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Photos Editing Extension Limits Resolution!

L

LERsince1991

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 24, 2008
1,245
37
UK
I wanted to let all users be aware before they waste time destroying their nice 8mp photos! (or huge panoramic photos)

iOS 8 brought extensions to the photos app to enable you to edit using other apps right from the photos app.
But I have recently been caught out with photos which have been downscaled and ruined.

There is a limitation in the extensions set by Apple.
This is around 2mp so all photos are downscaled the second you edit with a photos extension.

Edits are non-destructive to the original files - this requires you to revert to the original and lose all editing.

I found this out by studying the images on my mac and also iPhone apps such as Photo Investigator.
This since been confirmed by a popular apps response to my email.

"I'm sorry, this is because of the limits set by Apple - we have to reduce the photo resolution. If you don't want to lose photo resolution, we suggest you avoid using the Photos extension to edit your images."
- camera360

This applies to all other apps too.

Verdict
So... Do not use extensions...

(Additionally, something that is widely known - photo streams and shared photo streams are downscaled to around 2000 pixels square)

Mobile Editing Workflow
I'd recommend editing with your editing app of choice (VSCO Cam, Photoshop Express, Afterlight etc...) and importing via usb import to your Mac for Mobile editing.

Desktop Editing Workflow and Sync'ed Libraries
Or for desktop editing import originals via usb import, you can then have these on your iPhone after either by (1) Syncing events to your devices in iTunes, (2) iCloud Photo Library (3) Adobe CC & Lightroom (4) Cloud storage such as Box etc.

iCloud Photo Library may well change this - however I am unsure how this works as yet.

(You may have the problem that your either eating up device space storing all your high res images on your devices or storing low resolution versions and possibly editing only these low res versions? - I'm unsure whether these edits would be applied to your master library in the iCloud Photo Library especially when other apps are used)


Myself - I am considering moving my library over to Adobe Lightroom or something - I am still unsure - its getting complicated!
 
Last edited:
thank you!!!

I thought something was going on to reduce resolution but couldn't be sure!

disappointing :(
 
Too bad. I bought Afterlight just for this purpose to use in addition to Camera+ so I could have more options in edits. I like how you can edit and later revert right from the photo app vs making another copy of the same photo. I will still use the extension from time-to-time because I don't think anyone will notice the difference on their phone but if I plan to use the photo outside of that I will use the app directly.

Thanks for the info.
 
I was really disappointed, when I used Pixelmator to fix a panorama picture, and afterwards it wasn't worth looking at it any more...

So it's not just the extensions, but also some apps can't handle large size pictures.
 
I can commiserate. I learned my lesson years ago, when I first noticed syncing photos to my iPhone resulted in reduced resolution (Apple knows best). Now, I assume ANY editing or transfer of photos to/from device, or cloud, or whatever, will result in lowered resolution UNTIL I confirm otherwise. It's the first thing I test.
 
TJ61 said:
I can commiserate. I learned my lesson years ago, when I first noticed syncing photos to my iPhone resulted in reduced resolution (Apple knows best). Now, I assume ANY editing or transfer of photos to/from device, or cloud, or whatever, will result in lowered resolution UNTIL I confirm otherwise. It's the first thing I test.
Click to expand...

Great practice.
I have been doing this since the i4.

Note: for i6/i6+ users, fine detail lags significantly when compared to other devices / cameras. So if you want to take a photo and need the fine detail, use a different device.

To test this, take a picture of a flowering bush/tree at 100 feet with your 6/6+. Take the same photo with a higher mp device (I use a G3).
Export the photo's to your desktop/laptop.
Open the photo's in the software of your choice and look at the fine detail.
The 6/6+ has some serious issues.
 
Rhonindk said:
Great practice.
I have been doing this since the i4.

Note: for i6/i6+ users, fine detail lags significantly when compared to other devices / cameras. So if you want to take a photo and need the fine detail, use a different device.

To test this, take a picture of a flowering bush/tree at 100 feet with your 6/6+. Take the same photo with a higher mp device (I use a G3).
Export the photo's to your desktop/laptop.
Open the photo's in the software of your choice and look at the fine detail.
The 6/6+ has some serious issues.
Click to expand...

Have you compared this to an iPhone 5S?
Of course the higher MegaPixel Camera will produce finer details...
 
Wow, what a bunch of garbage. Whats the point of editing if Apple is going to down-res everything. They did this for the longest time in the native photos app. making all images saved out on an iPhone 0.7 MP.

Not sure why they do it. Probably storage on each device which would be remedies by getting rid of the ridiculously oudated entry level 16GB of storage.
 
I think they've done it due to some sort of restriction in software drivers or hardware chip which limits the photos to something like 2048 pixels square, I read this somewhere - and the photos are saved at 2048 x 1536 pixels after editing.

Is it any coincidence the ipad airs resolution is exactly that? 2048 x 1536

But yeah it's rediculous...
 
Last edited:
mpfuchs said:
Have you compared this to an iPhone 5S?
Of course the higher MegaPixel Camera will produce finer details...
Click to expand...

Did that yesterday - tried my 6+ against the 5S I gifted to the wife. Going in I expected the 6+ to be the clear winner.

Standard sunlight - very little difference. The color was a bit better on the 6+ but noticed that the red flowers shaded toward orange. Strange as the flower was a red bougainvillea - I expected purple, not orange. Call it a tie.
Low light outdoors - the 6+ was a winner here. The picture was brighter with more detail.

In both cases, the lack of fine detail was noticeable when compared to the G3.

Note: The comparison between pictures was done on an external HD monitor and laptop running Windows 8.1.
 
Last edited:
Rhonindk said:
Did that yesterday - tried my 6+ against the 5S I gifted to the wife. Going in I expected the 6+ to be the clear winner.

Standard sunlight - very little difference. The color was a bit better on the 6+ but noticed that the red flowers shaded toward orange. Strange as the flower was a red bougainvillea - I expected purple, not orange. Call it a tie.
Low light outdoors - the 6+ was a winner here. The picture was brighter with more detail.

In both cases, the lack of fine detail was noticeable when compared to the G3.

Note: The comparison between pictures was done on an external HD monitor and laptop running Windows 8.1.
Click to expand...

I've read on here somewhere, that the 6 uses a different jpeg compression than previous phones.
Obviously there is no way anyone could proof that, but they might have done that to decrease the file size of our pictures.

The reason you get better pics in low light on the 6+ is due to the optical image stabilization. Contrary to popular believe, it works only taking photos, but not videos.
 
mpfuchs said:
I've read on here somewhere, that the 6 uses a different jpeg compression than previous phones.
Obviously there is no way anyone could proof that, but they might have done that to decrease the file size of our pictures.

The reason you get better pics in low light on the 6+ is due to the optical image stabilization. Contrary to popular believe, it works only taking photos, but not videos.
Click to expand...

Compression change .... hadn't thought of that but it could definitely account for the "lack" of expected improvement between the 5S and 6+ in the photo's I took. Could account for the color shift too.

Have to do some digging and experimenting.
 
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