How to Take Photos on IOS Without All the Post-Processing Nonsense
Your iPhone’s camera is smart—maybe too smart. It’s smart enough tore-light your selfies and remove distracting background objects from photos . This is the kind of reality-altering power that would normally require an Infinity Stone. It can also make it much more difficult to take photographs that accurately reflect the real world. Fortunately, there are alternatives.
It is worth noting that it is difficult to achieve absolutely zero processing on any smartphone camera. There is always some interpretation of raw data to display it. What we want to do here is minimize how much your phone makes decisions about how “correct” your photos should look – decisions about how saturated the colors should be, which parts of the image should be in or out of focus, and how the subject should be lit. Sometimes it’s best to let your phone make these decisions for you, but if you want more control, these options are best for you.
Get more flexibility with Apple ProRAW
Typically, when you take a photo, your phone compresses the image to save space and transfers data that is not needed to display it. But this data can be useful if you want to edit your photos yourself. This is where Apple ProRAW comes in. This format (which takes up more storage space) saves almost all of the data from your camera’s sensor when you take a photo.
This allows you to adjust parameters such as exposure, contrast, saturation, white balance and other basic aspects of the image. These photos still require some inevitable image processing, but ProRAW gives you much more flexibility to make changes than usual.
To enable ProRAW images, press the RAW button while using the camera to use it for the current session. If you’d rather change the default settings permanently , go to Settings > Camera > Save Settings and turn on ProRAW and resolution controls. When enabled, the camera will be in ProRAW mode unless you specifically disable it each time.
Use ZeroCam, the AI Defense App
ZeroCam believes that less is more, especially when it comes to camera features. In fact, it only has one: a shutter button. There’s no post-processing, no filters, no effects, and the only additional switch is which of your phone’s lenses to use. It literally couldn’t be simpler – for better or for worse.
In my experience, images captured with the ZeroCam in low light conditions had noticeably more noise, which is to be expected without significant post-processing. However, photos with the right lighting looked a little more natural than with the stock camera app.
The main drawback of the ZeroCam app is the cost: a subscription will cost you $2 per month, or $13 if you pay for a year in advance. You can get a free three-day trial (for the monthly plan, extended to a week if you opt for the annual plan), after which you’ll likely know for sure whether it’s worth the cost for you.
Use Halide for more control over your photos without AI
Unlike the ZeroCam, the Halide Mark II provides enhanced manual camera control capabilities. You can fine-tune the focus, ISO, shutter speed and white balance before taking the image. Some of these controls are available in the default camera app, but Halide adds other useful tools like focus peaking and live histograms.
Halide also has a special Process Zero mode that requires no AI post-processing. This is as close as possible to photographs taken directly from the sensor, with minimal processing required to create a visible image.
Like ZeroCam, this app isn’t free, although you can get a seven-day free trial to see if it suits your needs. After that, monthly subscriptions start at $10, or you can get an annual subscription for $20. If you know you like the app and will use it for a long time, a lifetime license will cost you $60.
Try the Blackmagic Camera app for filter-free videos
Blackmagic makes a free video editing suite called Davinci Resolve, as well as a line of cinema cameras that are closely related to the software. Most recently, the company released an iPhone app that leverages its experience with a camera that’s always with you. The Blackmagic Camera app is primarily focused on video, but you can also use it to take photos from your clips.
If you only need photos, you’ll probably be fine with one of the other options on this list, but this app is ideal for videographers. It offers professional-grade camera controls like ISO, shutter speed, and white balance, as well as features like an RGB histogram to see which parts of your image are being cut off, and image stabilization to reduce camera shake when you hold it in your hand.