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iPhone 11 Pro 11 Pro Photos: sharper but noisy

ApplePieAlaMode

ApplePieAlaMode

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 24, 2014
168
236
San Diego, CA
Anyone else noticing grainier/noisier photos on the 11 pro? (Coming from an XS)

I’m a photographer so my eye is very picky when it comes to noticing nuances in photos. After playing around with the 11 pro cameras today and doing a comparison to my XS, I see major differences. And they aren’t good ones. The 11 pro is taking sharper images which is good but not at the expense of a grainier shot.

Looking at side by sides I’m a little bummed. My XS images present a more natural contrast with a softer focus. For my shooting style, it’s more pleasant to the eye.

Also, the front facing camera is taking grainier and higher contrast images which for self portraits isn’t that appealing.


Anyone else noticing this?
 
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I am not noticing any grainier/noisier photos on the 11 Pro Max.

I notice a significant improvement in photos coming from a XS.

And Night Mode is AMAZING!

:apple:
 
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I am not noticing grain in any of my text shots and videos. Been a very impressive experience compared to my Oneplus 7 Pro.
 
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I’m a photographer as well. Yes, there is noise in the pics for sure on the 11 Pro. I don’t have an XS to compare it to, but it’s quite an improvement over my X. I guess, you can’t really expect a lot from these tiny sensors. All these new bells and whistles are mostly software based.
 
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Many of the samples that I’ve seen on this forum from the 11 Pro and Pro Max, have been very noisy with lots of aggressive noise reduction applied. My XS Max is much better at the same ISO than the 11 Pro. I bet it’s a software issue. Even many shots from my XS Max at iso 1600 and even 2000 have looked better than 11 Pro images at ISO 800. The low light shots, some are unusable because they are so noisy.
 
Well, it's definitely better in low-light, that's for sure. However, I can't seem to be able to get to the Crop outside the frame options to work. They simply don't appear to exist.

Anyway, attached images are iPhone 11 Pro Max vs iPhone XS Max.
CWO581YbSwiDFsYv9bsaZg.jpg
w13z6C1eQWGyfaPcCI0qGg.jpg
 
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kirk.vino said:
I’m a photographer as well. Yes, there is noise in the pics for sure on the 11 Pro. I don’t have an XS to compare it to, but it’s quite an improvement over my X. I guess, you can’t really expect a lot from these tiny sensors. All these new bells and whistles are mostly software based.
Click to expand...

yep I also get a sense that this is software based noise. Booo. It’s true, we can’t expect a lot given the sensors I guess I was just let down because of all the hype. Ahh well
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ToddH said:
Many of the samples that I’ve seen on this forum from the 11 Pro and Pro Max, have been very noisy with lots of aggressive noise reduction applied. My XS Max is much better at the same ISO than the 11 Pro. I bet it’s a software issue. Even many shots from my XS Max at iso 1600 and even 2000 have looked better than 11 Pro images at ISO 800. The low light shots, some are unusable because they are so noisy.
Click to expand...

im glad I’m not the only one who is noticing this! Funny, I did find a new setting called “noise reduction” in the photos app. Hmmm, think they know? Lol.
 
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WilliamG said:
Well, it's definitely better in low-light, that's for sure. However, I can't seem to be able to get to the Crop outside the frame options to work. They simply don't appear to exist.

Anyway, attached images are iPhone 11 Pro Max vs iPhone XS Max. View attachment 861333View attachment 861334
Click to expand...
Yes the low light shots are better and I really like the night mode.
I also can’t figure out how to adjust the frame after the fact. I made sure it was enabled in settings but it doesn’t seem to be working in post. I assumed it would be in the crop section....hmmm I’ll keep playing around and report back if I figure it out...
 
I'm a photog as well, studio shots mainly, and I use the Halide camera app. You might want to give it a try. It outputs RAW+jpeg at the same time and you can switch back and forth after the shots taken in the Halide image gallery. You can also do uncompressed TIFF. That way you can avoid Apples processing.
 
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orbitalpunk said:
I'm a photog as well, studio shots mainly, and I use the Halide camera app. You might want to give it a try. It outputs RAW+jpeg at the same time and you can switch back and forth after the shots taken in the Halide image gallery. You can also do uncompressed TIFF. That way you can avoid Apples processing.
Click to expand...
Ant this way you literally convert your 11 Pro to XS, now that same sensors are confirmed. What's wrong in having latest image processing?
 
wasn't the Xs notorious for too much noise reduction at one point? so much so apple had to release a fix for it? maybe they didn't pull it back for enough and they simply removed more of it this time around. so I think just adding more noise reduction back in will bring it back to the look of the Xs. For me, when shots that count, Id rather add my own noise reduction since its a personal taste. Or use a camera app that gives you control over ISO and lower it for truly less noise. I think it goes down to 32 iso which is kinda nuts.
 
