I just got my iPhone 13 Pro Max last night and all my outdoor photos are oversaturated, look fake, and I can't find a way to edit the HDR layers or even turn HDR off. The only solution is to turn down the saturation, but they still look fake, just less saturated.
Am I missing a setting?
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 15
Kerpie wrote:
Well if they want a filter-less photos they won’t get it on an iPhone 13 then, because it basically imposes a forced over-saturation filter on every photo.
I think you have been in your Instagram bubble too long if you think photography is giving way to anything.
Neither is true.
You can bypass the processing by using an app that accesses raw sensor data, but this will require you to do additional work to "process" it yourself; such apps include Halide, Lightroom Mobile and Snapseed.
As for social media, for 2022:
Users share 6.9 billion images on WhatsApp per day, 3.8 billion on Snapchat, 2.1 billion on Facebook, and 1.3 billion on Instagram.
https://photutorial.com/photos-statistics/
Brunettin wrote:
Anyway, I don’t think the issue is whether the end results are acceptable or not. The crux of the problem is that they took away our ability to choose.
I don't see that; in fact Apple provided two ways to get something more like what you want:
1) If on a device that supports it, you can use ProRAW to get photos with less (but not no) processing.
2) You can use a third party camera app like Lightroom Mobile, Halide or Snapseed to generate an actual DNG RAW file from the camera sensor which you can later process as you would a RAW file from any camera.
What the move to computational photography and the rise of Instagram with filters has shown is most people are not as interested in an accurate photographic representation as they are in a photo that captures the feeling of the moment being captured.
The Camera app seem to provide at least some of that, and Apple has provided methods of getting images without that for those who are interested.
Everything comes with some drawbacks; many cameras now have "face detection" to focus on what the camera sees as faces, which is great until your photo has something it interprets to be a face, or you're trying to take a photo of a pet in a room that happens to have a stuffed animal and the camera locks onto that.
A lot is also personal interpretation; as mentioned above, my sunset cloud photo might look very oversaturated and overdone, but it actually pales in comparison in both color and intensity to how the actual sky looked.
It's working as designed.
You can use a third party photo app such as Halide, Lightroom Mobile or Snapseed to take an unprocessed RAW mode photo and process it yourself.
As we are just other users here, you can let Apple know of your feelings here:
Because the photo processing mechanism is an integrated chain now and you can't just shut off a piece of the processing reasonably any longer.
You can get truly raw sensor data via third party apps, minimally processed (but still processed) data by shooting in ProRAW, or fully processed photos via Camera.
Hello,
You could always try using Photographic Styles to change the way the cameras take a picture on your iPhone 13 Pro Max
To do so, go to Settings > Camera > Photographic Styles.
From there you can choose one you like.
Another way to turn it on, and edit it even further is directly on the Camera app.
Open the Camera App > Swipe up from the middle of the screen until the tool bar appears, > Click the Photographic Styles button ( it looks like 3 squares with a line through it) > choose the one you like.
Then once you have one chosen, you can edit it even further by changing the Tone and Warmth with the sliders provided.
I hope this was helpful!
lolita2000 wrote:
Previous phones allowed the HDR to be turned on or off. Not sure why that went away?
Because Apple considers HDR to now be the way all future photographs will be taken.
Should you disagree, there's only one place to complain where complaints are read and acted upon:
If you're going to shoot professionally, shoot in RAW and go from there (yes, I know the iPhone's RAW isn't a true unprocessed RAW.)
Answer: Return that phone and go with something like an 11 Pro. No ETA on a possible toggle off for HDR for 13s. I returned mine. I’ve shot HDR professionally on DSLR for years. It comes in handy, but when you have no say over the tonal compression it makes certain scenes look horrible. There is no current recourse. Return that phone or wait indefinitely for an iOS update to address.
Posts are only deleted if they violate Use Agreement you agreed to follow when creating an account here:
Apple Support Communities Use Agreement - Apple Community
If you don't like the processing done on the iPhone 13, let Apple know here:
Not every camera is right for every person, which is why Apple gives you 14 days after purchase to get a full refund.
If you want less processed photos, download Halide, Lightroom or Snapseed and learn to shoot in RAW mode and process your photos yourself after taking them.
Note all premium smartphones by all manufacturers are using increasing amounts of computational photography and as such you will find similar complaints about photos taken by other premium smartphones.
Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities, EJFlags!
We understand you've noticed that the photos taken with your iPhone 13 Pro Max look oversaturated. We'd be happy to provide information to help you address this.
Try adjusting the HDR settings as listed here: Adjust HDR camera settings on iPhone
Have a great day!
Because you want isn't the same thing a majority of people want.
You may see and be horrified by the processing, but virtually every photography blog and magazine has done nothing but praise the photos coming from the iPhone 13 family of devices, indicating for most it doesn't appear to them as horrible as it does to you.
This is not unlike the way I can hear the damage MP3 encoding does to music where for most they are happy with whatever is coming through their ear buds (a big reason they can't hear the damage, but I digress.)
The answers for the moment are to shoot your photos with a third-party app like Lightroom, or if you have a Pro or Pro Max shoot in RAW mode and process the photos on a computer.
Although I had posted this briefly earlier, I thought it might help some folks to hear about a trick that helps this situation in my experience as follows: Assuming you used “Live Mode” edit the photo after preview and select the live function. Select a specific capture and save as key image/photo. This seems to restore the more natural balance and reduce the over-saturation of the intended photo. A pain to have to do this for every photo but it sure seems to help!
No device is proper for everyone, but be aware that HDR with high contrast is the way the phone marketplace has gone, as the latest Galaxy and Pixel and devices do the same.
There is a great video on YouTube that describes the shift going on with computational photography and AI: devices are no longer designed to present an “accurate” depiction of a scene but rather customers want a one-click post-worthy enhanced image ready for Facebook and Instagram.
They don’t want to have to run filters and enhance their photos to get a highly saturated look, they want to be able to post what they get, instantly.
The downside is that photographers who want an accurate photo they can tweak as they see fit are a far smaller proportion of the customer base.
ProRAW allows you to bypass most, but not all processing; third party apps like Lightroom can bypass more.
It’s definitely worth a watch as the definition of “photography” is changing rapidly due to computational techniques and AI.
It’s already normal for a phone to detect you are taking a sunset photo and turn up the reds.
Note I have no affiliation with the poster and receive no compensation for referring people to the video, it’s just a wonderful explanation of wider trends and why moving to a different phone may not provide you with a less processed experience:
Actually, I did pay attention to the original question.
You don't like the processing, and that's personal preference.
You can use a third party app to shoot a mode with less processing or shoot in ProRAW and post-process the photos yourself.
Beyond that, you can leave a comment for Apple here:
If you don't like the defaults, take the photo in ProRAW and edit on a Mac, or use Lightroom on iOS.
iPhone 13 ProMax HDR photos oversaturated (i.e look fake)
