Why is it so impossible for me to take consistently good photos with my 6?

[Sakura Squirrel]

Yes, that's mostly because the dog in the center is overexposed. It's also aggressive noise reduction as mentioned above.

The dynamic range in that scene is too great for a camera like this.
You will not get a correct exposure for everything in this scene when there is a white dog, a dark dog and dark sofas etc.
The camera by averages the tones out in the scene to produce one even exposure and in this case, the white on the dog has had to suffer for it.

 

[madmaxmedia]

that's funny. I took a few pics of a praying mantis today also. My background is just as bad.View attachment 497096

And I took this the other day, albeit on an iPhone 5-

 

[madmaxmedia]

Apple has changed the processing of the images to make it less noisy but more more smudgy. I think I preferred it the other way around.

Although I don't have a 6 or 6+, that was one nice thing about the iPhone camera- it applied a more reasonable amount of noise reduction compared to other cameraphones. I don't mind a little grain in order to preserve detail.

 

[T-Will]

How about just a row.
The further you look to the right, the more apparent the noise reduction is.

The focus is on the 2nd / 3rd bush from the left, and it's pretty dramatic how the noise reduction just starts smoothly taking over as you look down the row.

It's really apparent in the grass near the sidewalk. Yikes. I hope they dial back the noise reduction a bit in a future update.

 

[Bentox]

It's really apparent in the grass near the sidewalk. Yikes. I hope they dial back the noise reduction a bit in a future update.

Totally.

And I'm used to futzing with a smidge of noise reduction from time to time even with my DSLR photos... but a very tiny amount and generally only selections of sky or a dark background. 95% of the time I'd rather have detail with some grain than that watercolor effect. And the iPhone looks like the digital NR is applied like some heavy-handed stock preset on Noise Ninja or other comparable tool.

It would be great if they offered the option in "Settings → Photos & Camera" to select, say 5 levels of digital NR (with one of the settings being "Off" ... similar to how modern televisions offer the same level of control.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Surely, you are not blaming Apple for a user's poor photography skills?

Surely you know when you should skip hitting reply if you can't be bothered to read the entire first post and subsequent useful posts, right?
If you must skip reading then I'll tell you, this isn't about skills.


OP: I don't have my phone yet but I am curious now if this can be changed via software updates or if Camera+ will just give us better photos.

 

[Winona Northdakota]

Why is it so impossible for me to take consistently good photos with my 6?

Yes, I was zoomed in a little bit because I didn't want that thing to jump on my face.



So, it could have something to do with that. Will have to experiment zoom vs non-zoom.

One problem with most cell phones is the lack of optical zoom. Most have digital zoom and will behave this way with the so called Monet effect.

 

[randy.massoglia]

With my iPhone 6

 

[5105973]

Zoomed in on my pup and look how he almost looks painted in the picture. View attachment 497391this is with HDR off.

That's what happened to the birthday pics I shot indoors in good lighting. It did that to people. No HDR. It did that again a few months later when I was in a room lit by similar flourescent overhead lighting and taking a picture of a very detailed cake and gingerbread house.

Then it just simply stopped doing that. I can't pinpoint when but I don't get the watercolors effect on my 5s anymore.

 

[iPhone7ate9]

View attachment 497601

With my iPhone 6

Ouch to be bright daylight that does look pretty bad

 

[lucansmiles]

Guys, after seeing all these smeary photos on here I decided to file an enhancement request about the new iPhones. I ordered an iPhone 6 but I haven't received it yet so I can't comment on the image quality, however, I think it is important to point this issue out to Apple and I ask you to do the same if you feel worried like myself so they can fix it in a subsequent software update.

Here's a copy of what I sent them:

"I am writing you because I am worried about the amount of noise reduction applied to the photos taken on the new iPhones, I have seen photos on several Apple-related forums where heavy amounts of NR got applied to the photos taken in already sufficiently lit scenes, however, I don't own an iPhone 6 yet and I can't confirm if any of this is true. It seems to me that your top priority this time around was to get the photos as low-noise as possible. As a hobby photographer I know that noise reduction creates smearing artifacts which don't look any good. NR can always be applied later, if needed. In fact, I ask you to reconsider the image processing steps taken on the new iPhones because in my mind the amount of NR applied is so much it severely affects the quality of the images."

 

[randy.massoglia]

Ouch to be bright daylight that does look pretty bad

What's bad about it ?

 

[iPhone7ate9]

What's bad about it ?

The details like the leaves in the trees are extremely smeared.

 

[munkydust]

What's bad about it ?

Looks a bit blurry to me. Not sure where to focus was in that one as I don't see any part of it in focus.

 

[randy.massoglia]

Looks a bit blurry to me. Not sure where to focus was in that one as I don't see any part of it in focus.

That was like 75 yards away

 

[deviant]

What's bad about it ?

The fact that it looks like a scene from "what dreams may come"

 

[randy.massoglia]

The fact that it looks like a scene from "what dreams may come"



Image

Sure ok

 

[deviant]

Sure ok

Dude, it's not like I'm trying to troll you. I ordered 2 pluses so I'm kinda concerned with it. My 4s takes sharper photos of scenes like these.

 

[iPhone7ate9]

Dude, it's not like I'm trying to troll you. I ordered 2 pluses so I'm kinda concerned with it. My 4s takes sharper photos of scenes like these.

Yup Apple definitely muffed the post processing on these photos. It's like an exec who never took photos before said "I don't want to see ANY noise in the photos!"

 

[Bentox]

The details like the leaves in the trees are extremely smeared.

Agreed. I would even think that perhaps the camera was defective, just looking at that pic. I'm going to attach a couple similar shots to see if it's just the compression affecting his attached pic.

----------

Ok, well there's definitely resizing and a significant loss of image quality when attaching photos here, but definitely not like Randy's that looks totally watercolored.

 

[Drelldrell]

No such issues here:

Image

Image

Image

Awesome pics. And the "smudgy" background Looks fine to me in the second pick. But still a great pic.

 

[randy.massoglia]

Why is it so impossible for me to take consistently good photos with my 6?



Are these better Bent. Look at the tree pic. The sky is not deep Blue here today in Wisconsin

 

[maxmaut]

Omg. That effect comes from zooming. Just don't zoom in (or if you already are zoomed in just do a pinch-in gesture to zoom out to 1x) and the quality of your photos will be as it should be.

 

[soundxplorer]

The images posted by the OP are definitely not "right", there is some processing going on. There is a difference between natural blur through a lens, and what you get when a processing effect tries to "fix" it, which is what seems to be going on here.

Everyone seems to say it is noise reduction, but I wonder if it could be caused by digital image stabilization instead? It does that on still photos too, not just video, right? Can it be turned off? I'd like to know if someone tests it.

 

[randy.massoglia]

Omg. That effect comes from zooming. Just don't zoom in (or if you already are zoomed in just do a pinch-in gesture to zoom out to 1x) and the quality of your photos will be as it should be.

Are you talking about my tree pic Max?