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In October, Apple announced that the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max will support a new ProRAW image format, combining Smart HDR 3 and Deep Fusion with uncompressed data from the image sensor. With the release of iOS 14.3 a few days ago, the ProRAW capture was unlocked on the iPhone 12 Pros pair and I was immediately set to give it a try.
The idea was to show what a difference it makes to record JPEG files on the iPhone, publish the samples, finish it. But as testing progressed, it turned out to be less than a simple matter, so the following article was born.
A preface on the method and thinking used in this article. I take a lot of photos with my phone (which happens to be the iPhone 12 Pro Max at the moment) and I take them in normal old compressed JPEG (or HEIC, in this case). I also edit them on the phone using a few different apps (but mostly Apple Photos); I add a touch of micro-contrast, a touch of warmth, a slight vignette, similar minor enhancements. I also use a proper camera most days and shoot in RAW exclusively, but I have found that shooting RAW on a phone does not produce better results than the phone’s excellent computational photography.
So in this article I will test if that has changed. Will using Apple ProRAW instead of JPEG allow you to have better photos? I will edit the images on the phone itself, using your own tools (there is an exception mentioned later). Now, without further ado, let’s dig deeper.
Apple says that ProRAW gives you all the RAW image data along with noise reduction and multi-frame exposure settings, which essentially means you’re getting the correct exposure in highlights and shadows, as well as reduced noise as a point. of departure. However, you don’t get sharpness and color adjustments. That means you’re starting with a less sharp, less shocking image and you need to take a few steps to make DNG look as nice as JPEG, before you finally make any net gains.
Here are some full images side by side of an untouched JPEG from the phone and an untouched (converted) DNG from the phone. Notice how smooth the DNG images are compared to JPEGs.
JPEG, unedited • DNG, unedited
The next batch of images are JPEG files, edited on the phone at ease, and the corresponding DNGs, edited on the phone at ease. The idea here is to see if the ProRAWs offer a tangible benefit after editing. ProRAW gives you finer control over sharpness, white balance, and reflections. The biggest difference you can see in ProRAW’s favor is in the extreme dynamic range test shot (the direct sun shot) – the information and detail in the shadows is clearly superior.
But Apple’s Smart HDR 3 and Deep Fusion increase the contrast and luminance of certain colors like orange, yellow, red, and green, resulting in brighter, more pleasing-looking trees and lawns. There’s no easy way to get back that luminance with the basic photo editing you have with Apple’s Photos app.
So in the end, the JPEG files straight from the phone are better and even after the edits in the ProRAW DNGs, the small advantage of using them is. Choose JPEG files in normal, well-lit conditions.
JPEG, edited to taste • DNG, edited to taste
Next, I took the DNGs out of the phone and brought them into Lightroom on a PC. I was able to get more detail out of the shot (with a slightly lower noise penalty) and there is a noticeable difference in shadow information in RAW files.
But this is not new: you can always get a little more out of an image by editing the DNG. However, that takes considerably more time, the hassle of using complicated third-party software, and the resulting image is not worth the effort. The phone works well enough in the second it takes to take the picture and adjust it for you.
JPEG, edited • DNG, edited in Lightroom
I was hoping to get the most out of ProRAW in low light conditions, but Apple’s regular JPEG files turned out just as good as DNGs. Edited ProRAW images have the slightest edge in noise and a bit more highlighting information, but it took a lot of tweaking to get there.
Low-light JPEG, edited • Low-light DNG, edited
A great advantage of ProRAW is that it can be used in conjunction with the iPhone’s night mode. But looking at the images side by side, I don’t see a significant reason to bother editing the DNG file, rather than the JPEG. Can?
JPEG night mode, edited • DNG night mode, edited
I set out to see if capturing then editing ProRAW on the iPhone 12 Pro Max will help me get better images than doing what I’ve always done – shooting in JPEG and then lightly editing the image on the phone. It was not so. Computational photography has gotten so good that it essentially does all the work for you, and you could add instantly.
There’s always a bit more you can get out of editing and using ProRAW instead of JPEG will give you a lot of extra sensor data. But that will come in handy for playing with white balance or making moody and artistic edits, which change the whole look of an image. That’s not what I do: I use my phone to capture the world as I see it, with a hint of enhancement.
If you are recording RAW on an iPhone with the Lightroom or Halide apps, you should enable ProRAW immediately and never look back. Its levels are better than those other apps only on the merit of the sophisticated noise reduction.
It would be great if Apple enabled a JPEG + RAW shooting mode, as in proper cameras I’m sure the A14 chip has the headroom for that. You may want to have the ProRAW files to edit, but also rely on the convenience of fully edited JPEG files for the rest.
ProRAW works with night mode but not portrait mode and that would be tremendously useful. RAW files contain the full potential for editing faces and skin tones.
There is a place for ProRAW and it’s great that Apple has unlocked it for their Pro iPhone 12. There are tons of people who want the freedom to edit an image “their way” and for those people, ProRAW is just that: a Pro version of a RAW. But I’ll stick with my smart computational JPEGs, thank you very much.
