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Why do my iPhone photos look better than photos taken with DSLR?


3 years 6 months ago #699161 by Karen Comella
Have you noticed when you take a photo of a scene with your iPhone, the photo seems to look better than what you take with your DSLR?  For me, I have a Canon 5D Mark III and the iPhone seems to capture more of the shadows and darks, than my 5D showing correct exposure. 

Why is this?
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3 years 6 months ago #699165 by fmw

Karen Comella wrote: Have you noticed when you take a photo of a scene with your iPhone, the photo seems to look better than what you take with your DSLR?  For me, I have a Canon 5D Mark III and the iPhone seems to capture more of the shadows and darks, than my 5D showing correct exposure. 

Why is this?


Probably a difference in the meter recommendations.  Remember, you don't work the metering system.  It works for you.  It doesn't answer all exposure issues.  It provides a recommendation.  If you think it underexposes then increase the exposure.
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3 years 6 months ago #699167 by Nikon Shooter
Almost any picture will look "better" on a small screen!
Light is free… capturing it is not!
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3 years 6 months ago #699209 by Piechura
Are you saying they look better immediately after you take them in the back of the camera/phone, or they still look better after you've processed the DSLR image? Because I can believe that a phone photo can look better immediately, because the phone processes it in real time and often might have an HDR mode that allows it to create an image from multiple exposures. But once you get the images into Lightroom, you'd typically find that a RAW image from a DSLR actually captures far more detail in both the highlights and shadows.
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3 years 6 months ago #699210 by Shadowfixer1
Print an 11x14 or 16x20 from each, then get back to us and let us know which is superior then.
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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3 years 6 months ago - 3 years 6 months ago #699244 by Hassner
Phone manufacturers need to outsell each other. Billions are at stake.
One huge selling point is their camera.
Consumer editors take the same pic with two cameras and seek for the one that pops.
So phones real time processing (as Piechura meantioned) are set to impress as much as possible to try outdo the opposition.
Our DSLR is set to look as real as possible. With a bit of post, it can look the same.
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3 years 6 months ago #699248 by yurqqa

Nikon Shooter wrote: Almost any picture will look "better" on a small screen!


FIrst this and then - HDR.

When you shoot, iPhone also records several images with different exposure and then create the final image using the best exposed image for different part of the image (i.e. correctly exposed sky from one picture and correctly exposed shadows from the other).

You can do it when you edit RAW file to some degree or you could also shoot several pictures with different exposure (there's a mode in the camera that do it every time you shoot) and then use the software to stitch the images together.

What you can't do with camera is to do the local white balance for different part of the image like iPhone and Pixel do using AI that was trained on the huge amount of photos they have from the users who store the photos in the cloud.

I think this feature will come at least to Photoshop that also have a lot of user photos in the cloud storage.

And I think we'll see more and more software and AI based features in cameras also.
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3 years 6 months ago #699256 by Pettigrew
Someone else just asked a question on the big hint for you - computational photography 


That's the key to why iPhone images are good out of the box
Canon EOS 7D SLR | XT W/18-55 Kit Lens | Canon 50mm 1.8 | Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 | Canon 28-105mm | Canon 75-300mm | Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro | Canon 100-400
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3 years 5 months ago #699380 by Liem Stailey
I was told a while ago when I asked another photographer this, it has to do with that the phones apply some level of HDR effect to your photos.  
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3 years 5 months ago #699408 by EOS Man
Apple science :rofl:
5D Mark II | 50mm f/1.4 EX | 24-70mm f/2.8L | 70-200mm f/2.8L | 430EX
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3 years 5 months ago #699538 by Scotty
If they look better on your phone, you're doing it wrong on the DSLR. You can't push phone photos for crap.  It might change a tiny bit with apple doing raws now.
When the last candle has been blown out
and the last glass of champagne has been drunk
All that you are left with are the memories and the images-David Cooke.
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3 years 5 months ago #699539 by Scotty
If they look better on your phone, you're doing it wrong on the DSLR. You can't push phone photos for crap.  It might change a tiny bit with apple doing raws now.
When the last candle has been blown out
and the last glass of champagne has been drunk
All that you are left with are the memories and the images-David Cooke.
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3 years 5 months ago #699597 by Ian Stone
Not true, isn't the iPhone using HDR and fancy processing that isn't in a camera?  
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3 years 5 months ago #699632 by Prago
iPhones and other smart phones have so much processing taking place in their images. 
SWM into chainsaws and hockey masks seeks like-minded SWF. No weirdos, please
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