I recently migrated from the iPhone 12 to the iPhone 15 Pro (not Max). I am an amateur photographer with a nice mirrorless and high end lenses, so my iPhone’s camera is not my main one. To date, the iPhone 15 Pro’s camera has disappointed me time and time again, it’s mind boggling that my previous iPhone cameras took better shots than this one. I bought the iPhone 15 Pro for the better camera, better lenses, more zoom, and the ability to shoot RAW so I could bring shots into Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.
Now obviously there is nothing wrong with the iPhone 15 Pro’s camera. This has got to be 100% user error. I thought that it would be a simple point, zoom, shoot, crop and use like all of my other iPhone cameras. This one is obviously more complicated.
Moreover, there is a huge lack of available resources for help with setting up the iPhone 15 Pro camera, using it under different shooting situations, and using RAW files with LR, PS, Topaz or other post applications. Apple has a ton of basic information on their Website, I’ve bookmarked and reviewed a lot, most of it is geared toward setup and doesn’t seem to help. There are a ton of YouTube tutorials and Web sites, that’s where I’ve been spending my time. Everyone is an expert, and some are better than others. And there are online courses on iPhone 15 Pro camera setup, usage and post processing, this is my current backup plan, but it’s hard to find exactly what I need. A lot of those courses are basic and don’t cover what I’m looking for.
For example:
- What specific Camera settings should I be using for everyday shooting versus important shoots, versus macro versus portrait versus landscape versus wildlife and so on? For example, I can set it for ProRAW Max but you can only get it up to 48MP or thereabouts if you’re at 1X zoom. So is it even worth it, knowing that I’d probably have to crop?
- Where I’m really hurting is portraits - the important family and friend shots when you only have your iPhone. No matter how far in or out I zoom, I get edge distortion, I’m guessing from the more powerful zoom function associated with wide angle lenses like the one on this iPhone 15 Pro. How do I avoid that distortion?
- Generally speaking, my older iPhone camera shots look sharper, clearer, closer to true color and just better than the ones that I’m taking with the iPhone 15 Pro. Practice makes perfect I know, I’m not expecting them to be tack sharp like my mirrorless, but they should be better than my older iPhones.
- I just finished up my very first round of post processing with iPhone 15 Pro shots that were taken in RAW. First of all, they were copied to my Windows computer as DNG files, not RAW files, which means that I can’t even look at anything more than a thumbnail until I import them into Lightroom. What I’ve found with any iPhone picture brought into Lightroom, whether it be a JPG, DNG, RAW or whatever, is that “less is more”. I use very subtle changes in Lightroom, never select lens profile, minimal noise reduction, minimal sharpness and masking, Photoshop as needed, never use Topaz, never. Topaz makes iPhone shots look fake with tons of artifacts. Lightroom and Photoshop (as needed) produce the best results for me, and even then, the shots never look tack sharp, especially people and portraits.
- Imported iPhone DNGs behave differently in Lightroom versus standard RAW files imported from my mirrorless. Normally I can delete files within Lightroom or in exported Windows folders without issues, as I go through the process of rejecting and accepting a large batch of pictures. When I did that with these iPhone DNGs, I got warnings all over the place, “file not found” etc., I wound up restoring all of my deleted (rejected) iPhone DNG files just to get to the good (accepted) ones for exporting as finalized JPGs. This is a major change from my normal Lightroom processing routine, it winds up wasting time and hard drive space. I’m sure that there is a better process for doing this, but I would need someone or something to explain it to me. For now, I’m just saving everything.
So that’s where I’m at. I need to build up a knowledge base and confidence here, versus asking for my wife’s iPhone 12 because I can’t trust my “better” iPhone 15 Pro camera. I need help properly setting everything up, knowing when to change settings based on different shooting conditions, how to manage zooming in and out based on maximizing resolution, minimizing distortion, etc., and I need a clear understanding of how best to manage these files once they are copied to my computer, imported into Lightroom, Photoshop and/or Topaz, and then exported as finalized JPGs.
Any direction, input, advice, links, contacts or the like would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance for your assistance.
Now obviously there is nothing wrong with the iPhone 15 Pro’s camera. This has got to be 100% user error. I thought that it would be a simple point, zoom, shoot, crop and use like all of my other iPhone cameras. This one is obviously more complicated.
Moreover, there is a huge lack of available resources for help with setting up the iPhone 15 Pro camera, using it under different shooting situations, and using RAW files with LR, PS, Topaz or other post applications. Apple has a ton of basic information on their Website, I’ve bookmarked and reviewed a lot, most of it is geared toward setup and doesn’t seem to help. There are a ton of YouTube tutorials and Web sites, that’s where I’ve been spending my time. Everyone is an expert, and some are better than others. And there are online courses on iPhone 15 Pro camera setup, usage and post processing, this is my current backup plan, but it’s hard to find exactly what I need. A lot of those courses are basic and don’t cover what I’m looking for.
For example:
- What specific Camera settings should I be using for everyday shooting versus important shoots, versus macro versus portrait versus landscape versus wildlife and so on? For example, I can set it for ProRAW Max but you can only get it up to 48MP or thereabouts if you’re at 1X zoom. So is it even worth it, knowing that I’d probably have to crop?
- Where I’m really hurting is portraits - the important family and friend shots when you only have your iPhone. No matter how far in or out I zoom, I get edge distortion, I’m guessing from the more powerful zoom function associated with wide angle lenses like the one on this iPhone 15 Pro. How do I avoid that distortion?
- Generally speaking, my older iPhone camera shots look sharper, clearer, closer to true color and just better than the ones that I’m taking with the iPhone 15 Pro. Practice makes perfect I know, I’m not expecting them to be tack sharp like my mirrorless, but they should be better than my older iPhones.
- I just finished up my very first round of post processing with iPhone 15 Pro shots that were taken in RAW. First of all, they were copied to my Windows computer as DNG files, not RAW files, which means that I can’t even look at anything more than a thumbnail until I import them into Lightroom. What I’ve found with any iPhone picture brought into Lightroom, whether it be a JPG, DNG, RAW or whatever, is that “less is more”. I use very subtle changes in Lightroom, never select lens profile, minimal noise reduction, minimal sharpness and masking, Photoshop as needed, never use Topaz, never. Topaz makes iPhone shots look fake with tons of artifacts. Lightroom and Photoshop (as needed) produce the best results for me, and even then, the shots never look tack sharp, especially people and portraits.
- Imported iPhone DNGs behave differently in Lightroom versus standard RAW files imported from my mirrorless. Normally I can delete files within Lightroom or in exported Windows folders without issues, as I go through the process of rejecting and accepting a large batch of pictures. When I did that with these iPhone DNGs, I got warnings all over the place, “file not found” etc., I wound up restoring all of my deleted (rejected) iPhone DNG files just to get to the good (accepted) ones for exporting as finalized JPGs. This is a major change from my normal Lightroom processing routine, it winds up wasting time and hard drive space. I’m sure that there is a better process for doing this, but I would need someone or something to explain it to me. For now, I’m just saving everything.
So that’s where I’m at. I need to build up a knowledge base and confidence here, versus asking for my wife’s iPhone 12 because I can’t trust my “better” iPhone 15 Pro camera. I need help properly setting everything up, knowing when to change settings based on different shooting conditions, how to manage zooming in and out based on maximizing resolution, minimizing distortion, etc., and I need a clear understanding of how best to manage these files once they are copied to my computer, imported into Lightroom, Photoshop and/or Topaz, and then exported as finalized JPGs.
Any direction, input, advice, links, contacts or the like would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance for your assistance.
