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iPhone 13 Pro Smart HDR Missing on iPhone 13 Pro?

Bought 13 mini and was a little disappointed by no HDR toggle for camera. Some of photos turn out great but others not so much. Mostly dull. I’ve been using photography filters and tbh they mean huge for snapping customised photos, for me at least.

Using vibrant filter helps sometimes to cover up for HDR but not always.
 
Hello everyone,

I really can’t understand why the isn’t a toggle to turn off HDR, it really makes worse some of my pics. I have the iPhone 13 Pro and I miss my iPhone XS in this sense.
Does anyone know any workaround or if this is getting fixed in the incoming betas?

Thanks!
 
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crazyjorgito said:
Hello everyone,

I really can’t understand why the isn’t a toggle to turn off HDR, it really makes worse some of my pics. I have the iPhone 13 Pro and I miss my iPhone XS in this sense.
Does anyone know any workaround or if this is getting fixed in the incoming betas?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Shoot RAW with Adobe Lightroom.
 
In all fairness, shooting raw and using Lightroom for most everyday or vacation photos kinda circumvents the marketed convenience and awesomness of having an iPhone in the first place. I'm sorry, but that is way too much work. I have been sticking with the regular lenses and letting the camera do its thing. So far the pics have been nice.
 
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W
golfnut1982 said:
In all fairness, shooting raw and using Lightroom for most everyday or vacation photos kinda circumvents the marketed convenience and awesomness of having an iPhone in the first place. I'm sorry, but that is way too much work. I have been sticking with the regular lenses and letting the camera do its thing. So far the pics have been nice.
Click to expand...
Wouldn’t it be easier to provide an option to remove Smart HDR?
 
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golfnut1982 said:
Or at least adjust the computational algorithm for the better.
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I upgraded from a 6S to a 13 Mini and feeling upset by the unnatural looking images. It’s making me want to return this phone and stick with my slow, freezing, and outdated 6S! At least images on the 6S look ‘As Shot’ and natural as opposed to the over-sharpened, over-processed, and too-bright images produced by this 13 Mini.

I have contacted Apple Support over this issue today, and they have told me to submit a Feature Request to bring back a HDR disabling option at the following link: https://apple.com/feedback

I have now done this. I suggest that anyone else here with the same grievances does the same.
 
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jellysheep said:
I upgraded from a 6S to a 13 Mini and feeling upset by the unnatural looking images. It’s making me want to return this phone and stick with my slow, freezing, and outdated 6S! At least images on the 6S look ‘As Shot’ and natural as opposed to the over-sharpened, over-processed, and too-bright images produced by this 13 Mini.

I have contacted Apple Support over this issue today, and they have told me to submit a Feature Request to bring back a HDR disabling option at the following link: https://apple.com/feedback

I have now done this. I suggest that anyone else here with the same grievances does the same.
Click to expand...
I feel the same way, I also have a 6s , now 13pro, the photos on the 6s look more natural
 
SteveBUK2 said:
Hi all,

Just upgraded to a 13 Pro from XS and when I go to camera settings, the Smart HDR toggle is not there? Any ideas, or can it no longer be switched off?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
this iphone is missing a lot of things, like noise cancellation on calls..
 
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 have the exact same issue with my iPhone 13 when i shoot indoors, and this issue has been bothering since i got the phone 6 days ago, not like i payed a 100 bucks for this, i paid 800, they just need to give a ****ing toggle for this, whats so huge in that, sometimes it works amazing and sometimes it makes the image untoleratabley noisy when i zoom into darker parts of the image
 
I guess they’ll fix this issue in the next iPhone… an issue that did not exist.. I loved the 12pm so much for it’s camera, kinda dissapointed with the camera on the 13pm, expected to get better performance but it’s worse
 
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DanRO said:
I guess they’ll fix this issue in the next iPhone… an issue that did not exist.. I loved the 12pm so much for it’s camera, kinda dissapointed with the camera on the 13pm, expected to get better performance but it’s worse
Click to expand...

My experience has been the opposite, actually. The 12 Pro photos looked good, but still like phone photos.

With the 13 Pro, well-lit scenes look as good as, if not better than photos from my DSLR. There's obviously a drop in quality in lower lights vs. a DSLR and a tripod, but still.

However, yes, we absolutely should be able to turn off HDR on a whim.
 
DanRO said:
I guess they’ll fix this issue in the next iPhone… an issue that did not exist.. I loved the 12pm so much for it’s camera, kinda dissapointed with the camera on the 13pm, expected to get better performance but it’s worse
Click to expand...
I would hope with a new 48mp and a far bigger sensor they fix all the issues from this year.
 
no0nefamous said:
My experience has been the opposite, actually. The 12 Pro photos looked good, but still like phone photos.

With the 13 Pro, well-lit scenes look as good as, if not better than photos from my DSLR. There's obviously a drop in quality in lower lights vs. a DSLR and a tripod, but still.

However, yes, we absolutely should be able to turn off HDR on a whim.
Click to expand...
The camera jump from 12pro is bigger for you as the 12pm had the bigger sensors.
 
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badlydrawnboy said:
I just came here to post about this and found this thread.

It seems that our choice is:
  • Shoot in RAW with Halide, Camera+ 2, or another camera app when we want complete control. (As noted in the last post, ProRAW still applies some of Apple's proprietary/algorithmic adjustments, including SmartHDR.)
  • Shoot in ProRAW when I want some of Apple's AI/algorithm magic, but more control over what I'd have with HEIC/JPEG.
  • Shoot with HEIC when I want all of Apple's AI/algorithms.
I am upset that Apple took away the ability to turn off Smart HDR, but for now, I can live with this. Most of the time, in a scene where I know I'll want to edit later (either because it's a challenging scene with exposure, or because I want to make certain creative choices), I'll choose ProRAW or RAW anyhow.

In simpler and more straightforward shooting conditions, I will generally want the Smart HDR and other goodies that come with shooting in Apple's HEIC.

A note on ProRAW... if you import these files into Lightroom, you at least have *some* control over how the profile is applied. And you can also choose a different profile if desired. In the shots below, #1 has the default ProRAW profile. #2 has the ProRAW profile dialed down to "0" using the slider. #3 has one of the "Modern" profiles applied.

View attachment 1862246

View attachment 1862247

View attachment 1862248

So, we still have quite a bit of control over the ProRAW files in post-production.

I submitted feedback to Apple asking them to give us the ability to turn Smart HDR off again. You can submit feedback on the iPhone here.
Click to expand...
Do you have experience shooting RAW (DNG) in Lightroom Mobile? Curious how it compares to other apps that offer RAW format capability (looking for full control over my images with minimal computational enhancements). Thanks!
 
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