Apple ProRaw is one of the biggest new camera features on the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max – and with the Christmas holidays taking a lot of time to adjust, we’ve put together this guide to help you do just that.
What is Apple ProRaw? In short, it is a compromise between compressed JPEGs and uncompressed raw files, which means it offers the benefits of iPhone computational tricks in a file with great editing flexibility. In certain situations, it has the potential to seriously elevate your photo.
If you want a more in-depth explanation of the format itself, see our ‘What is Apple ProRaw?’ explainer. But in this guide, we’ll focus on three main practical questions – how to activate Apple ProRaw, when you should use it, and how to edit ProRaw files in the Apple Photos app and third-party apps like Lightroom.
As we will see, the main thing to keep in mind is that the Apple ProRaw is not a golden bullet for better pictures in all situations. There are pros and cons to using it, which you can see below, but its real benefits can be seen in challenging conditions – think about indoor situations, strange or artificial lighting and shorter days when the sun is low in the sky and creates a high contrast scene.
All of this can create a very challenging set of conditions for the average smartphone to cope with. But Apple’s new highly editable format can help you overcome some complicated photo scenarios, even after taking the photo. In many ways, it is also much more accessible than standard raw files.
Fortunately, ProRaw is simply a new version of the “digital negative” (DNG) format, which means that you can not only edit it on the camera, but also use third-party applications like Photoshop and Lightroom. Like raw files, ProRaw photos have much more information than JPEG or HEIC files, which means you can recover lost details, resolve exposure problems or lighting conditions, and more.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to do just that – but first, here’s how to activate Apple ProRaw on your iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro Max …
How to turn on Apple ProRaw
Apple ProRaw is available to anyone who has an iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro Max with iOS 14.3 or later. The format is currently only available on these two phones, even if you have an older iPhone with iOS 14.3.
To update your firmware, just go to Settings> General> Software update. After doing this, you will need to enable raw capture in the iPhone’s main menu. Go to Settings> Camera> Formats and drag the “Apple ProRaw” slider to activate.
You will notice here that there is a warning about the size of the files, which is worth keeping in mind. Each ProRaw file will take up about 25 MB of space on your iPhone, which will be assembled quickly if you use it for each photo. This means that it is best to use it sparingly or in situations where it may be most useful.
The next time you launch the iPhone’s native camera application, you will notice that there is now a “RAW” icon in the upper right corner of the screen. By default, it will have a line running through it to indicate that it is not enabled. Touching it will remove the line and you will now be shooting ProRaw.
Before doing this, there is something else to keep in mind – the Apple Camera app does not record a JPEG or HEIC image simultaneously with ProRaw, so you will want to make sure you really want to record in the format before using it. If this is a feature you need, third-party apps like Halide allow you to record a ProRaw + JPEG at the same time.
After taking your original photo, it is worth turning ProRaw off again if you plan to continue recording other scenes.
How to take and edit Apple ProRaw photos
1. Choose the right scene
Since each ProRAW file is large and not as easy to share as JPEG / HEIC files, it is worth considering which scenes are worth filming in format and which are not.
The daily snapshots of your lunch are not worth the extra storage or hassle – nor do they offer great benefits for average landscape photos on clear, sunny days. The exception is if the winter sun is clear and low in the sky, causing a high contrast effect.
Low light, especially when there are artificial light sources in the scene, is the ideal situation for shooting with ProRaw, as you will have more space to edit the photo according to your own preferences later.
Above are a few different scenes that would undoubtedly benefit from being shot on ProRaw. The light is low or mixed and there is usually a little power failure. But, for the purpose of this piece, we will choose just one to focus on – which, as the season is, will be the artificially lit Christmas scene.
2. Make subtle adjustments with the Photos app
The Photos app has a versatile set of editing options, ranging from very simple or subtle changes, to more advanced edits that solve bigger problems.
To start, all you have to do is view your photo in the Photos app (or tap the gallery in the camera app). Once you find it, tap the word “Edit” in the upper right corner of the screen and you will see a variety of different editing options.
You will also find an “automatic” option, represented by a magic wand. Touching it produces quick and instant results, which may not be perfect, but can be a good starting point. We prefer to start with simple edits, such as straightening, cropping and rotating – once you have everything fixed, it tends to inform you of any major changes you want to make.
At the bottom of the screen, you will see three different icons – to change its composition, tap the “cut” icon. Now, you can rotate, straighten, change the perspective or even change the aspect ratio to whatever you want.
3. Now use the Photos app for bigger changes
When you are satisfied with the overall composition, you can dive into more serious edits. Touch the “dial” icon at the bottom of the screen to return to the larger editing tools.
For a photo like this, there are several edits we can make to improve it. We can start with the Exhibition to light up a little, then move on to the Highlights to recover some of the details lost in the brightest and most populated areas. We can use Shadows to bring back some details in the darker areas, in addition to highlighting some contrast.
If you are not satisfied with the way the white balance rendered the artificial lights, go to Heat or Hue to make adjustments until you are a little closer to the original scene. You can also use Saturation to highlight colors or reduce them a bit to get a more realistic effect.
There are other settings, which are worth sitting and experimenting with, so that you have total control over each one.
4. Make additional adjustments to Lightroom
Since Apple ProRaw uses the open DNG format, it can be opened in third-party applications and software in addition to the Apple Photos app. You can do this directly on the phone or on the computer, depending on how you like to work.
Apple says the edition will be better with software that directly supports ProRaw, but that shouldn’t stop you from using different programs if you prefer.
On your phone, Lightroom mobile offers many of the same options as the Apple Photos app, including brightness, highlights, shadows, contrast and more. But it also offers extra tools for even more refined edits, such as the practical stain correction brush and presets.
In this scene, we just use the healing brush to correct some imperfections and adjust the white balance. Again, it’s worth experimenting with different sliders to learn how they all work, if you’re new to photo editing. Alternatively, if you have Photoshop or Lightroom on your computer, you can open your iPhone’s DNG files in Adobe Camera Raw and make similar edits there as well.
5. Finish and export
When you’re satisfied with the edits you’ve made, it’s time to export. If you’re using the Photos app, tap Done. A good option may be to add your photo to a special “edited” folder, so you can capture your photos quickly when you need them.
Here we can see the differences between an edited raw file and a JPEG photo that came straight from the phone (shot a few seconds later).
The differences are not huge or dramatic, but we can see that there is some extra vibration and subtle differences that make the edited photo stand out a little more. There’s a little more sparkle to the characters’ faces, while the colors have been adjusted to make them a little more realistic.
Initially, Instagram refused to accept the iPhone’s ProRAW files, but a recent update changed all that. Either way, it’s best to make edits to the Photos app before uploading to Instagram, which you can do directly from the Photos app, or access the Instagram app itself to add extra filters and so on.
Apple ProRaw: the pros and cons
It was great news when Apple announced that it was finally bringing its own touch of raw footage to the original iPhone camera app. Considering that this has been possible on Android phones for several years, it felt like something Apple was lagging behind (even though you could shoot raw in third-party apps).
Now that you’re here, it’s worth using – but arguably, in moderation. On the plus side, the extra margin allows you to correct any problems created by difficult photography scenarios, such as exploded skies, having more control than you would be able to with JPEG / HEIC images. It’s also great that you can make advanced edits in the native Photos app without much additional knowledge.
However, photos directly from the camera are usually so good in the first place that it’s not always worth taking up extra storage space and having to edit to export to social media platforms. We hope this is the first step towards introducing a more advanced photography mode for the iPhone’s native camera app – but for now, it will work well.