What is the ProRAW format and how to use it on our iPhone

Now, with the presentation of the new iPhone 14, there is again a lot of talk about the ProRAW format. A format that, among other things, allows us to take photos in 48 MP resolution. A format that goes far beyond that. Let’s clarify some concepts and see how to use ProRAW on our iPhone.

What is the RAW format?

Without going into more technical details, we will say that taking a photo means exposing the camera sensor to light coming from the environment through a lens. As in old photographs on photosensitive paper, this captures the image. The truth however is that the light information received by the sensor must make several changesamong many others, rotate it so that the top part is on top.

Knowing the hardware we’re using to capture the light in our shot, the camera software – all cameras, not Apple’s – applies lens corrections, white balance corrections, focus corrections and finally, present the photo in a format such as PNG or JPEG

, for example. These transformations of captured light create a specific result, and that might not be exactly what we’re looking for.

Do we want to make changes? We go into any photo editing app (I personally use Affinity Photo) and adjust what we want. What happens with this approach, however, is that we are working on a finished product, so our changing any setting, say lighting, for example, is limited and not optimal.

This is exactly why the RAW or raw format appears. A format in which the information captured by the sensor is recorded as is. The result, if we visualize the image, is usually dull and very uninteresting, but the possibilities it offers us during our own adjustments are enormous. By having much more information – a RAW image weighs about 4 or 5 times more than a normal image – all corrections and modifications are more flexible and give us the best quality.

What does RAW have to do with ProRAW?

ProRAW is Apple’s RAW format. An iPhone’s cameras can’t even remotely compete with the most processional ones. Just compare their size. Hardware limitations are compensated by software processing. For this simple reason Apple cannot deliver a RAW file, the result would be too poor. For this reason, it applies minimal processing and tells us about a ProRAW.

A format in which we have all the information from the sensor, but which has already undergone a slight retouching. Retouch such as combining information from different lenses, LiDAR information and other variables to get a product to work with.

So what should I do with a ProRAW photo?

Edit. Still. Just as we do not serve raw food, we cannot deliver a RAW photo, as it is an unfinished product. The idea of shooting in ProRAW is always thinking about a later post-production session

. Whether it’s for an important photo shoot or because we’re trying to capture something and we don’t get the desired effect, ProRAW will give us more flexibility to get the shot we’re looking for.

How to activate and use the ProRAW format

Activate ProRAW on our iPhone it is the simplest. We only have to enter the application Settingslet’s approach Cameralet’s approach sizes and activate Apple ProRAW. Once done, we enter the Camera application, press the button BELIEVED from the top and capture the image.

After that we can edit the image directly in the Photos app on our iPhone or that of the iPad or Mac if you want to work on a larger screen. Alternatively, we can use applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Lightroom, Pixelmator or others to do what we call digital development.

After all, the ProRAW format is a tool. A tool that allows us to capture the greatest amount of data from a shot in order to achieve the effect that we are looking for and have, with our photography, exactly what we want to convey.