Small photo files from iPhone 7 Plus

I'm having the same issue it's very upsetting. I saved up for many months and bought the 256 gig version of the iphone7+. I sell images and I wanted to shoot pics that I could sell on various stock photography platforms. My images baaaarely meet the 2 megabyte minimum, so I can't sell them for more than $5. Beautiful pics, not big enough. Super disappointed. I've tried everything, even downloading camera apps that can shoot raw to no avail. My girlfriend and I wanted to shoot some photo projects but I won't be able to with my iPhone.

My understanding is as followes - JPG is a lossy compression system vs TIFF that is a lossless compression system. JPG compresses the file by throwing away unimportant information from the file. So the file size may depend on what type of photo is being compressed. Thus a nice high contrast colorfull scene will retain many more bytes, and the file size will be lot larger than a boring photo of a white paper lying on a grey table. To compare apples to apples you and your friend should take a photo of the same scene at same time under identical light condition, then compare the file size. One other thing to be aware of is the level of compression used by your friend and by your iPhone - JPG allowes to specify how much compression to use - like "good" "better" "best" "maximum". You may be able to get this information from the specification of your iPhone; I don't have that information off hand now. I know this is an old thread, I hope this reply shades more light to your question.

@JahOkay

2 MB file size requirement is very odd. Perhaps you are confusing with 2 MP (photo resolution) requirement - they mean different things. 2 MB is file size, 2 MP is photo resolution.

Example:

1500X2000 photo has resolution of 3 MP (3 mega pixels)

but the file size - compressed in JPG format may be only "few hundred" K (kilo bytes)

You should be able to sell this photo at much higher price.

Your iPhone 7+ has a 12 MP camera - *ALL* photos have 12 MP resolution from this camera. You are seriously under pricing your photos if you are selling them as 2 MP photos.

It seems everyone on this thread except LACAllen is very confused about image size (specified with MP), file size (specified with MB), and display resolution (specified with PPI). It is the "image size" that is most important. 4032X3024 is 12 MP; this is what your iPhone 7 is giving you - ALWAYS - unless you crop it down.

"File size" is a consideration for saving disk space on your computer. JPG compresses the file to take less disk space, but when you open a JPG file it is uncompressed so you can view it on your computer, or print on your printer the full 12 MP (4032X3024), but the JPG file itself "on disk" stays compressed and small in size.

THIS IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW as a beginner

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Advanced topic

After you shoot a photo if you are going to edit your photo a lot (like in Lightroom or Camera+ or other photo editing app), it is recommended that you save your original photo in a lossless format such as TIFF, BMP, or PNG (different from DNG). Perform all your edits and saves from this lossless formated file. You may choose to keep all your images always in lossless files if you do not mind using lot of disk space, and very slow upload/download to cloud drives and social sites. However for practical consideration you may opt to save your final image (after all edits are complete) to a compressed JPG file but never delete the uncompressed lossless source file. Then if you decide to edit the photo again, start from the uncompressed source file - never never never edit from a compressed JPG file. JPG compression is lossy, thus everytime you save the file you will loose quality though the image size will stay at 12 MP. If you are not going to edit a lot - snap and share - JPG is great.

If your camera only outputs JPG, no worries, open the file with any photo editing app and save as TIFF or BMP "before" you start to edit file. iPhone native camera only outputs JPG, but there are very good 3rd party apps like Lightroom, Camera+ , and others that allow you to save RAW, DNG, or TIFF files automatically as you snap the photos with your iPhone.

For complete understanding of Digital Photography I would recommend checking out a good book on this subject from your local library, or enroll in a photography class.

I hope I have been able to help you a tiny bit for now.

Another tid bit for @JahOkay:

A 2 MP image will print high quality 7"X5" prints.

A 12 MP image will print high quality 20"X15" enlarged prints.

Thus you can definitely sell your stock photos at much higher price. Buyers who buy from stock photo dealers are most interested in images that produce high quality prints.

iPhone 7 has very good camera!

Save space on your device

iCloud Photo Library keeps all of your photos and videos in their original, high-resolution version. You can save space on your device when you turn on Optimize Storage.

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap iCloud > Photos.
3. Choose Optimize [device] Storage.

I'm having this same problem. Every jpg photo taken on my iPhone 7, no matter which camera app I use, is being stored around 2mb and even worse...72ppi!! that is web quality and the images look it. Even when I shoot in RAW using another camera app the photos are larger but still only 4mb and still 72ppi. What is happening. Please do not tell me to turn on iCloud photo storage. I have no desire to pay for an additional storage when I spent so much money on a 128gb phone to store all the large images I was expecting this phone to take. How to I get the uncompressed images on my phone without paying for your additional service?

For the moment, forget the file size and ppi specs.

What is the pixel size of the saved files? How many pixels by how many pixels?

Looking at a review site for the iPhone 7 camera... it seems the JPEG files should be around 6MB and the pixel dimensions should be 4032x3024. A DNG Raw file is the same pixel dimensions but a file size of around 10MB.

Photos taken in the camera app - normal mode:

4032x3024, 72ppi, 1.7MB

Photos in portrait mode are even smaller.

If I take a photo in Lightroom app set to DNG I get:

4032x3024, 72ppi, 4.3MB

If you could see this zoomed in on your screen the problem is quite obvious to see.

Again, the ppi is irrelevant. it is not a measurement of image quality in any way.

You are seeing the full sized file the camera is capable of making.

The smaller file size would be due to JPEG compression.

Not getting close to 6mb. Something is definitely happening during jpg compression. At first I thought it was just the camera app, but then I tested and can see it in the lightroom app as well as camera plus while shooting jpgs.

Hi Irina... I was wondering if you know how to upload high resolution images to a dropbox account? I'm not using iCould because i already ran out of space.

TIA