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iPhone 13 Pro Smart HDR Missing on iPhone 13 Pro?

RickNY said:
No, its there. 13 Pro w/iOS 15 has it. Under Settings, PHOTOS (not Camera)
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That’s not the same. The photos are still processed the same, just on your own screen they look different to how anyone else would see them if posted online etc.
 
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Jake3231 said:
Does this still reproduce on iOS 15.0.1?
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Yes the issue is still persists in iOS 15.0.1.
This is a big issue for me as it is impossible to compose a picture against the light.
What you see in the camera app looks totally different from the picture you get.
You always get the HDR look which is not desirable in many cases as you can‘t control light and shadow anymore.

I am considering to return my IPhone 13 Pro because of this issue (otherwise I like it).
Sad.

Does anybody know if this is a feature or a bug?
 
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I've noticed my 13 mini camera tends to make brightly lit things too bright. Took a photo with a sunlit white shirt today and it almost looks like the sun is reflecting off the shirt, as if the shirt was a mirror.

If I hold to watch the live-photo - I don't see it there (I think that basically disables HDR or the Live Photo is processed less?).

I also looked for a setting to turn off HDR (just to test) and found no such setting.
 
Same problem.
When I tap a photo on the gallery I can clearly see tha for half a second the image is "fine" with normal colours and than a weird texture and colours "pop up" and the image is just awful.
 
ItachiSBT said:
Same problem.
When I tap a photo on the gallery I can clearly see tha for half a second the image is "fine" with normal colours and than a weird texture and colours "pop up" and the image is just awful.
Click to expand...

Again, go to Settings > Photos > turn off View Full HDR
 
I took some photos in Raw and they look fine, this confirms that the cameras are working ok and it’s Apple’s post processing software that causes this issue. Hopefully they will fix it soon, (or give the option to disable it)
 
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Rooz98 said:
I took some photos in Raw and they look fine, this confirms that the cameras are working ok and it’s Apple’s post processing software that causes this issue. Hopefully they will fix it soon, (or give the option to disable it)
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What’s strange is that isnt “ProRAW” supposed to incorporate HDR processing?
 
Cory S said:
What’s strange is that isnt “ProRAW” supposed to incorporate HDR processing?
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Not sure, to be honest, I don’t think this is an HDR issue but a post processing issue that’s focusing on skin tones and “smoothing” out rough edges on photos.
 
This sucks so bad! I'm gonna keep ProRAW on for a while and hopefully it gets fixed asap. I'm selling my old 12 Pro today, if I learned about this sooner I would have returned the 13 Pro. Damn.
 
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I'm experiencing the same issue coming from my 12 Mini to 13 Pro. Huge bummer as I've already missed a bunch of shots and I went with the pro specifically for the better camera, aaaand then HDR wrecks the whole thing. Not looking like a bug as the 13 is not mentioned for photos here: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/adjust-hdr-camera-settings-iph2cafe2ebc/ios
We need to keep this thread alive and make as much noise about this as possible because shooting in RAW always is not an acceptable workaround. F HDR, it adds nothing but complexity to post processing, all while making everything look terrible.
 
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how can we get apple to fix this problem? is it possible that few people notice this HDR flaw? all this is impossible. is there a way to report the problem directly to the devs? maybe open a post on reddit...
 
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Anubixx said:
how can we get apple to fix this problem? is it possible that few people notice this HDR flaw? all this is impossible. is there a way to report the problem directly to the devs? maybe open a post on reddit...
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The issue could be reported using feedbackassistant.apple.com, but that tool is more developer-focused. You could also use the Feedback Assistant app on a Mac signed into the same Apple ID, which would collect diagnostic information from the iPhone while creating the report.
 
At least I hope they re-enable the option to remove HDR in the next update.

The best would be Apple allow me to choose different intensity levels for HDR...
 
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Anubixx said:
how can we get apple to fix this problem? is it possible that few people notice this HDR flaw? all this is impossible. is there a way to report the problem directly to the devs? maybe open a post on reddit...
Click to expand...
I ended up sending in feedback to apple.com/feedback, maybe enough reports can get them looking into it or at least a toggle to disable it like previous phones.
 
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Rooz98 said:
I created an account here just to write this post.
The post processing (SMART HDR) on the cameras is making it unusable for me personally. I absolutely can’t stand the cartoony effect it does to my photos, and how it ruins a lot of details, faces look like they come straight out of a Picasso painting.
I’ll wait and see if they fix this/add an option to disable as I have a couple of months to return. If not I’ll 100% go back to my XS as it takes photos way better. This was such a disappointment and I wonder how no one notices it and every single reviewer praises the cameras as “best iPhone cameras ever” as they clearly lose in a competition with my 3 year old XS.
Also, this is resulting in the photos losing a lot of details in the photos see the examples below, you can see how the XS has much crisper details when taking photos of my watch. (I am not sure if this is because of this feature or the camera is just not as good!) first photo from XS MAX 2nd photo from 13 Pro Max
This is an example of how it ruins faces in the photos with a cartoony effect:

edit: all of the photos attached here taken from the main “wide” camera

https://imgur.com/a/wklXpus
View attachment 1852046View attachment 1852045
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I don't this sharpness problem is related to hdr. It's just that bigger fixed aperture on the 13 line makes for blurrier pictures than previous iPhones in general. Try taking a 1x picture of text with your XS and 13 Pro and you'll see the difference when zooming close

I say this because I looked at RAW pictures you can take with the Lightroom app (bypassing the aggressive post processing)
 
It's interesting that both the Scene Detection and the Smart HDR toggles are gone in the camera settings for the 13, but they are still there for the 12, with the same iOS (15.0.1).
It seems there are reportedly two issues with the 13 and post processing, the overall "cartoony" HDR and a loss of sharpness.
Is Pro Raw affected by the processing and if so, how can the effects be removed?
Could someone please post sample images from the 13 Pro: a jpeg from the default camera that you think undesirable due to post processing, and an image from the 13 Pro of the same scene, but taken in Pro Raw, and exported to jpeg so you find it OK? Also note which app you exported it in and what settings?
 
ringomainichi said:
It's interesting that both the Scene Detection and the Smart HDR toggles are gone in the camera settings for the 13, but they are still there for the 12, with the same iOS (15.0.1).
It seems there are reportedly two issues with the 13 and post processing, the overall "cartoony" HDR and a loss of sharpness.
Is Pro Raw affected by the processing and if so, how can the effects be removed?
Could someone please post sample images from the 13 Pro: a jpeg from the default camera that you think undesirable due to post processing, and an image from the 13 Pro of the same scene, but taken in Pro Raw, and exported to jpeg so you find it OK? Also note which app you exported it in and what settings?
Click to expand...

I can do that later. By the way the problem is not post processing, the RAW iPhone 13 Pro 1x camera images are just softer and blurrier than on previous phones.

The aggressive post processing that Apple applies tries to mitigate this softness, which is probably a compromise they reached between a faster and bigger lens, which is better in low light and noise but not in sharpness. Without this aggressive sharpening the photos would suck.

Check this comparison: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4601849

And this:
https://imgur.com/a/FgtHpxZ

The aggressive sharpening does not explain the incredibly poor details retrieval of the iPhone 13 Pro (and regular 13) 1x camera
 
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