Want better iPhone photos? Shoot raw
Raw photos give you more control when editing images. If you have a newer iPhone and iOS 10, here's how to get started.
If you love taking photos, one of the best features in iOS 10 is the ability to capture in raw.
Raw photos are images captured straight from the sensor without any processing. Usually when you take an image on your phone -- or any camera -- noise reduction, white balance and sharpening are all applied to the image as soon as it's been taken.
With raw photos, you don't have any of this processing, which means that you have a lot more data to play with when editing.
What you need
Unfortunately the default Apple Camera app does not support raw capture right now. You'll need to download another app to shoot and edit these files.
Some apps you may want to try include:
Note that raw capture is only supported on the iPhone 7 , 7 Plus , 6S, 6S Plus , SE or the 9.7-inch iPad Pro .
Raw photos typically take up a lot more space than their JPEG counterparts, so make sure to clear some space on your phone's storage if needed.
Now you've selected your camera app, look for a raw photo option in the settings. This will either say raw, or else you might find it described as DNG (digital negative).
Now what do I do with them?
The best part about shooting in raw is having lots of editing flexibility. You can edit raw photos on iOS 10 in an app like Snapseed, an Adobe Lightroom Mobile has comprehensive editing options.
Some apps like Manual will save raw images to your camera roll. If so, make sure you don't edit your raw images using the edit tools here, as you'll only be altering lower-resolution JPEGs.
How can I export raw files?
Sometimes you might just want to take the raw photos on your phone and edit later on your desktop. The export process depends on each camera app but generally, if the app saves raw files to your camera roll, you can simply AirDrop from your iOS device to a Mac.
For Adobe Lightroom Mobile you have to have a Creative Cloud subscription in order to transfer the native DNG file from phone to desktop. Otherwise you might prefer to make your edits on the phone screen, then export a JPEG in the regular way.
Find out more about taking raw images on phones, including Android devices, in this article.