Home How To How to Shoot in ProRAW on iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max

How to Shoot in ProRAW on iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max

With iOS 14.3 for the latest iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, Apple has introduced its RAW image format called ProRAW. It combines the iPhone’s computational photography capabilities (e.g., Smart HDR and Deep Fusion) with the general advantages of shooting in RAW format.
ProRAW on iPhone 12 uses Adobe’s widely supported DNG file format, making it easier for users to open and edit the images from all the popular photo-editing software. Of course, RAW images are known for their significantly larger file sizes compared to JPG/HEIF images, and ProRAW is no exception. According to Apple, shooting in ProRAW takes roughly about 25 MB to 40 MB per photo.
Minus the bigger file sizes, the advantages of capturing photos in ProRAW is immense. You get an unprocessed image with all the variable data gathered from the iPhone’s camera sensor in one single format. With professional photo-editing software, you can manipulate the variable image data to get a better result.
Unlike the standard RAW format, ProRAW offers support for 12-bit color. While it doesn’t seem to be a drastic difference, the value of RGB color shades jumps from 256 to a monumental 4,096. As mentioned previously, you also get Apple’s incredible computational image processing with it.
The best part of all this is you can take ProRAW photos with every one of the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max camera sensors (primary, telephoto, ultrawide) while using it with Deep Fusion, Smart HDR, and Night Mode. Additionally, you get to edit and convert ProRAW photos directly from the Photos app without relying on third-party apps.
If you are interested in shooting and editing ProRAW images with your new iPhone 12 Pro/Pro Max device, definitely check out this guide to learn more.

Shooting in ProRAW on iPhone 12 Pro/Pro Max

Assuming you have updated your iPhone 12 Pro/Pro Max to the latest version of iOS (14.3 at the time of writing), you can easily enable ProRAW by following the steps below.

  1. First, head over to Settings from the iOS Home Screen.
  2. Next, scroll down and tap Camera in the Settings menu.
  3. On the following page, select Formats and toggle the slider ON next to Apple ProRAW.

Once you have enabled it, you can return to the Home Screen and go through the instructions below to shoot photos in ProRAW format.

  1. Start with launch the default Camera app from the Home Screen.
  2. If you are holding your iPhone in portrait mode, you should see the R̶A̶W̶  icon in the upper-right corner. Tap it once to enable ProRAW.
  3. Now you can tap the Shutter button as usual to take a photo in ProRAW format. It’s as simple as that.

When viewing the photo in the Photos app, you should see the RAW icon on the upper-left side of it. You can tap the Edit option below the photo to adjust the values of the unprocessed image with the built-in ProRAW editor.
If you have an iPad, you can use iCloud Photos to sync the captured ProRAW images and edit them right on your iPad – provided that your devices are sharing the same iCloud account. Depending on how many photos you take daily, you might have to consider paying for additional iCloud storage.

Conclusion

Apple’s ProRAW image format gives mobile photographers granular control over the photos they capture. However, bear in mind that it takes a lot of storage space, so you should turn off ProRAW from the Camera app when possible.
With our time experimenting with ProRAW, we can say for certain that it’s useful for tuning photos taken in darker conditions. With proper photo-editing tools and some experience, you can try out tweaking the different image values to further enhance the colors and details in the photos you take with your iPhone.
We recommend using Halide, Adobe Lightroom, or RAW Power for the best ProRAW-editing experience.

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