iPhone XS Max I don't get why a $1000+ phone takes such HORRIBLE pictures!

[FFR]

Yeah I've been reading up on the exposure lock, seems really good and I'm going to start using it. I at least always use focus on the subject of the picture, and did so in that picture.
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From what I understand the iphone calculates which will look better, the telephoto lens or a digital zoom, so you have to trust the iphone. If you do catch it digitally zooming what do you do? Do you trust that the iphone's algorithms know better than you, or trust that manually you can get better results? Much of these shortcomings do not become apparent until after you take the picture. And if I do catch the digital zoom being on, then I'm back to the same situation I was in originally.

No Focus lock isn’t the same as focusing on the subject.

If you only use focus on a moving subject it will be horrible.

When your taking a picture Just tap and hold on the image of your subject. Until your get the focus and exposure lock

This is what it looks like when it’s on.

It’s super easy, if you use that with burst mode it should improve any photos significantly, including fast moving subjects.

So you know how to imitate burst mode on the iPhone?

 

[mollyc]

Pro tip: NEVER digitally zoom. Always zoom optically (switch lenses) or with your feet. If you cannot zoom with your feet, crop in post.

Never zoom digitally, regardless of what camera you are using.

 

[spinedoc77]

IT's NOT a $1,000 camera. It's a phone that has a camera in it.

Yeah and...? What point are you trying to make? Read through the discussion and see if your point makes any sense. The Pixel 3 also does NOT have a $1000 camera and takes better pictures in my particular scenario. Please stop making this point as it's not applicable to this discussion.
[doublepost=1563745540][/doublepost]

No Focus lock isn’t the same as focusing on the subject.

If you only use focus on a moving subject it will be horrible.

When your taking a picture Just tap and hold on the image of your subject. Until your get the focus and exposure lock

This is what it looks like when it’s on.

It’s super easy, if you use that with burst mode it should improve any photos significantly, including fast moving subjects.

So you know how to imitate burst mode on the iPhone?

Thanks, good info! Yes I use burst mode sometimes but was never really sure how it worked. Sometimes I see a couple of pictures in my gallery, sometimes only one. Does the iphone automatically choose the best one, or does it combine them?[/QUOTE]

 

[FFR]

Yeah and...? What point are you trying to make? Read through the discussion and see if your point makes any sense. The Pixel 3 also does NOT have a $1000 camera and takes better pictures in my particular scenario. Please stop making this point as it's not applicable to this discussion.
[doublepost=1563745540][/doublepost]



Thanks, good info! Yes I use burst mode sometimes but was never really sure how it worked. Sometimes I see a couple of pictures in my gallery, sometimes only one. Does the iphone automatically choose the best one, or does it combine them?

[/QUOTE]

Anytime.

Burst mode is really easy: just hold the shutter-release button down, the longer you hold it down the more photos you snap. There should be an indicator notifying you of the number of photos, being taken, It’s a pretty cool animation. But it might distract you from the actual picture

Neither
Burst mode photos are all grouped together so they are easy to find
All you need to do is select the burst photo in the camera roll or under “bursts” in the album tab, you can find that under Media types.

Once the burst photo is selected, you can cycle through all the photos, by tapping on “select” located on the bottom bar, between the favorites and trash icons.

Also Burst photos are labeled as such just above the photo with a number indicating the amount of photos taken during the “burst”.

It might seem more complicated than it really is.

 

[spinedoc77]

Anytime.

Burst mode is really easy: just hold the shutter-release button down, the longer you hold it down the more photos you snap. There should be an indicator notifying you of the number of photos, being taken, It’s a pretty cool animation. But it might distract you from the actual picture

Neither
Burst mode photos are all grouped together so they are easy to find
All you need to do is select the burst photo in the camera roll or under “bursts” in the album tab, you can find that under Media types.

Once the burst photo is selected, you can cycle through all the photos, by tapping on “select” located on the bottom bar, between the favorites and trash icons.

Also Burst photos are labeled as such just above the photo with a number indicating the amount of photos taken during the “burst”.

It might seem more complicated than it really is.

Very nice, I played around with it a bit, you can easily get 50 pics in a couple of seconds, there goes my storage space lol.

