It can be said that the iPhone camera has many problems…
Apple uses tiny sensors; It doesn’t give you a pro mode for better control over your photos; The iPhone can sometimes turn people orange (or blue); Ultra wide and zoom cameras aren’t as good as basic cameras, and so on…
However, all of that aside, my beef with the iPhone camera is a bit more specific, or rather more “technical” but at the same time just about “photo quality”, if I may say so…
The way I see it is that the “error” with the iPhone camera is due to why you decided to take a photo. Then you end up with, well… the end result, which more often than not doesn’t match the original description of what you were watching/why you decided it was a worthwhile moment to be captured, stored and celebrated.
If none of this makes sense now, I’ll (somehow) be more specific when we look at sample photos you’ve taken (and then edited)! So what are “real” iPhone camera problems and how can you fix them in seconds by hitting the edit button in your Photos app?
It’s my opinion…
The real issues with the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 camera have to do with Apple’s overall photography philosophy
Instead, as iPhone 13 mini And iPhone 14 Pro User (all of the photos you’re about to see were taken with my iPhone 13 mini, which I prefer to carry around with me), I get whatever comes with Apple’s understanding of a “good photo”, and I have to .. . Go with it.
Lack of precise camera control on phones isn’t just an Apple problem, for example For example, Google also requires users to adhere to its photography philosophy. By removing Pro mode from the Pixel camera (the newer Pixels don’t even let you take full resolution photos). on the other hand, Good examples are Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, OnePlus, Oppo and Huawei (and more), thanks to their pro modes/settings and dedicated alternate auto shooting modes, such as Genuine Leica On Xiaomi phones, which comes from Xiaomi’s multi-million dollar partnership with Leica.
- iPhone photos are often too bright, resulting in a washed-out look and therefore a false representation of the scene — and that’s by no means exclusive to night shots (in fact, quite the opposite), but it does. is easy to spot by taking the Night Mode Photos
- Aggressive HDR can render iPhone photos very flat and lifeless, devoid of all the ‘drama’ that ‘real’ cameras often give us; Technically, this is because the iPhone wants to bring the highlights (the bright parts of the image) and the shadows (the darker parts of the image) closer together, rather than trying to separate them so original.
- On the latter and on the other end of the spectrum, iPhone HDR often fails to stack photos properly, which can lead to unrecoverable reflections.
- Sharpness – Probably the easiest problem to understand with the iPhone camera has been around for 2-3 generations now; Unless you’re shooting in RAW/48MP mode (if you feel like it), trees, branches, and buildings (or anything with a well-defined texture) are bound to look sharper than they should.
Take “real” photos with the iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and iPhone 14! assembly takes 30 seconds; I took hundreds of photos to be sure
How to take DSLR-like photos with your iPhone? it’s easy to! Take the photo and try changing the settings after pressing the Edit button in the Photos app. What generally makes my photos more realistic and “real” is:
- Ask to come back shine on 30-60% (highly recommended)
- dial down brightness 20-40% (strongly recommended)
- to diminish Noise about 15-25% (recommended for photos with a lot of textures, which may seem too harsh)
- Add thumbnail For a stylistic look (recommended for a more authentic “camera” look and where you need to restore the “drama” of the scene)
I took hundreds of photos and edited them to look better and more realistic (original photos on the left, edited on the right)
Apple, please give us a more realistic shooting position; Let’s turn off HDR and maybe switch lens vendors for the iPhone 15
As you can see, the attributes of iPhone photos are promised: high brightness, extra sharpness and inconsistent HDR. And as we mentioned at the beginning, this usually leads to “lifeless” images that just don’t look right. Different Reality but often seems… worse.
What Xiaomi is doing now is exactly what I envision for the future of the smartphone camera – giving users options for photo styles – which are very different from filters in that they are not placed above your photo but rather on the photo you are taking.
New iPhone 15 camera rumors and photography styles – the right trend
But wait, doesn’t the iPhone have… shooting modes?
Anyway, the rumors about iPhone 15 Say Apple is about to switch to using newer/better Sony sensors that allow for better HDR – something current iPhones may lack…
Better hardware and photography styles are definitely the right direction, but I think Apple should double down and make photography styles a lens of the next-gen iPhone camera, similar to Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo are working with their Leica, Zeiss and Hasselblad partnerships.
Giving people the ability to take live shots or more natural/original images could turn the iPhone camera from really good to great… for more people. Do you agree? And would you use some of the editing tips I’ve shown here for your own photos? Let me know!
