Portrait Camera Quality Reduced After iOS 26 Update

Yes similar issue.. After the ios26 update for my iPhone 15 pro max camera quality drastically reduced. While taking photos at night the lights getting smoother and smudged. While my friend who haven’t updated have a clear crisp image.

[Edited by Moderator]

It's not always the iOS update's fault!  Many things can cause phone problems.  If you tell people you think it's an iOS update, it might make it harder to fix or find a solution for the real issue.

Remember, the right question often leads to the solution!

Was/Is your device Jailbroken? If that's the situation, please be informed that attributing the issues to iOS updates may not be accurate.

iOS updates aim to enhance user experience, boost security, and fix bugs rather than disrupt core features. The majority of the issues after updates might stem from underlying, unmentioned factors. Updates won't typically alter personal data but may refine settings or features. Backup before major updates for safety. Review Apple's update details and backup advice for a smooth process.

Kindly consider checking your settings and addressing any device issues before attributing the issue to external factors. This could be a pure coincidence that the iOS update affected the iPhone functions.

Before initiating a standard iOS update, it's advisable to create a backup. Have you completed this step? If yes, proceed with the restoration from the backup.

See what each update does: OS — iOS 26, About iOS 18 Updates, About iOS 17 Updates, About iOS 16 Updates, About iOS 15 Updates, About iOS 14 Updates, About iOS 13 Updates, About iOS 12 Updates, and so on...

You need to press and hold on the word Photo near the bottom of the screen and slide/swipe to your left.

I don't see anything wrong with the photo. To compare apples to apples, your friend took the exact same photo with their iPhone? Otherwise, trying to compare night scenes, which aren't exactly the same, using the same exact settings for the cameras, is a pretty meaningless comparison.

Look at David Addison and Lee Zavitz YouTube channels and the side by side comparisons they’ve created. iPhone 17 Pro Max has the best portrait capabilities in an iPhone that I’ve seen to date.

If it’s not for you, I get it. But the evidence is slowly coming in and the 4X and 8X are proving to be excellent quality.

I’m having the exact same issue. The quality of the picture after snapping turns into this weird portrait mode picture with smoothing and it’s so underwhelming I haven’t taken a decent pic of myself since updating to iOS26 and it’s depressing. Apple fix this issue or allow user to uninstall iOS26 especially iPhone users with “older” phones.

Night photography is tough even for high-end cinema cameras. Movie crews use all kinds of tricks to recreate how our eyes see the night. Some directors actually shoot “day for night,” filming in daylight and then grading the footage to look like night. Others shoot after dark but rely on careful exposure and heavy post-processing to brighten the scene without ruining the mood.

A famous example is Mad Max: Fury Road, where many desert “night” scenes were actually shot in broad daylight and later transformed through color grading.

Despite all the tech advances, true low-light video is still a major limitation—even for professional gear, let alone smartphones.

I have same issue. My 16 pro max camera became so bad after update. I cant take pictures anymore. It’s like i’m back to 2015.

i think even samsung takes better pictures than my iphone.

what should i do in this case? I tried everything already.

Probably. It’s standard marketing practice. It is a sign to you to buy iPhone 17 with TOTALLY NEW portrait camera!

ios 26

ios26

help me I want to update my Apple iphone ios 26

What has happened to all the different modes? I’ve only got photo or video. No portrait or cinematography or anything else.

You’ve pointed your camera towards a very bright light source. This will tend to result in a loss of contrast, which your image exhibits. Are you shoot Apple ProRAW, jpeg or HEIF?