iPhone 13 ProMax HDR photos oversaturated (i.e look fake)

Unfortunately, the iPhone 13 has no way to turn this off.

For other iPhone models - Adjust HDR camera settings on iPhone - Apple Support

If you are having this issue, please send feedback to apple.com/feedback as per an Apple Senior Advisor.

I have the same question. I am not impressed with the intensity of colours/contrast on pics and videos. The colour of the sky is so bright blue, absolutely fake. Turning HDR off didn’t help much. People online also suggested to turn the scene detection mode off but I don’t even see this option on the IPhone 13.

I agree—photos are over saturated and fake looking. Sunset is the worst. Overall looks like some incredible technology but we need the ability to dial back the HDR. The default mode makes images look like cheesy screensavers produced by people who just discovered photoshop. Please advise, and/or update the software.

Thanks for your description, I have the same issue. How can this happen? I bought my iPhone 13 pro after making spectacular pics with my old iPhone 7 plus….and when I saw the first results with my new 13 pro I felt so frustrated (after spending a lot).

This post is correct. I got the IPhone 13 Max and have toggled all the settings (including Photographic Styles) . Pictures around sunset look very fake and unnatural. Never had this issue and I get a new Iphone Max on an Apple upgrade each year when the come out. Definitely needs some attention.

That's your preference.

I actually like the rich vibrant colors the iPhone shows around sunset, and may crank vibrance and saturation up a bit depending upon the end use.

In an Instagram world, photo "pop" sells.

If I don't want that, RAW photos work well in Photoshop on my Mac.

Regardless, leave Feedback and perhaps Apple will tweak the defaults.

Feedback - Camera - Apple

Agree. Starting with photos of fall leaves changing colors I noticed that HDR is destroying the bright colors. Last night taking photos of Christmas lights in a park, the HDR would destroy the bright colors. I was able to improve the images a bit by selecting a specific image of the live group. You can actually see the destruction the HDR is making by holding hour finger on the live image and seeing the change when letting go and HDR does it’s thing. Please allow turning HDR off or down!

If you think it is a hardware issue, have your device examined:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

If you are unhappy with the software:

Feedback - Camera - Apple

There is nothing more anyone here can do, and Apple Engineering does not read these forums.

Personally I love the images my 13 Pro Max takes, and most photo magazines and blogs feel the same, but your priorities may be different.

It is a hardware issue and there is nothing Apple can do about it. It was purposely input w.o. hdr turn off on the 13. It is possible in the 12. Many of us use our photos differently or don't have access that I gather you do since you have suggested using lightbox or shooting in raw and editing on the computer.

Would you post and let us know what Apple Support said. I too spoke to them for hours and they are looking at my camera / phone logs, but I know it is not specific to my phone.

What is it about the hardware?

The nighttime lensflare issue since iPhone 12 DEFINITELY seems related to the hardware design, but this oversaturated HDR compensation that blows out skin tones and rendres things warmer feels much more like a software issue.

The oversharpening seems to be Deep Fusion which on some shots looks horrible as well.

Thanks for the hardware report.

Seems to me that if we can override the hdr effect by selecting one of the live images, that the software could do the same with a tweak. Holding out some hope because it takes time to manually select a live image for each shot which could be automated in the software.

Maybe you'll get one someday, no one here could say and no one here can do anything about it.

As I've stated several times before, leave a comment at the link below as that's the only way anything might change; comments left there do get read by Apple execs:

Feedback - Camera - Apple

I'm not concerned about the oversaturation issue. That can be easily addressed in Photoshop/Lightroom. My big complaint with HDR--and, moreover, the 13's forced HDR--is the flattening of the tonality. Sure it's great, in general, that your highlights and shadows contain more detail to work with, but a lot times that is not needed and THAT's when I'd like to be able to turn off HDR.

Case in point: I took a picture of someone in a wide, open air situation with the sun setting to one side but diffused by some thin clouds on the horizon. On the subject's other side was wide open water so there was little secondary light filling in that side of them. You would expect the subject to have a well-lit side and a darkish opposite side. But thanks to HDR their sun-side was knocked back--to the point of flattening the person's features--and the darker side being goosed-up so it was very nearly the same value as the sun side. And as someone who has been working with Photoshop since its v1.0.7 I can tell you that is not satisfactorily correctable.

I'd increasingly cut back on lugging around my DSLR as phone cameras improved so I was very excited about the buzz around the 13. But this HDR situation has me shooting less with it, not more. So disappointing, to say the least.