking like an AI painting/abstract hahaha
Your 14 performs as well as any other flagship smart, found in 2023. Whether it be iPhones or android. Any flagship phone is going to feel exactly the same 99% of the time. Yes, the processor in the iPhones are much better overall technically from a hardware standpoint, but itās nothing that you will notice. Just like iPads, so powerful yet so limited. exactly the iPhone.
I see your point there.
What youāre seeing is the difference between Apples current operating system and an Android operating system that was likely only updated a couple of times in your ownership, as they just donāt get the frequency or longevity of updates that Apple give their devices.
Edit;
Not quite sure why this is getting downvoted, as a 6 year old android device will likely be 3 or four years behind in OS updates due to the nature of android.
Edit 2;
More downvotes, presumably because of the Reddit bandwagon as nobody has countered my comment that android doesnāt support device updates for as long as Apple does.
Have you used other modern phones for comparison? Iām a huge Apple fan but I have zero problem admitting their camera software is straight up garbage compared to competitors.
My original Google Pixel ā yes, the 2016 model ā still takes better photos than every iPhone Iāve owned since then, including the 14 Pro Max I have right now.
Turn on RAW
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The over-processing is right on par with my old pixel 6. š
For those that see constant processing issues the upcoming iOS 16.4 seems to resolve that.
Dang the reason I got a 12pro was for the camera. It broke but I was waiting to upgrade to get better photos again. If the image is as bad as you guys say it is, I might just get a replacement 12 and live with it for a couple more years
The amount of confidence apple has is actually quite surprising
I went from a 12 mini to a 14 Pro Max. The standard 12mp images arenāt much better but the 48mp Raw images are amazing. If you have the space for 100MB images try it out.
My 13's camera is noticeably worse than my previous phone, the pixel 3 xl. very unfortunate. it gets the job done obviously, but i can tell it's lacking in a few places that i know my pixel would've crushed it in.
IMO this began with the step from XS to 11. I am very disappointed, aswell.
It's honestly embarrassing. I've never been satisfied with the photos my iPhone takes. And my Pops' 14 PM isn't a whole lot better. I got a Pixel 7 in December and it's made the pictures my iPhone takes look even worse
Is there a source to this? I really hope that they do something. iPhones are stuck 3 years ago with processing.
Although I myself rarely see the processing issues. Reports from tech YouTubers and zollotech have shown major improvements have been made. https://youtu.be/D5bD6Bo6rTQ go to the 12:43 mark.
Indeed. I reckon that people are complaining about the standard photos, but the trick is to shoot at 48MP Proraw and then using a shortcut to convert to HEIF and delete the original. It's not perfect, but the quality is amazing.
Their post AI processing was horrendous on the 13 as well, I don't know about earlier models as I came straight from an 8... I am really unhappy with it, and Halide is not helping for some reason,.
Software mixing with hardware is sometimes the worse combo- especially when the software is doing way more than the hardware.
Thatās whatās happening here. The computations far exceed what the camera is capable of doing and so you get disgusting digital artifacts
Thank you
I think this started with iPhone 13. I use iPhone 11, and the camera is OK. But when I see photos taken with 13, they look so unnatural, like Android cameras years before. Thatās really disappointing.
When you say āAI Enhancementā, can you describe a little more what type of enhancements youāre noticing while shooting in ProRAW?
Download Lightroom and shoot in RAW. Itās free except for certain, non-essential editing features. As long as you donāt mind spending time editing photos itās better. As far as editing goes, Snapseed does a pretty good job with RAW images and itās completely free.
Some people have reporter that theyāve really tuned back the āwatercolourā look and oversharpening in 16.4, anyone here to confirm?
Can you tell me how to make the shortcut?
I honestly donāt understand why Appleās developers couldnāt have coded a simple āOn/Offā toggle switch that disables all AI Processing. They also could develop the ability to select different ālevelsā or āintensitiesā of AI Processing (Full Enhancement, Partial Enhancement, No Enhancement). Apple has complete control over how their software and chip process photos - thatās the benefit of Apple developing their own software and hardware, they literally have complete control over how their products interact with each other.
