Makers spend millions making smartphone photography foolproof, but sometimes it’s good to bypass the JPEG processing, AI and other clever tech – and simply shoot raw.
There’s nothing wrong with all the auto-fix everything and computational photography/AI features now built into many phones, but as with conventional cameras, it’s useful to know how to shoot raw on your phone. Why? Well, you can end up with better-looking images, for a start.
When you shoot raw on your phone, minimal processing is applied, enabling you to fine-tune the image as you want, and it makes even more sense now larger, more-sophisticated sensors are appearing in phones.
As we’ll reveal, raw phone shooting is not hard, whether you use an iPhone or Android device. It’s not going to break your phone, and you can always go back to JPEG shooting, so give it a go!*
*Just one word of warning – raw images are usually larger than compressed JPEGs, so bear this in mind if your phone or cloud account is running low on storage space.
Shooting raw on an iPhone
Originally from the US but a digital nomad since 2016, Zach Leon is always travelling and relies upon his iPhone to record his insights, passions and adventures. Here, Zach explains why he often chooses to shoot raw. See his website and @zachtheleon on Instagram. All image credits: Zach Leon.
Take back control
If we wish to carry our photo skills over to our phones, shooting raw is a great way to retain control over our images. Rather than relying on your phone to guess at your individual taste, shooting raw practically guarantees you will express it.
For a family photo or casual selfie with friends, the phone’s JPEGs do their job well, but if you’ve left your dedicated camera at home or you’d like to take your mobile shots to the next level, consider shooting raw. With a minimally processed image and exposure controls at your fingertips, you can ensure your creative vision is realised.
Nailing the shot
Shooting raw comes with its benefits, namely extra latitude when you come to edit your images, as no additional processing has been applied by the phone. But what can we do to ensure we’re getting the best results before taking the shot?
Tied for first and second is nailing composition and focus. These two can’t be altered in editing, so it’s important to get them right the first time. My advice regarding composition would be to get in close. I’m a 35mm guy, so I’m not used to the 28mm or wider lens in my phone. I often find myself taking two or three steps closer to get the shot I want.
As for focus, tap your screen where you want to set it, or, if it’s a particularly important shot, shift into manual focus to override the phone’s estimation. Third, and finally, set your exposure as you want it. If you want dark shadows, make them dark. Relying on post-processing to fix poor/incorrect exposure can be a pain and could unnecessarily degrade your image.
Tools of the trade
I prefer to use an iPhone 13 – you’ve been able to shoot raw on iPhones since 2016 – but Android phones are fine for shooting raw, too. Simply go to your iPhone Settings> Camera>Formats, then turn on Apple ProRAW or ProRAW & Resolution Control (depending on your model).
I’ve found that Lightroom Mobile does the trick for me and I use it for both my shooting and editing. In terms of shooting, I’ve added the Lightroom widget to my home screen, making it only one extra gesture away compared to the Apple camera app.
Within the app I can adjust my exposure, white balance, shutter speed and more. After I’ve taken the photo, it appears in the gallery portion of the app, ready to be processed and exported.
The beauty of using Lightroom Mobile is that I can easily access and adjust my presets. Ultimately, this seamless set-up encourages me to shoot raw on my phone whenever I go to take a photo, providing me with exactly what I need to reach my mobile photography goals.
You can’t skip editing
When shooting raw on your phone, editing is a necessity. You can end up with a flat, seemingly lifeless image, and it’s up to you to revive it. Personally, I start by applying one of my mobile presets. I use these as a base for the sake of consistency, followed by minor, individual adjustments.
Within the presets are general things like tone curve adjustments, tweaks to shadows and highlights, and common colour shifts. Afterward, I’ll make final adjustments to my exposure and white balance, as the presets don’t account for each image’s specific requirements.
It may seem an extra burden, but playing around at the editing stage is half the fun. This is where your taste really comes through – where the photo becomes wholly yours, rather than what the phone maker thinks you want.
Shooting raw on Android phones
Geoff Harris is the deputy editor of Amateur Photographer and as a keen travel, documentary and street photographer, both for work and pleasure. he has been taking smartphone pictures for longer than he cares to remember (as well as using conventional cameras). Geoff has only recently started shooting raw, for the extra latitude that it provides, and explains below why shooting raw is also very easy with Android phones – so you should never feel left out if you don’t own an iPhone!
Shooting raw is easier than you would think
Shooting raw on my current Android phone, the Xiaomi 14, is actually very easy – indeed, ‘Pro’ is the first option you see on the camera app interface and just about every editing app or program can open the raw DNG files it generates.
A live histogram makes it simple to adjust exposure settings and Focus Peaking is also available should you want to focus manually – say when trying your hand at macro, for example.
As with many Android handsets designed with social-media posting in mind, the JPEGs can sometimes look oversaturated and overprocessed, but I don’t have this problem with raw (though there is the option to use the Leica Vibrant filter for images with more ‘kick’).
UltraRaw is also available, which supports 14-bit raw format, and there may be similar options on your smartphone.
Whose exposure is it anyway?
While shooting raw might be slower than just firing off a JPEG, sometimes it’s often good to take a more considered approach to your smartphone shooting.
With a live histogram reading, you can instantly see how adjusting exposure can be used for different creative effects when shooting raw – something that you might not think about when taking a JPEG because the phone processing is doing the work.
With the Xiaomi, I find that slightly underexposing brighter scenes often yields good results when editing or adding app effects, and this can be quicker to achieve when shooting raw via the histogram.
More natural-looking images
We mentioned earlier that shooting raw may seem a more laborious process because you’ll nearly always need to edit the raw images, but there is a counter-argument – with some phones, the heavily processed JPEGs can end up looking rather lurid and unnatural, particularly when it comes to skin tones.
Makers are under pressure to make JPEGs look ‘oven ready’ for social media, so you can’t blame them for this – the smartphone market is insanely competitive.
So, you might end up having to edit the JPEGs anyway. When shooting raw, I find colours and skin tones look more natural/neutral. Moreover, the ‘light touch’ in-camera processing of DNG files can sometimes minimise noise, or make it easier to reduce at the editing stage.
Editing flexibility
As with shooting raw on a camera, you get to tweak the raw file to your own tastes, recovering shadow or highlight detail as needed. Most of the time, optical distortions are corrected automatically in the raw files, too.
As raw files from my phone are saved as DNGs it’s easy to process them in Photoshop, Lightroom, or my editing apps of choice, namely Snapseed and VSCO – the latter is particularly good for adding classy film simulations and surprisingly convincing infrared effects, but it’s not free.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this guide to raw shooting on phones and do share your best images with us – email ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk
