iPhone 12 Why Do Photos Look Better In The Photos App Than They Do Everywhere Else?

[boltjames]

I'm on my 8th iPhone and something is happening with the iPhone 12 that has never happened before:

When I take a photo on my iPhone 12, then launch the Photos app to view it, it just looks stellar. But when I email it to myself or post it elsewhere, it doesn't look as punchy and vibrant on whatever site, social media, photo hosting platform, etc. I view it on.

It's easy to see when comparing the photo in the Photos app and, say, the Email app. The bright whites especially have been dulled. This hasn't happened to me before. On all prior iPhones what I saw in the Photos app and what I saw in email, social media, photo host, notebook, desktop, etc. were identical.

Anyone else?

 

[glenthompson]

I think it really depends on the display you're using. Recently picked up a Samsung Frame tv for our bedroom. Designed to show artwork when not watching tv. Loaded a bunch of my pictures into it and they look great compared to my 27" Thunderbolt display.

 

[jr866gooner]

I'm on my 8th iPhone and something is happening with the iPhone 12 that has never happened before:

When I take a photo on my iPhone 12, then launch the Photos app to view it, it just looks stellar. But when I email it to myself or post it elsewhere, it doesn't look as punchy and vibrant on whatever site, social media, photo hosting platform, etc. I view it on.

It's easy to see when comparing the photo in the Photos app and, say, the Email app. The bright whites especially have been dulled. This hasn't happened to me before. On all prior iPhones what I saw in the Photos app and what I saw in email, social media, photo host, notebook, desktop, etc. were identical.

Anyone else?

Lots of sites, forums, social media platforms including what’s app compress the life out of a photo. I suspect if you air drop or download the photo you taken from iCloud photos to another device you should see it’s still looking decent. Sadly though like you say if you open a pic sent to you via email you will notice a decrease in quality to allow for the app in question to send it in a decent timeframe.

 

[now i see it]

Do a test:
Send a copy of a photo to yourself via email (original size uncompressed) and compare what it looks like it in the email app compared to the photos app. Then save the image in the email to the photos app and compare it to the first one. If they look identical, then the other app/s is rendering the image differently.

An image viewer (Photos App) can be using a different color space than a web browser or email app. Those two typically aim towards the sRGB color space whereas the Photos App most likely doesn't.

Adobe Photoshop has a dizzying choice of color spaces to choose from for image editing. They all look a bit different on the screen

 

[alpi123]

I'm 99% sure it's due to the different displays. In order to see the same thing that your phone shows, you'd need a good quality display (with similar color spaces) and also calibrated. Displays on phones nowadays are so much better in terms of color accuracy compared to traditional monitors, even TVs.

I have a 4K wide gamut display, that I've calibrated, and compared to my Xs Max, they're pretty close. Still, my phone beats it because it's an OLED, but it is what it is.

 

[dk001]

I'm on my 8th iPhone and something is happening with the iPhone 12 that has never happened before:

When I take a photo on my iPhone 12, then launch the Photos app to view it, it just looks stellar. But when I email it to myself or post it elsewhere, it doesn't look as punchy and vibrant on whatever site, social media, photo hosting platform, etc. I view it on.

It's easy to see when comparing the photo in the Photos app and, say, the Email app. The bright whites especially have been dulled. This hasn't happened to me before. On all prior iPhones what I saw in the Photos app and what I saw in email, social media, photo host, notebook, desktop, etc. were identical.

Anyone else?

If I take a photo with the Camera app, be it "normal" or ProRaw (I'm using a 12 ProMax) it looks better on my 12PM in Photos than it does if I airdrop it to my MB or download it to an SD or SSD then view on my PB or MB.
I can take a photo and airdrop it to my IPP11 2020 and compare the same photo 12PM vs IPP11.
It looks better on the 12PM. Calibration?

To the email / MMS / etc... if I take a 12PM photo, email it to myself and then review it via photos, the original looks better. Suspect something to do with the compression used when sending. I expect that.

 

[boltjames]

I think it really depends on the display you're using. Recently picked up a Samsung Frame tv for our bedroom. Designed to show artwork when not watching tv. Loaded a bunch of my pictures into it and they look great compared to my 27" Thunderbolt display.

It's especially apparent on my iPhone 12 itself. Same display.

 

[boltjames]

Lots of sites, forums, social media platforms including what’s app compress the life out of a photo. I suspect if you air drop or download the photo you taken from iCloud photos to another device you should see it’s still looking decent. Sadly though like you say if you open a pic sent to you via email you will notice a decrease in quality to allow for the app in question to send it in a decent timeframe.

It's the iPhone email app! When I email a picture from the iPhone Photos app via the iPhone Email app to myself, the photo looks less bright and detailed in the iPhone Email app than it does in the iPhone Photos app. And, again, I'm viewing it all on the same iPhone 12 screen. It never was this way before. The quality of the photo in the Photos app and the Email app where always identical.

 

[boltjames]

Do a test:
Send a copy of a photo to yourself via email (original size uncompressed) and compare what it looks like it in the email app compared to the photos app. Then save the image in the email to the photos app and compare it to the first one. If they look identical, then the other app/s is rendering the image differently.

This is exactly what I've done and the photos look different. It's almost like the Photos app is boosting the white portions and it looks washed out in the Email app. Is there something about the way the Photos app renders a photo vs. the Email app?

 

[lostless]

Oops. Double post

 

[lostless]

Hello again. It’s HDR. The iPhone 12 takes photos in HDR. It’s not just like a hdr photo, where you pick up more of detail in the lights and darks, but it’s actually encoding the brigtness that only an HDR screen can show. Like dolby vision. Take a picture of a the sun and notice how much brighter it is on your 12. It looks almost real.
When sending to other apps, the hdr is removed, well because most apps don’t deal in HDR. If you want to see what a photo will look like in other apps, load it up in google photos, or even a message in messages. If you want to turn off the hdr display in photos, there is an option in the settings up under photos.

 

[boltjames]

Hello again. It’s HDR. The iPhone 12 takes photos in HDR. It’s not just like a hdr photo, where you pick up more of detail in the lights and darks, but it’s actually encoding the brigtness that only an HDR screen can show. Like dolby vision. Take a picture of a the sun and notice how much brighter it is on your 12. It looks almost real.
When sending to other apps, the hdr is removed, well because most apps don’t deal in HDR. If you want to see what a photo will look like in other apps, load it up in google photos, or even a message in messages. If you want to turn off the hdr display in photos, there is an option in the settings up under photos.View attachment 1741946

Ah, that makes sense.....

But that also means you’re saying that even though Apple makes the iPhone Mail app and even though the iPhone 12 display is HDR compliant, Apple decided that once an HDR photo goes into its Email app on the iPhone 12 it loses its HDR?

 

[lostless]

Ah, that makes sense.....

But that also means you’re saying that even though Apple makes the iPhone Mail app and even though the iPhone 12 display is HDR compliant, Apple decided that once an HDR photo goes into its Email app on the iPhone 12 it loses its HDR?

When exported, the pictures gets converted to jpeg and to a profile that is compatible with other devices. It’s the safe bet to do with sharing with others . If you transfer over via airdrop or share the original file. It will retain the hdr.
Also just found this out. Turning on low power mode on the iPhone also disabled the hdr in photos. Driving me crazy wondering why it stopped working on my phone. 😂

 

[Sorig]

HDR

 

[boltjames]

When exported, the pictures gets converted to jpeg and to a profile that is compatible with other devices. It’s the safe bet to do with sharing with others . If you transfer over via airdrop or share the original file. It will retain the hdr.
Also just found this out. Turning on low power mode on the iPhone also disabled the hdr in photos. Driving me crazy wondering why it stopped working on my phone. 😂

Thank you for the explanation. I get it now. But...

I don’t like the fact that photos I think look great in the Photos app turn out to look blah in the real world. So is there a way to turn off the iPhone’s ability to show HDR? I want to shoot in HDR (for future use when it’s more ubiquitous) but see the shots in the Photo app in SDR for realworld purposes today.

Possible?

 

[lostless]

Thank you for the explanation. I get it now. But...

I don’t like the fact that photos I think look great in the Photos app turn out to look blah in the real world. So is there a way to turn off the iPhone’s ability to show HDR? I want to shoot in HDR (for future use when it’s more ubiquitous) but see the shots in the Photo app in SDR for realworld purposes today.

Possible?

yes. It is possible. Look at my previous posts.

 

[boltjames]

yes. It is possible. Look at my previous posts.

I should have asked if it was possible without enabling low power mode. Is it?

 

[lostless]

I should have asked if it was possible without enabling low power mode. Is it?

Yes. its in settings/photos. I posted what the option looks like even like further up.

 

[boltjames]

Yes. its in settings/photos. I posted what the option looks like even like further up.

Perfect. Much obliged. Thank you.

One last thing… When I go onto photos and look at the photos I took in HDR they do not show the HDR logo. The video does, but not the photos. What’s that all about?

 

[lostless]

I think, don’t quote me, that the iPhone just capturing and adding a brightness map to the photo when taken. Its kind of like an overlay that tells an hdr screen what to make brighter. its just a nifty effect in my eyes. but that overlay is just ignored when exported and you get your normal sdr picture, The specs on the photos still show they are 8bit and not full range 10bit like hdr video from the 12. So it’s not actually capturing a true wider gamut of hdr.
ill have to do more digging on how that works. Im just guessing based off my observations

 

[boltjames]

I think, don’t quote me, that the iPhone just capturing and adding a brightness map to the photo when taken. Its kind of like an overlay that tells an hdr screen what to make brighter. its just a nifty effect in my eyes. but that overlay is just ignored when exported and you get your normal sdr picture, The specs on the photos still show they are 8bit and not full range 10bit like hdr video from the 12. So it’s not actually capturing a true wider gamut of hdr.
ill have to do more digging on how that works. Im just guessing based off my observations

I take a lot of photos of my cars and unlike my iPhone X, my iPhone 12 is doing something that is taking the subtle color shifts over the metal, over the creases, in/out of shadowed areas and 'blending' it all together. So what's happening is that instead of photos that show a very realistic and interesting gradation of colors and light and shadow, it's reducing the color shading and making things look very uniform. Where my paint has a dozen different shades of grey visible in my old photos, my new ones they all look like one shade. And the gloss and reflections are very reduced as well. With HDR enabled there was a lot of pop in the bright areas, that helped, but as I was saying that all got lost when converted to SDR. I thought I would take a step forward with all the new cameras, all the new AI, the new HDR, thought I'd see even more detail. But instead its 'flattening' the colors across the sheetmetal and making the photos look worse.

Now that I know how to shut off HDR both for the camera and for the viewing in the Photos app I'm hoping I get a result that is like the photos I used to get off my iPhone X. I want my subtle color palate and all that metal gloss back.

 

[now i see it]

On the older phones with older OS they would take a photo in HDR whether you wanted it to or not AND a standard photo. Always two photos.
And if not two photos, then only HDR if the setting was changed.
When I'd go back through my camera roll to look at the pictures (duplicates), 99% of the time I preferred the non-HDR shots.
On the older phones and OS versions, HDR sucks. Maybe it still does on the new phones too.

 

[boltjames]

On the older phones with older OS they would take a photo in HDR whether you wanted it to or not AND a standard photo. Always two photos.
And if not two photos, then only HDR if the setting was changed.
When I'd go back through my camera roll to look at the pictures (duplicates), 99% of the time I preferred the non-HDR shots.
On the older phones and OS versions, HDR sucks. Maybe it still does on the new phones too.

It's early, but I'm finding that photos of people and places and interiors, not close-up's, nothing too artsy, looks really good, the HDR gives it pop.

But...

As I've just discovered, a) HDR isn't realworld, if I post something to Facebook or Instagram it's a different looking photo and b) if I'm taking a closeup of a physical object that's metallic like a car it flattens the colors/gloss which is a step back. I get the point of HDR video as all TV's today have it, but HDR photos are a waste of time if you don't do all your viewing on a tiny iPhone screen.

 

[Spetsgruppa]

I think it needs a better screen. Or the way of moving must be able to maintain the quality. I recommend using SanDisk iXpand. Its really useful.

 

[lostless]

It's early, but I'm finding that photos of people and places and interiors, not close-up's, nothing too artsy, looks really good, the HDR gives it pop.

But...

As I've just discovered, a) HDR isn't realworld, if I post something to Facebook or Instagram it's a different looking photo and b) if I'm taking a closeup of a physical object that's metallic like a car it flattens the colors/gloss which is a step back. I get the point of HDR video as all TV's today have it, but HDR photos are a waste of time if you don't do all your viewing on a tiny iPhone screen.

I know I’m going to get a little confusing here, but there are 2 types of HDR that we are talking about here.
the first type is HDR of exposure. Where you stack multiple exposures and pick the best exposure in each parts. So let’s say you take a picture of a person in front of the sun with a nice cloud formation. If you expose for the clouds, the person will turn into a black Silhouette, but the clouds will look great. If you expose for the person, the clouds will just fade away into white because the camera over exposed them. If you take the best exposure from each and combine them, you get a classic HDR photo. The iPhone takes multiple exposures super quick every time you take a picture and combines them together. That’s always been what HDR was way back before OLED technology.
The other type is stretching the full dynamic range across a wider brightness/color gamut. It’s what what makes the bright areas “glow” on your Screen. An OLED panel is not limited to an overall brightness like an LCD (unless you use area backlighting). So the OLED panel can display, in one image, a full black to the brightest nitt level.
What Apple is doing from my guess is doing the first HDR and adding that brightness map on top to simulate the second. And for all intents and purposes, it works.
Over time apple has tweaked the HDR prosessing with its image processing engine as phones get faster. so what you saw on your phone may not look the same on the new. I seem to always find the new phones pictures meh until learn the quirks of the new and learn how to use it.
Now you can turn off HDR in settings/camera under smart hdr. Give it a try and see how you like it.