Unfortunately, Apple has managed to keep themselves convinced (probably through their shitty Focus Groups) that their AI Processing is the bees knees, and that everyone loves it. Yet, how many complaints do we see daily just in this subreddit alone complaining about their AI Processing? Surely they are aware of the displeasure so many of their users feel towards the cameras doing almost all of the thinking for us.
Not to mention, Apple is really doing a disservice to their amazing camera sensors by allowing the software to all but ruin a good chunk of photos. I would like to add, it does appear that the AI Processing is much more noticeable when taking 12MP photos, not nearly as bad when taking 48MP photos. This is my personal experience anyway.
This app youāre recommending, does it keep Appleās SmartHDR effect?
The exact reason why I want a 15 pro in a mini form factor. I love the raw but hate the weight.
In your boat rn, I actually take the photo as is and reduce the saturation down until I get a natural look in post editing using the default photos app. Big shame, MKHBD did a video about this issue too iirc
I bought my iPhone 14 pro from Apple directly and I have the same issue. The photos are garbage and itās extremely disappointing considering the massive price point
Take a look at your settings then
I should be able to use the phone with the default settings and not have garbage photos. Plus, there arenāt really that many settings to change.
Unfortunately, HDR is not retained in the conversion.
The app (MovP4) converts the video into an .mp4, and saves in a H.264 codec (which does not support HDR).
Dang okay. Iām looking for a way to process ProRAW photos while keeping the hdr effect so I donāt have to take both ProRAW and a jpg.
It's indicative of iOS as a whole, and it's disappointing. At one point I thought Apple were moving away from that by giving users a bit more control, but it feels like one step forward, two large steps back. Or, if you prefer, monkey paw.
You want a full app list and to have greater customisation of Home Screen with widgets? Okay, but you get app folders that are absolutely not under your control. Not only will apps sort into folders you don't want them to be in with no override, but we will also move the folders so you don't even get a chance to have muscle memory for the bad decisions made for you.
I am ultimately happy with my XR, but this may well be my last iPhone as well as my first.
Iād be super interested in this process as well!
Unfortunately iPhone cameras are garbage for the past like, 5 years now. The processing like you mentioned is way too aggressive, but also, the focal distance is way too far to get good photos of anything up close unless you use macro mode which can make things look kind of wonky in my experience. I had an Xs and got the 14 pro last October and itās funny because the main selling feature besides dynamic island is the cameras, but in actual use, they suck and are worse than my Xs. Honestly my iPhone 7 camera was fine.
You should go to an Apple store and have your phone checked
Try taking pictures in burst mode, that did the trick for me
ProRAW still has processing. Only regular RAW doesnāt
Have you tried changing the ācustomize the cameraā setting?
Do you toggle between 0.5x and 1x when trying to take the close-up photos? To see which looks best?
How did you print the photos at Walgreens? Could be a quality issue with the printing. When you used to upload to Walgreens online, you needed to change an option on the upload screen to prevent it from compressing the photo before upload.
If you go into camera settings, you can change your format of shots and also enable or disable ProRes and ProRaw. Personally I think they look much better than the auto setting
You know those moments when you take a new pic, quickly click on the bottom right to view it, the photo appears fine for 1-2 secs then it suddenly changes for the better or worse, itās like the pixels suddenly shifted?
I would like a shortcut please!
You are great, thank you
You're welcome!
I have a 14 Pro Max and I take a lot of photos with it. I have the ārich contrastā filter on all the time. This looks better to me. I donāt use the portrait mode too often, to me it seems muted, but then again Iām used to the rich contrast filter which doesnāt apply to portrait mode.
I also see struggles with low light. I try to have as much light as possible and hold as still as possible while taking night shots.
I donāt use Pro Res too often, or I forget to use it when I wanted to haha
dont even get me started on the annoyance of the processed/cartoon like filterš .. I have a late 2021 MBP and the cam has a smoothening filter u cant get rid of..
ive sent feedback to apple about this..
This year I plan to upgrade to more storage. I love taking them Raw but I always get filled up.
Surprisingly, it works to some point! Any way to bring back the colours without ruining the picture once Iām done reducing saturation ?
I have nothing of value to add here, but if I learned anything on reddit, itās that whoever comments to the downvoted one gets a decent amount of upvotes
Reddit can be a weird place sometimes Xd. Still donāt understand why youāre being downvoted when what you said was true
Somewhat off topic, but how was the switch to android? and how locked into the apple ecosystem are you?