 

[FFR]

Very nice, I played around with it a bit, you can easily get 50 pics in a couple of seconds, there goes my storage space lol.

It takes some getting used to.

Make sure your using the high efficiency format.
It helps a lot with storage.

Don’t think you need to look for a reason when it comes Time me upgrade. Lol

 

[bruinsrme]

In the end, what's your purpose in taking the picture?

In the past, people take pictures for the memories. It doesn't matter when pictures of our parents are blurry, black-n-white, over/underexposed, etc. They all still appreciate the memories about those photos.
Alas we are here now in the digital age, where pixel peeping and image quality are more important than the memories themselves.

Without being there, I wouldn't be able to say much, but here are some things that I figured out personally:
1. Indoor photography is difficult, even with a DSLR, let alone a phone camera. Even if you think the room is well lit, it is usually not the case.
2. iPhone won't use the optical zoom in low light condition. It instead relies on digital zoom of the main wide angle camera.
3. Next time, try capturing live photos or taking a video instead. To me, the additional motion of live photos and videos will spark better memories in my mind vs me pixel peeping a still photos. Heck, I took a live photo during a Facetime conversation, and despite the ridiculously bad image quality (front camera+low light+internet bandwidth compression), it is still a very memorable "photo" for me due to the motion.
4. If live photos or videos are not your thing, at least try burst shots.

Instead of being upset about how bad the tiny camera module on your phone is, maybe look at it from a different perspective of how great it was that you could capture that moment with just your phone.

I have some incredible pictures of my parrot that past a while ago.
The most meaningful was this picture captured by my wife using a 5SE zoomed.
My hat was in the kitchen and she brought into the den to roost on.

 

[CrazyForCashews]

I have some incredible pictures of my parrot that past a while ago.
The most meaningful was this picture captured by my wife using a 5SE zoomed.
My hat was in the kitchen and she brought into the den to roost on.

Hehe really cute! I love parrots! Used to have some Senegals and miss them so much!

 

[northofnowhere]

Without reading this entire thread....just my two cents..... I have never been disappointed with the iPhone camera. Especially my XS Max. And I am looking forward even more to my 11 Pro Max. I take food photos for Instagram and have never used anything but my phone. I constantly get questions about which camera I use. I of course enhance my photos before posting but the root pictures have to be good for that to make a difference. I do not own a professional camera besides the one I carry in My pocket every day!

 

[eyeseeyou]

For the sake of argument let's say that the pixel takes better pics than the XS iphones. Do the pixel images make the iphone pics look "HORRIBLE" when placed next to eachother? No.

This thread would've got a lot fewer replies without the clickbait like "horrible" title.

 

[ET iPhone Home]

Without reading this entire thread....just my two cents..... I have never been disappointed with the iPhone camera. Especially my XS Max. And I am looking forward even more to my 11 Pro Max. I take food photos for Instagram and have never used anything but my phone. I constantly get questions about which camera I use. I of course enhance my photos before posting but the root pictures have to be good for that to make a difference. I do not own a professional camera besides the one I carry in My pocket every day!
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Do you enhance the photos directly from the XS MAX? Are you using a special app paid or free? Or are you taking these photos to a laptop and enhancing them via Photoshop? Very nice.

 

[rmoliv]

Bad photographers won’t take good pictures. Next time don’t use digital zoom.

 

[loybond]

Computational photography is moving at an incredible rate. The XS Max is the first phone I thought could actually work for good quality pics and video.

Can't wait to see what the 11 Pro can do!

 

[Jack Neill]

Without reading this entire thread....just my two cents..... I have never been disappointed with the iPhone camera. Especially my XS Max. And I am looking forward even more to my 11 Pro Max. I take food photos for Instagram and have never used anything but my phone. I constantly get questions about which camera I use. I of course enhance my photos before posting but the root pictures have to be good for that to make a difference. I do not own a professional camera besides the one I carry in My pocket every day!
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Do you know how hungry I am now? That pasta looks amazing.

 

[Jordan921]

Eh I’m happy with my Xs max pictures. Gonna be even happier once I get my 11 pro max!

 

[jerwin]

Given that Apple has released a new iteration of their phones, I suspect that some of these concerns may be moot. In the mean time, take pictures in good lighting, and use a real camera when the light is less than favourable.

