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

I don’t have the option for RAW on the 13 mini and yes, I have now been downloading third party camera software and yes I have lodged a complaint with Apple, but it is worth participating in this discussion as well, both because if I’d read similar before I purchased I would have been alerted to the fact the software has a problem and I would not have chosen to pay more for the latest model iPhone. But also because apparently some people take the absence of complaint as an indication that everyone is loving the software, so the counter opinion is useful to be heard by others who prefer their images to capture natural colours and don’t mind using the slider for the occasions when they want to amp up the saturation, or lighten the shadows, rather than making that default and precluding the natural looking option

No it actually does blow things up. For one, it creates really bright artificial foregrounds when in actuality they are dull. The subtleties are gone. Everything is a picture postcard. The grass here had none of the emerald quality, it was taken at dusk. Changing the exposure does not mitigate this craziness. It’s as though the foreground is constantly lit.

I literally bought iPhone 13 pro to take pictures of the sunrise. Terrible cheesy, fake photos and you cannot turn HDR off photos. I hate it. I’m going to take the phone back. Does anyone know if iPhone 12 Pro takes natural looking photos?

I seriously doubt that most people actively want fake looking scenery. I think most people put up with it because they want other features and they either do not care or they have not have seen a quality alternative and most people never post in forums about it.

Nevertheless it isn’t a reason to actively prevent people who don’t want fake looking colours from being able to turn the over-processing feature off, as per previous models.

I seriously wish I’d realised this was going to be an issue before I bought the 13 mini and I would have definitely bought the 12 mini.

What most people actually want is to not have to carry around a separate camera any more, for taking spontaneous photos. And the latest phones are marketed as having improved cameras. But it isn’t an improvement to restrict them to overprocessed images.

@Kapai21 If you’re looking for recommendations, I’d suggest Google Pixel. The phone I switched from was a Pixel 2 (made in 2017) and I when my friends and I would all take picts of sunsets (or whatever) I’d compare my old 2017 phone’s photos to my iPhone friends. It would beat them every time. I messed up and got a iPhone 13 and have regretted it everyday.

I wish I had gotten the Pixel 6.

About the over saturation, a lot of phones have that setting built-in, where it captures a picture then enhances it in some way automatically. (even my beloved Pixel does it) But the iPhone 13 goes overboard with its tweaking. I have a bunch of ruined pictures. And my guess is since ppl have been complaining about it for over a year and no update has addressed it, then Apple is either incapable of fixing it or they don’t care.

Then why not the 13? Choosing an older model may help for now, but I’ve had my 13mini for a few months now so it is too late to exchange it.

And the fact that you have to keep upgrading for security reasons and because software upgrades gradually exclude older models, over time as support for older models is withdrawn, everyone who wants a secure phone that doesn’t run out of battery in a couple of hours, will have to “upgrade” even if the camera is hopeless.

My best workaround to over saturation that I have found (which only works for portraits and close subjects) is to keep my phone camera in "portrait" mode, which gives you the option of "natural light". Annoyingly and incomprehensibly, that option is not given in "photo" mode.

I still miss live photo for pets and children as well, though, who just won't sit still or repeat an action on demand for another shot. I frequently used to be able to salvage a precious moment by choosing a different frame of Live Photo using my old phone. Although even that wasn't perfect because image stabilisation was only applied to the default frame the phone chose, even if the subjects face was averted in the default chosen frame, with other frames around it having camera shake or subject blur that I couldn't find a way to correct when I chose a different frame that actually had the face captured. Still, it frequently gave me a snapshot of a moment I would otherwise not have had. Now I just miss the moment altogether. And I have to say I miss it more often too because there seems to be more of a lag in shutter response time than there used to be.

I bought the iPhone 13 Pro 3 weeks ago and the photos are horrible. The colors are off especially the natural colors like the sky, the trees, grass etc. I had the iPhone7plus before and the photos were always terrific. I am very upset and unhappy with this phone. I am a photographer and use my phone to take photos daily and an extremely unhappy with the way they look. I also have not found a fix. I brought it to the Apple store and the diagnostic came back normal and I was told it is just the way this camera is.

This look is the standard for high-end smart phones, so if you don't like it, don't get anything from Apple's competitors, either.

The best way to avoid it is to shoot in RAW and post-process it to your preferences.

Apple's implementation remains the best reviewed of the options available in the US market, and in fact if you do a quick Internet search you will see several sites stating that the iPhone's photos are the most "natural" looking among Samsung and Google's.

Well it would be nice if they allowed 13 mini users to shoot in RAW then. The only way I can get a decent image on my 13 mini is by shooting in portrait mode, and switch it to “natural light” setting, which is no good for scenery because it is rendered soft focussed. But it does improve the colour rendition for images of people or close subjects 1000% as long as you don’t need long depth of field.

Despite what you say, there is zero reason not to include a “natural light” option for regular photo mode, if they include it for portrait mode, and zero reason not to allow users to turn off HDR if they choose to.

When you take a photo and open it, you do instantly get a natural looking image, but it disappears after 1 second and is replaced by the mutilated version. That could be easily customisable to be turned off.

Yep. I’ve noticed a lot of people putting roast red fake looking sunset photos and radioactive flouro-green grass scenery up on FB and Instagram lately, which in the past I would have looked at with sympathy, assuming they had done their heavy handed editing on the run without their glasses on, but now I know they have no choice in the matter.

I’d love to actually ask those reviewers what market they were reviewing for, then. They are probably assuming their audience is fairly unsophisticated, photographically. But even if it is true, you are basically suggesting that all the manufacturers are now producing to the lowest common denominator, because the image colour quality was much much better in older models and I find it extremely hard to believe that there is any marketing downside to allowing users to turn off HDR if they want.

Feel free, most of them post an email contact address on their reviews.

Most people now want "Instagram-worthy photos without using filters" out of their cameras, it's why photography as such is giving way to "computational photography."

To not be biased, there are several videos on YouTube discussing the issue from an Android point of view.

Yes it's so frustrating. I would use my phone for photos daily but the sharpening and hyper real colour palette ruins the pictures. I've posted pictures that people commented i'd photoshopped (bc they looked so fake and almost 3-D) and i'm like - nope untouched - just the iphone doing it's thing lol

If i knew which phone to switch to id probably sell this sour overpriced apple !!

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.

Instagram is the phase that will pass, and already people are abandoning it due to its algorithms that minimise photos in your feed from your actual friends in favour of paid content.