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iPhone 12 Pro Max Photo Auto Enhance

I just got the iPhone 12 Pro Max and when I take photos, and then go to look at the photo, the phone appears to auto-enhance the photo. Is there a way to turn this off? It's making some of my photos (mainly with people in them) look terrible. It's over-exposing and over-saturating the photo and no amount of editing can make it look normal after that. It's extremely frustrating.

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 14

Posted on Nov 29, 2020 5:42 PM

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Jun 14, 2021 3:28 AM in response to morganelizabeth5

Same issue! It’s so bad in daytime/natural lighting. It makes my pictures so grainy and the colors are either so saturated or washed out. It looks like paleness is painted on my face and basically morphs me into some sort of grainy ghostly-looking-creature. Lol My iPhone 7 took better natural lighting pictures than this iPhone. I got the iPhone 12 specifically for the purpose of having a better camera so I’m disappointed, especially considering how expensive this phone was. Posted pictures from my iPhone 12 vs 7 for some comparisons. (You can especially tell the clarity differences when paying attention to my hair detail)

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Jan 13, 2021 9:12 PM in response to zarajk

Is there any update on how to resolve this issue? The auto enhance and auto brightening of my photos is happening on my iPhone 12 Pro and it is very frustrating. I already turned off the automatic scene detection setting and it still happening to my photos.

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Feb 1, 2021 9:06 PM in response to Joseph_S.

In addition, these "suggestions" do nothing to fix the problem. You can adjust every available setting and it doesn't stop photos from being automatically and irreversibly over-exposed. The photos look wrong. And if you, Joseph S., can't fix this, then please take it to your boss, and have them take it to their boss, and make sure someone knows that people aren't happy with these ridiculous camera settings. If this isn't fixed, I won't be getting the next generation of iPhone.

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Dec 7, 2020 7:20 AM in response to morganelizabeth5

Hi there morganelizabeth5,


We understand you have a question about adjusting the camera controls on your iPhone 12 Pro Max, and we'd like to share a resource that can help.


Check it out here: About the Camera features on your iPhone


Specifically, the "Automatically apply a tailored look to your photos" and "Adjust your focus and exposure" sections may help.


Cheers!

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Jan 31, 2021 1:19 PM in response to morganelizabeth5

This is happening to me as well. Here is the difference(screen shot of viewfinder before photo, and second is the auto rendered photo). So infuriating because I specifically wanted this phone because it would allow me to take an artistic and custom/quality approach with photos.

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Oct 22, 2021 5:40 PM in response to morganelizabeth5

iPhone 13 unfortunately does the exact same thing and I think I’ve found out why. I’ve taken two photos one with my face showing and one with me covering my face. And guess which got the auto brightness enhancement. This is horrible does no one at Apple actually test these “Features” out?


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Oct 28, 2021 12:54 PM in response to bigmoose9

None of these options worked on my iPhone 13. The pictures are horrible. I’m now just taking pictures through the Instagram app. Has anyone actually taken their phone into apple to see what they say? Think I’ll sell the phone and go back to my old iPhone which didn’t have these issues.

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Jan 30, 2021 12:42 PM in response to Caro-64

I am now on a replacement of this phone I waited 3.5 months for, because Apple said it must be defective - since nothing will stop this issue from happening. Nothing in the link Apple provided, not turning off the nighttime exposure button. New phone does the same thing.

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Jan 30, 2021 9:23 PM in response to VeganBae

The same happened with me. I bought an iPhone 12 Pro and the camera was doing the auto brightening thing on so many of my photos. I went to my cellular carrier and exchanged it for another brand new iPhone 12 Pro and the new phone did the exact same thing to the photos. This must just be how the cameras on the 12 generation of iphones work which is really annoying. I ended up returning the exchanged 12 Pro in the end.

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Jan 31, 2021 2:42 AM in response to morganelizabeth5

Have you turned the night time auto enhance off and then saved settings? If you don’t save settings the auto enhance comes back on for the next photo. A real pain. I have managed to get rid of the enhance on mine- turned all features off, turned off auto flash, auto enhance etc and then saved settings. I prefer to take photos without a flash anyway and can always turn on if needed.

I have found using the portrait mode also helps with faces- less harsh.

shame we can’t go to an Apple store as I suspect they could sort it more simply ☹️.

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iPhone 12 Pro Max Photo Auto Enhance

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