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

Me too. It never occurred for me that Apple would ruin their previously great camera and photo app like this. They advertise the enhancements of the new camera capabilities but this is a huge step backwards.

Well at least I now know why my posts have been removed, apart from them containing a detailed critique, as they were certainly not any less conversational than many other posts here, and that is that I cannot mention a certain company's policies.

It is not reasonable to expect users of a premium phone to know they have to rush out and do a hike so they can photograph scenery in low light, at sunset and in a variety of shadow and other lighting situations within a 14 day period in order to get a refund if the selling point of the phone is the supposedly improved camera software, especially when the user loved the old software and does not interpret the terms “improved” or “advanced” to indicate the software would actually go backwards from the situation they know they liked.

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

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?

Kapai21 wrote:

I 100% agree. I took my iPhone 13 back today. But I am stuck as to what phone to buy. I love to take sunrise photos and iPhone 13 did not produce photos I could use.

It's your choice, and you should certainly choose the best device for your needs, but my earlier reply (reproduced below) may be of use-

The iPhone 12 has customizable HDR settings, which you can read about here - Adjust HDR camera settings on iPhone - Apple Support

Every iPhone from the 7 to the 12 models can have HDR disabled.

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.

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.

It's a matter of taste; in most circumstances I love the way the photos look and in fact I always click "Edit" and use the magic wand to ramp things up a bit more.

Didn’t know that Apple accepts to take a product back in case of customer dissatisfaction!