Over sharpening photos post processing | iPhone 12 Pro Max

Coming from the iPhone X, I've never noticed any post processing from taking the photo to tapping the small preview of the recent photo in the photos app. I'm noticing a very obvious post process after opening the recent photo in the camera app and it appears every image is being sharpened significantly. I honestly prefer the look of the images prior to the processing as usually the files are large enough to add a small amount of sharpness if I need to but in this case, they're coming over sharpened right out of the camera app. Am I the only one a little concerned about this?


A little background of myself, I've been a professional photographer for 6 years who is now producing large format print work, so I can be a little nit picky.

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 14

Posted on Nov 15, 2020 10:40 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 13, 2021 8:46 AM

Folks, I believe I found the evil. 

 

After hours of testing and spending money on 3rd party camera apps, I discovered following:

 

-       The images don’t look over post-processed after transferring to Mac

-       When watching the images on iPhone with 3rd party viewer apps, the photographs also look OK

-       Images shot with 3rd party camera apps look OK in the related camera app, but when viewed with iPhone Photos app, they show the same strange sharpness and overexposure

 

These brought me to the conclusion that not the iPhone camera, but in fact the iPhone Photos app causes this issue.

And voilà: go to “Settings” - “Photos” - turn off “View Full HDR” and the nightmare is over.

 

Cheers!

28 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 13, 2021 8:46 AM in response to jmann32

Folks, I believe I found the evil. 

 

After hours of testing and spending money on 3rd party camera apps, I discovered following:

 

-       The images don’t look over post-processed after transferring to Mac

-       When watching the images on iPhone with 3rd party viewer apps, the photographs also look OK

-       Images shot with 3rd party camera apps look OK in the related camera app, but when viewed with iPhone Photos app, they show the same strange sharpness and overexposure

 

These brought me to the conclusion that not the iPhone camera, but in fact the iPhone Photos app causes this issue.

And voilà: go to “Settings” - “Photos” - turn off “View Full HDR” and the nightmare is over.

 

Cheers!

Jan 4, 2021 1:56 PM in response to Fogeyogi

I agree. My temporary solution is to shoot in proraw, edit in LR on the iPhone, the generate a jpg and delete the very large DNG. I really minimize the sharpening and think I get the equivalent of the Apple jpg without the crustiness of their oversharpening. Good result but too much work. Thought about doing this with the Photos app but seems like the Lr route is easier and more controllable for me.



Dec 2, 2020 11:23 AM in response to jmann32

Yes, i am noticing that to on my girlfriends iphone 12 pro max. It adds a clearly visible sharpening, giving the images a oversharpend look. This would be fine if you were able to adjust after would, or turn it off (preferably).


Personally really dislike over sharpend photos, they give it a cheap, digital look. Seeming the camera is one of the main reasons of upgrading an iphone, it is a great disappointment. We appreciate if someone from apple could give a reply on this thread. A future update to adjust this initial post processing, or a sort of legacy mode to give it the more subtle post processing of the X.


the slightly greenish hue of the screen is another problem, but not as bad as the sharpening.



Dec 5, 2020 9:58 AM in response to jmann32

Same for me. I’ve taken just a few photos with my new iPhone 12 Pro Max and have already noticed they’re horribly over sharpened, especially the standard format files, making them really muddy looking, especially around details, water and foliage. Not as much on the Raw files (I’m on the 14.3 beta now) I don’t think, but it’s still definitely there on them. I preferred the HIEF/JPEG files from my previous iPhone XS 😕

Dec 25, 2020 7:15 AM in response to jmann32

The exact same is happening to me too!


tried taking a pic of my Christmas dinner and When I click the new image preview square, the image looks fine for about 2 seconds before the auto-processing kicks in and whitewashes/over-defines/over-clarifies my picture.


ive tried turning HDR and auto-night mode off etc. And still the same!! It’s absolute trash and I regret upgrading from my iPhone 8 Plus

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Over sharpening photos post processing | iPhone 12 Pro Max

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