Iāve been considering switching back to android after about 5 years but I have a macbook, airpods, and apple music.
Duplicate the photo before you reduce sat, keep 2 copies and use 1 as your mess around
The camera on the 13 is basically the same as as the 12.
It's honestly been fine! The last Android's I had were the S8+ and OnePlus 5 and it's come a very long way since then. Unlike you, I'm not entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. The only thing I had was an AW, which was up until some point last year, and it was only a Series 1 lmao. You're not switching, I hate to be harsh/brunt, but you're just not.
While I like the Pixel, it's just not ready for primetime, IMO. And that's mostly because the Tensor chip just isn't energy efficient enough. Sure, I knew going from the 13PM to a regular Pixel 7 was going to be a huge downgrade in the battery life department, but it's worse than I thought it was going to be. Rumors say the new the Tensor G3 will be a big step forward, but I don't think it'll be enough.
So with the leaks/rumors of the 15 PM/Ultra looking very good, I'm likely jumping back to the iPhone in the fall. And that's mainly because I don't take a lot of pictures. So while I think the iPhone is pathetic in the camera department, it's very low on my list of requirements
I agree with you, Iām most likely not gonna switch lol. I think I just want something new and exciting, but apple does such a good job at sucking in their consumers.
If I were to switch itād probably be the Galaxy S23. Everything Iāve seen/ read pretty much agrees with you in that the tensor chips still need some work.
I went from a Samsung Note 20 ultra to a 13PM and the pictures this phone takes are downright embarrassing for me to post online. I miss my Samsung cameras so much.
iMessage is the only reason I got an iPhone and itās great. But after 10 years of watching YouTube tech journalists do these head to head comparisons of Samsung and iPhone flagship camera tests and then always giving them an equal score or slightly favoring the iPhone im convinced the tech industry on YouTube are all paid Apple shills. These photos and videos fucking suck.
Is it better for amateurs the just want to take a ton of photos for memories? Or should I just stick to whatever the default is?
Raw pics do that... for about ten seconds they are in processed mode then they go to the lackluster looking raw format. Thats when you apply your own processing.
How can we definitely say that the phenomenon is going from processed to raw, instead of the other way around?
People can downvote or upvote for whatever reason they like and either way it means nothing.
I misunderstood you, I thought you were referring to the video conversion app retaining HDR. I didnāt realize you were asking about the photo conversion app.
In regards to the photo conversion app (JPEG to PNG), I really only have a partial answer. When converting from ProRAW to .jpg, theoretically it should retain HDR, but I honestly donāt have a solid answer. Two reasons for this:
1). Iām not sure which version of .jpg the app converts to. If it converts to JPEG2000, then it would retain HDR. However, regardless, converting to a .png should retain HDR because .png does support HDR.
2). Since I have an iPhone 14 Pro, I unfortunately do not have the ability to manually enable and disable HDR photos, because the phone decides by itself whether it will shoot any given photo in HDR based on the environmental conditions.
If your phone does have the ability to manually toggle HDR āOnā or āOffā, I would suggest taking a ProRAW photo with HDR enabled. If you then open the photo and tap on the āInformationā button (the āIā in the circle), in the section that displays the photo resolution and size, there should be a badge that says, āHDRā. This confirms that the original ProRAW photo has HDR enabled.
If you then try converting that ProRAW photo to a .jpg in the photo conversion app, open the converted photo and tap on the āInformationā button and see if there is still an HDR badge or not. If the HDR badge is not there, you could could also try to convert the original ProRAW to a .png and see if the HDR badge is still there.
A lot of people, myself included reflexively down vote anybody complaining about getting meaningless votes on this website, but do go on
omg yess. i upgraded from an iphone xs and the pictures on my 14 have the SAME quality. iām pissed
The issue is relying more on AI and computational photography than anything else. I honestly think my iPhone 4 took better photos. I donāt think AI is an appropriate replacement for hardware. I regret not getting a pro, because I could at least shoot in proraw.
Except you can turn Smart HDR off on the 12, so thatās a win for it.
