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iPhone SE (2022) What the hell, Apple?

H

HalfFullmoon

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 29, 2021
261
168
I upgraded (more like downgraded) to a SE 2022 from iPhone 8 and I am surprised that no one seems to care about this, but why is Apple photoshopping my selfies? I speak specifically of Apple auto-brightening my face, or in rare occasions, auto-darkening my face. I want the selfie to be what I see on the screen, not Apple's idea of what should be. Is that too much to ask for? If I wanted it to be brighter, I can do that myself, even after the photo was taken. Seems this problem is affecting all new iPhone users: Ios15 iPhone 13 brightens every dark photo. In my case, the photos don't have to be dark to begin with. My iPhone 8 with the latest iOS update doesn't do this.

This is going to be a deal breaker for me. I am thinking of switching to S22.
 
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tedley

tedley

macrumors 6502
Nov 3, 2009
294
339
Sacramento
Yup. It's Apple's new 'computational photography' and it's garbage for anyone who wants control over their images. They implemented it starting with iPhone 11 and it's gotten progressively worse. There are many threads about it here. It was implemented for the FB and instagram crowd who wants everything too look story book cartoonish. It will probably continue to get even more aggressive in future iPhones. The really sad part is they could add a toggle to turn it off but they won't even do that. The reason your 8 doesn't do it with ios15 is that there are hardware dependencies.
 
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J

jntdroid

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2011
937
1,284
HalfFullmoon said:
I upgraded (more like downgraded) to a SE 2022 from iPhone 8 and I am surprised that no one seems to care about this, but why is Apple photoshopping my selfies? I speak specifically of Apple auto-brightening my face, or in rare occasions, auto-darkening my face. I want the selfie to be what I see on the screen, not Apple's idea of what should be. Is that too much to ask for? If I wanted it to be brighter, I can do that myself, even after the photo was taken. Seems this problem is affecting all new iPhone users: Ios15 iPhone 13 brightens every dark photo. In my case, the photos don't have to be dark to begin with. My iPhone 8 with the latest iOS update doesn't do this.

This is going to be a deal breaker for me. I am thinking of switching to S22.
Click to expand...

The S22 line will over-soften your face on selfies, even with that function turned off... so, which is the lesser of two evils for you?
 
marty1980

marty1980

macrumors 6502a
Apr 22, 2011
742
654
Every smartphone, including S22, is using computational photography.

There are 3rd party camera apps that you can use to eliminate and/or change the issues you have with Apple’s default approach.

The built in app does have some options for controlling your photos.

iPhones are some of the highest rated phones for cameras. So even if there is a crowd of people with the same issues you have, it is a minuscule sample. Plus, Apple has a tendency to write their apps with their way or the highway mentality. But again… 3rd party apps exist.

Good luck. I recommend buying a DSLR if you are really that concerned with how you look in your selfies.
 
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TechRunner

TechRunner

macrumors 65816
Oct 28, 2016
1,291
2,205
SW Florida, US
You have to be prepared to accept compromise in any phone camera, in my experience. As previously mentioned, that Samsung you mentioned uses pretty aggressive smoothing on selfies, from what I’ve read.
 
M

mkelly

Cancelled
Nov 29, 2007
207
218
Just returned my S22 Ultra and am going back to my iPhone 13 Pro. As others have said - if you don't like Apple's photo manipulations, you *really* aren't going to like Samsung's. Skin softening/beautification, even when you've "disabled" the feature. Also it really screws with skin tones.

I was also disappointed in the main cameras on the S22U. The telephotos are great and the portrait mode produces nice shots, but the main 108MP camera is surprisingly bad at capturing detail - both in 12 MP "binned" mode, and 108 MP with and without "detail enhancer" enabled.

And that shutter lag - unfortunately something that has plagued Samsung for years and continues to do so. When taking side-by-side photos with my iPhone 13 Pro, the S22U lagged by nearly a half a second.

Too bad, because I *loved* the display on that phone, and the telephoto cameras were truly brilliant. I really enjoyed being able to take photos at 10x optical zoom.
 
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tedley

tedley

macrumors 6502
Nov 3, 2009
294
339
Sacramento
In my reading, I discovered on trick that lets you circumvent Apple's crappy processing. You can take a pic with live photo turned on. Then select image after the first one. Apple processing only botches the first image. The rest are left unaltered. I KNOW, IKNOW. it's a kludgy workaround that shouldn't have to be, but it does work.
 
I

ian87w

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2020
8,704
12,636
Indonesia
It's probably the SmartHDR algorithm.

Note that my S21 also behaves similarly, even with autoHDR turned off. Seems like it has become expected to auto adjust highlights/shadows. So before you buy your S22, maybe test it out in a store first.

For me, as long as it only adjusts the highlights/shadows, I don't particularly mind. But what's annoying is when a phone starts putting beauty filters by default (like many Chinese phones).
 
ToddH

ToddH

macrumors 68030
Jul 5, 2010
2,650
5,276
Central Tx
Just use a third party app like Moment, Halide, or Reeflex. No computational photos are added to the third party apps.
 
1rottenapple

1rottenapple

macrumors 601
Apr 21, 2004
4,708
2,724
T
HalfFullmoon said:
I upgraded (more like downgraded) to a SE 2022 from iPhone 8 and I am surprised that no one seems to care about this, but why is Apple photoshopping my selfies? I speak specifically of Apple auto-brightening my face, or in rare occasions, auto-darkening my face. I want the selfie to be what I see on the screen, not Apple's idea of what should be. Is that too much to ask for? If I wanted it to be brighter, I can do that myself, even after the photo was taken. Seems this problem is affecting all new iPhone users: Ios15 iPhone 13 brightens every dark photo. In my case, the photos don't have to be dark to begin with. My iPhone 8 with the latest iOS update doesn't do this.

This is going to be a deal breaker for me. I am thinking of switching to S22.
Click to expand...
The 13 mini does this, it makes my SO skin lighter! But unnaturally looking.
 
I

ian87w

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2020
8,704
12,636
Indonesia
jav6454 said:
I believe the selfie algorithm was tuned down a while ago. It used to be worse in terms of "beautification".
Click to expand...
Imo in Apple’s case, it’s unintentional and more like a side effect of smart HDR. You can imagine the function of HDR, lightening shadows and reducing highlights, on a human face. The end result might look like beautification.

It’s unlike the Chinese phones that intentionally coded it for faces and put it as a feature. ?
 
jav6454

jav6454

macrumors Core
Nov 14, 2007
22,303
6,257
1 Geostationary Tower Plaza
ian87w said:
Imo in Apple’s case, it’s unintentional and more like a side effect of smart HDR. You can imagine the function of HDR, lightening shadows and reducing highlights, on a human face. The end result might look like beautification.

It’s unlike the Chinese phones that intentionally coded it for faces and put it as a feature. ?
Click to expand...
Agreed. I for one think SmartHDR still needs tweaking.
 
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