iPhone 12 Pro not taking HDR photos?

This issue was posted in 2020 and closed March 2021, but I wanted to renew it. My iPhone 12 Pro still does not take HDR photos. I have tried taking a HDR and Non-HDR of the same scene and they are exactly the same. Photos that I select for HDR do not show up as HDR when previewing the photos like they did a year ago. This is a known issue for iOS 13 and 14, but it has not been resolved even almost a year after first reported. This is a significant feature of the iPhone 12 Pro that I paid a lot of money to get, and have not been getting it. Please Apple do something about this! Crazy that people think they are taking HDR shots, but are not. It would be better to remove the HDR button, and Smart HDR setting, then to continue letting people think they are getting some great feature but simply not.

Posted on May 27, 2021 11:21 AM

24 replies

Mac2H Author

Level 1

32 points

May 27, 2021 1:00 PM in response to MrHoffman

If you follow the steps above, adding that the setting is in Portrait Mode, you will see the option to turn off and on HDR. Since you did not see HDR in photo preview, you are not taking actual HDR photos. If you were taking HDR photos, how would you know which ones were HDR vs non-HDR to compare? This is a relatively big issue that should be resolved, especially since it’s been ongoing for at least 6 months

May 29, 2021 10:37 AM in response to Plantphotography

Here you can clearly see that the video is being taken in HDR mode meanwhile the photo does not take it in HDR mode such deceptive practices and as a content creator I expect these features in tact can’t stand sneaky little apple corporations

May 29, 2021 5:41 PM in response to Mac2H

I agree and the strange part about it is the only thing that comes out in HDR is 4K 30 frames per second videos. That will appear in HDR. But I’ve tried various sizes in photos and my photos are not coming out in HDR This happened ever since update 14.6 maybe some of you guys been having it for a longer time?

Mac2H Author

Level 1

32 points

May 27, 2021 1:01 PM in response to Mac2H

This is the portrait mode options when smart hdr is turned off, per above

May 29, 2021 5:30 PM in response to Mac2H

I am having the same issue myself I’ve been searching all over the Internet this is very helpful I can’t view my HDR photos but you can take HDR videos but not photos

Mac2H Author

Level 1

32 points

Jun 7, 2021 9:56 AM in response to Raiders4Life12

I am using High Efficiency format for both photos and videos, so that is not helpful here unfortunately.

Mac2H Author

Level 1

32 points

May 27, 2021 1:27 PM in response to Phil0124

Ok good... well, we agree that you do not see HDR in the photo preview. In photo preview, you can see HDR in videos, and Live and RAW in photos. Strangely, HDR is absent in photos. I do not see much difference in the photos you loaded. Even IF one of them is HDR, you will never know which one is HDR because the indicator is missing in photo preview. According to the other post, HDR has been missing as a glitch since last year.

I think you would agree that the HDR indicator should be brought back to photo preview, so we know what we're taking. If HDRs are not actually being taken, that is a second and even more important glitch to fix ASAP.

May 29, 2021 10:30 AM in response to Mac2H

OK so I’m taking an HDR video on my phone comes out successful at 30 frames per second and iPhone 12 mini because we all know the iPhone mini does not record and 60 frames per second in HDR. Now I just noticed this issue when I was trying to snap a thumbnail for my YouTube video and I noticed that my videos say they are HDR but my photos are not HDR. And I can compare the videos with the same exact picture and you can tell that Apple has not been fixing their problem Here I’ll show you have a beautiful desert rose

Jul 16, 2021 3:03 AM in response to Mac2H

Apple has taken real HDR away from us. It’s terrible news, but that’s the fact. iPhone 11 and newer, will no longer take HDR photos. They say that they “do have ‘some’ HDR ‘effects’ on them”, but that’s not true HDR. HDR is when the camera takes no less than 3 photos with 3 different exposures, and fuses them together. That’s not what’s happening now.

it’s funny, with iPhone 12 Pro, you can certainly take HDR video, and it looks great. These are actually giving us real HDR, so I don’t see why we can’t gave HDR photos anymore.

Another excuse Apple tells us, is that the reason HDR badges are no longer on the hoots, is because ‘all photos’ would have the badge. That makes no sense, because there’s an ‘off’ button for HDR photos. Also, Actually ALL videos reall ARE in HDR, and there is no off button, and they don’t mind that EVERY video has an HDR badge on it!

it’s pretty sad that Apple thinks we are ok idiots. I’ve been an Apple fan since 2007 when the original iPhone came out. But when they keep taking features away from us, I can see why so many people jump ship. They also took away ‘Capture Outside the Frame’. I don’t think they realized you could take 18MP photos while using that. But I took many.

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iPhone 12 Pro not taking HDR photos?