Apple needs their profit and artificial differences between their phones, ProRes and ProRaw are only available for the pro lineup
Never needed to
Interesting
RAW photos arenāt heavily processed and when you take it without live or flash and on 1x zoom, you get the full 48MP. I bet this will get buried but any questions feel free to ask
In other words, when the horrendous Deep Fusion was introduced
Thanks for the advice! I found it helpful.
I just got the 14 coming from a 8 so Iām happy but Iāve heard people say that for 100 or more the pro is worth it,or is it?
I'm wondering the same thing - I have an iPhone 8 and I'm looking to upgrade to the 13 - mainly because I want to keep up with ios updates, better battery life and camera quality as well as more storage to have more apps :)
There is no way you do not notice a performance difference from the X to the 14 Pro, even higher refresh rate, video game performance you probably didnāt do much performance heavy uses if you say you do not see a differenceā¦
Iām likely going for the 13 Pro instead of the 14 Pro just for the camera issues (perceived or not). Currently taking (a lot of) photos using my 7 Plus and Iām very happy with quality. I never crop/digital zoom, but use the two fixed lenses, and really could use another fixed lens - but have zero use for RAW files or the hassle to convert RAW afterwards and delete. Etc. Storage is always a premium. And having files that take up 20-60 for ānothingā isnāt really something Iām looking for.
So sad to hear, as my 7 Plus photos have. En and are amazing. Looking at a 13 Pro nowā¦
Refresh rate, negligible real world difference on day to day stuff.
Gaming, I can ramp the detail level up to max on COD mobile now, and it takes half the time to load the game from a cold start. On the downside, Iām missing 3D Touch on the 14 pro now, which made aiming far far more intuitive on the X. So more playable in one sense, less in another.
Anything specific youād like me to compare just for reference, as I still have the X kicking about?
Truth is that YES there are some huge on-paper advancements between the two, and for those users who fall into the niche market that will exploit every detail of those advances then sure, itāll be a night and day difference.
But how many average users is that gonna affect? Probably very few, and for the rest of us are left feeling a little underwhelmed and disappointed at the results of the supposed camera hardware upgrades that are suffocated by the software processing.
Yes there are work arounds, but surely they shouldnāt be necessary? A simple toggle in the camera settings to deactivate the post processing or enable a ānaturalā mode would be easy for Apple to add?
On the whole Iām happy with the phone, just underwhelmed by the lack of real world day to day improvements from two flagship phones so many years apart in construction.
No problem!
Considering that the converted photos are 4-6MB in size,and it only requires two or three button presses, I think it's worth it.
I sort of felt like this (coming from an XS). I spent some time running them side by side and really started to notice the difference. I think I glorified the XS in my head. Everything from different apps, streaming live events, brightness outside and videos are definitely not the in the same realm.
I have been an Android user for more than 10 years (my first phone being HTC Inredbile S and last being Pixe 4a), and I recently moved to the Iphone 14 Pro. Here is my take on the camera -
The good: In good lighting conditions, the pictures are sharp and also more natural. Also in low light, I find the Iphone camera quite capable as it does not over-expose to make the photo super bright. Also the transition from 0.5 to 1 to 2 to 3 is very smooth (0.5x is actually quite good). The video is head and shoulders above the rest.
The bad: Iphone photos dont look "special", like it used to do in my Pixel 4a and my wife's S22 Ultra. It takes good photos, but when it comes to showing off those pics on social media or to friends, I would always prefer my Pixel. Specially in Portrait mode, Pixel is amazing at 25% of the Iphone's price. Now there is a slightly positive side to it - i was comparing some recent pics from my wife's S22 ultra and my Iphone 14 pro. Samsung tends to make the pics look super smooth. My skin was looking very fair in her pics (while I am not that fair), and the white balance also high although the room was lit with warm light. The photos looked very pleasing, but that is not how the actual setting was. Iphone on the other hand showed the pic almost exactly as it was. I personally would prefer my Pixel 4a pics most of the times.
morceaudebois t1_jct54ze wrote
Welcome to 2023 iPhones, this is just how it is now š
You can't turn any of the processing off anymore, at least not in the main camera app. You can use a third party app that won't have the post processing, but it's a pain since you can't set them as your default camera app.
You can either get used to it, get another phone or send feedback to Apple and hope that they eventually make it better or allow for third party apps to be set as default.
Here's a great video about that whole situation if you're interested :)