I’m sur the new iPhone 11 uses the same sensor as the XS Max since a new sensor wasn’t mentioned during the Apple keynote. So I’m surprised to see that watercolor / plastic look on many of the sample photos. I am a professional photographer and I notice image quality differently than everyone else and that is why I’m so surprised at what I am seeing. If it gets fixed... then I’ll consider getting one. As for the 11 pro, my upgrade depends completely on the camera.
 
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This photo was taken at night and my light source was the porch light. iPhone XS Max at ISO 1600. I used the app Big Photo to review all of the exif data in the photograph. As you can see, it’s extremely clean at this high Iso compared to what I’m seeing with the 11 pro.
1EBE4338-B251-41DE-9C9B-11EC86947E0A.jpeg
 
The XS had too much noise reduction. Strange blurring artifacts. Nobody looks at a PICTURE pixel by pixel. The overall picture looks better on the 11. 10X magnification looks better on the XS — but that's pixel peeping, not picture viewing
 
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I think we’re also taking and seeing more indoor shots off bat since we all just got the new phone so we’re probably being a little more critical but looking back in my photos, I much prefer the output of the Pro vs the XS.

The new editing abilities and UI are also awesome. They now have a noise reduction tool which is nice that we can control that vs being automatically applied. I’m opposite of you where I’d much rather have a sharp noisier image vs one that looks softer and more smudgy because of noise reduction.

I also love that you can now control the amount of filter instead of being at 100% which is usually always too dang much.

Lastly, portrait mode is much better too. Especially the wide portrait mode where it uses the UW and W lens.

2E0DD09F-1086-4F2A-B4B0-E1F94B56BC46.jpeg
 
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jtrue28 said:
I am going to assume the bottom picture is from the 11 Pro Max, even though that's not how @WilliamG listed it in his words. Correct?
Click to expand...

Correct.
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ApplePieAlaMode said:
Yes the low light shots are better and I really like the night mode.
I also can’t figure out how to adjust the frame after the fact. I made sure it was enabled in settings but it doesn’t seem to be working in post. I assumed it would be in the crop section....hmmm I’ll keep playing around and report back if I figure it out...
Click to expand...

It’s broken right now. Hopefully fixed in iOS 13.1.
 
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Just did some tests. I noticed the Tele lens is incredible soft. Like crazily soft. I zoomed in and it almost seemed as if the wide lens is actually sharper than the Tele if you crop into the same view. Could it be, that there is currently a software bug and Apple continues using the wide lens when going 2x and beyond?

what lens were you using in your tests? The wide seems by far superior to the previous models.
 
ApplePieAlaMode said:
Yes the low light shots are better and I really like the night mode.
I also can’t figure out how to adjust the frame after the fact. I made sure it was enabled in settings but it doesn’t seem to be working in post. I assumed it would be in the crop section....hmmm I’ll keep playing around and report back if I figure it out...
Click to expand...
You have to turn on "Photos Capture Outside the Frame" in Settings > Camera. It's off by default.
 
orbitalpunk said:
I'm a photog as well, studio shots mainly, and I use the Halide camera app. You might want to give it a try. It outputs RAW+jpeg at the same time and you can switch back and forth after the shots taken in the Halide image gallery. You can also do uncompressed TIFF. That way you can avoid Apples processing.
Click to expand...
orbitalpunk said:
I'm a photog as well, studio shots mainly, and I use the Halide camera app. You might want to give it a try. It outputs RAW+jpeg at the same time and you can switch back and forth after the shots taken in the Halide image gallery. You can also do uncompressed TIFF. That way you can avoid Apples processing.
Click to expand...
yes!! I have to get this! I just heard about it!
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HelloMikee said:
I think we’re also taking and seeing more indoor shots off bat since we all just got the new phone so we’re probably being a little more critical but looking back in my photos, I much prefer the output of the Pro vs the XS.

The new editing abilities and UI are also awesome. They now have a noise reduction tool which is nice that we can control that vs being automatically applied. I’m opposite of you where I’d much rather have a sharp noisier image vs one that looks softer and more smudgy because of noise reduction.

I also love that you can now control the amount of filter instead of being at 100% which is usually always too dang much.

Lastly, portrait mode is much better too. Especially the wide portrait mode where it uses the UW and W lens.

View attachment 861574
Click to expand...
Nice shot!
 
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