Apple recently announced “computational photography” upgrades to their latest hardware and software releases. The iPhone 12 Pro Max adds some exciting new features to the camera functionality; among the highlights is the A14 Bionic chip with a next-generation Neural Engine. The Camera utilizes three lenses— Ultra Wide, Wide, and Telephoto. There’s a bigger sensor, a longer telephoto lens, and a LiDAR Scanner that enhances Night Mode. Dual optical image shift stabilization technology allows hand-held exposures up to 2 seconds!
This is the first time Apple has offered RAW shooting in their Camera App. Apple ProRAW is supported with additional software options for Night Mode, Deep Fusion and Smart HDR 3.
Testing the Workflow with ProRAW Captures
My current image processing workflow routes through Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom and Photoshop. For the first round, I processed these images through the Apple Photos App then exported them to Lightroom.
Apple Photos features automatic adjustment buttons for light, color, white balance, curves, levels, sharpen, noise reduction & vignette. I started exploring with the auto adjustments and fine-tuned the sliders to my taste.
Exporting to Lightroom
The Apple Photos App has two exporting options; the first creates DNG files of the ProRAW Unmodified Originals. The second option includes the modifications made in the Photos App, it creates an excellent 16-bit tiff, but I was surprised that the files are huge— 80-90MB! I have noted some of the image sizes below the attached photos.
Look for the link at the end of the post for the Gallery view of larger images and additional metadata—
First-round thoughts
I’m not ready to put my Sony A7 up on craigslist yet; it’s exciting to know that I can carry such an incredible camera with me that easily captures such high-quality images— especially in low light without a flash.
There’s so much freedom shooting manually with iPhone 12 Pro Max on a tripod. I can easily adjust my ISO, f-stop & EV to ensure I get all the highlights. Once I set the focus lock on the screen, I utilize a Bluetooth release to prevent camera shake.
I am not missing my SD cards! Once an image is captured, it uploads to iCloud automatically— by the time I get back to my desktop, it is already backed up* and loaded into Apple Photos.
You can see larger versions of these images with additional metadata in my iPhone 12 Pro Max Gallery; I appreciate your feedback & ideas—
https://www.martyhiester.com/Portfolio-Galleries/IPhone-12-Pro-Max-Test-Images/
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