 

[northofnowhere]

Do you enhance the photos directly from the XS MAX? Are you using a special app paid or free? Or are you taking these photos to a laptop and enhancing them via Photoshop? Very nice.

I have Adobe Lightroom on my phone. I edit the photos in Lightroom and then save them back to my camera roll. Everything done with and in the phone.

 

[bruinsrme]

Without reading this entire thread....just my two cents..... I have never been disappointed with the iPhone camera. Especially my XS Max. And I am looking forward even more to my 11 Pro Max. I take food photos for Instagram and have never used anything but my phone. I constantly get questions about which camera I use. I of course enhance my photos before posting but the root pictures have to be good for that to make a difference. I do not own a professional camera besides the one I carry in My pocket every day!
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Do you normally lay your pickle on the table?

 

[eoblaed]

For some reason, this cropped weird after posting. :-/

 

[willmtaylor]

Do you normally lay your pickle on the table?

I’m sure the table is vegan/organic/non-GMO/tree-to-table, etc., so it’s OK.

 

[ToddH]

Any motion blur in lower light will generate that type of noise image. I have the Xs max and I just discovered something about the camera. I am a photographer and I was confused as to why the iPad XP’s max looks clean on most images and some that take on a water color look or plastic looking. What I just found is that I get clean noise free images at 2000 iso by doing this.... frame your shot, touch where you want the camera to focus, then make a very subtle adjustment to the exposure by dragging your finger downward on the screen, but just a hair, enough to make a small change. This is consistent with my tests, iso 2000 is the highest I’ve seen today so far in the dark, but I can’t believe how clear and clean the image is. You all should try it. I’ve added a sample. I use an app called big photo to view and resize images and to get the exif data from the photo.

Anyway, hold still and avoid moving subjects in low light

Now isn’t that clean for iso 2000?

Sorry in advance for the rant here, but I'm just really disappointed in the cameras on the iphones. This isn't a recent complaint, but it seems like they are taking worse pictures every generation. I'm used to iphones taking horrendous pictures if lighting is even a little bit dim. But I've been noticing poorer quality even with pictures taken with optimal conditions. This picture is my daughter at practice, there are bay windows all around her and it's a perfect day outside, lighting couldn't be much better. You can see how grainy the picture is, it's a shame that these memories will be forever captured in a terrible picture. It's not only this picture, I took a bunch of them as she was promoted and I wanted to capture the moment. Every single picture came out grainy like this, the faces would be overexposed and have detail washed out, among other issues. I feel comfortable in saying a point and shoot crappy mini digital camera from 15 years ago would have taken better pictures.

I have downloaded a few apps such as Night Camera and others and have been playing around with shutter speeds, light sensor, etc. These apps are fairly complicated and I really don't want to have to figure out how to use them, and preliminary results show these apps don't make much of a difference anyway. What burns me is that I have a Pixel 3 XL sitting at home that I don't use because I highly prefer iOS, but I always kick myself for not taking the Pixel to events where I want good pictures.

I've read a few unsubstantiated rumors that Apple is finally releasing a camera for the 11 series that functions well in low light. But seeing how crappy their pictures are even in good lighting I have my doubts that Apple can pull it off, or that there will be any improvement with optimal pictures much less low light ones. Don't get me wrong, I've taken really good pictures with iphones in perfect lighting conditions, but that's the exception not the rule. For reference this is on a XS Max and I have swapped it out to make sure it wasn't a hardware issue.


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[noteple]

Few bad cameras
Lots of bad photographers

Check gallery’s and comments
https://www.dpreview.com/products/apple/mobilephones/apple_iphonexs

bud borrowed my Canon 5D mark iv and two lenses
Wide angle and a silver is telephoto about $5k worth of gear

Came back with I don’t see why this is so great, my droid takes pictures
that are just as good.

He’s right, I saw his handy work.

Power tools don’t make you a skilled craftsman but you
Can screwup bigger and faster.

 

[jerwin]

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Now isn’t that clean for iso 2000?

There is something ...off... about a photography program that displays exposure times in decimal (.0666666666666667 s), rather than fractional form (1/15 s).