Photos going dark when viewed.

Question

Level 1

6 points

Photos going dark when viewed.

It started in Instagram, where I’d tap a pic to post and it would be like a switch was flipped and it would go darker. Now it’s doing it in my camera roll. Pic looks nice in the thumb nail and when I tap it to see it, it goes so dark. Considerably darker. This is also happening to the people I send the pics to in a text. It looks good in the text thread and when they tap to see the pic it goes dark. I do so much with photos and this is tough. Is it just me?

iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Jan 17, 2025 9:56 AM

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Answer 1

Jeff Donald

Level 7

31,254 points

Jan 17, 2025 10:19 AM in response to zowenso

Sounds like an app issue. Once an image is uploaded to the apps servers, they have manipulated the image and it’s not an Apple issue.

Are you shooting the images on your iPhone using the native Apple Camera app? Do you have HDR enabled and what format are you shooting/saving you images in, HEIF, Most Compatible or Raw. Screenshots may be easier than answering all my questions.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

198,073 points

Jan 18, 2025 2:36 AM in response to zowenso

HDR ist short for High Dynamic Range https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range. You will encounter it in the Settings of your iPhone in two different places.

The camera is using a HDR technique to take photos with a wider dynamic range than the sensor permits by taking multiple shots with a different exposure and merging them to create an image with more detail in the shadows and the highlights. When you inspect the details of a photo with an App that can check, what the camera did, you may find entries like 9 assets, deeply fused, or similar, telling you, that the camera has fused nine images into one. HRD images are typically very detailed and are having very saturated colours, and may contain artifacts, if an object or the light source have moved, while the image has been taken. Your iPhone is trying to detect automatically, if it possible to take a HDR photos and refrains from it, if there are moving objects. On older iPhone models we could turn off the automatic HDR or save the original photo without HDR in addition to the HDR version. That is no longer possible on the more recent iPhone models.
The Display can also show your photos with a simulated HDR to make the photos more detailed and impressive. There is a Setting "Show full HRD" for the Photos.app.

Which of the HDR Settings have you changed? The Automatic HDR for the camera or a display setting?

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Answer 3

zowenso Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 17, 2025 4:50 PM in response to Jeff Donald

Thanks for the assist, Jeff. Yeah it was only happening in Instagram until yesterday when it started in my camera roll. I only use the iPhone camera. I actually just turned off HDR in my settings after some research and it stopped the issue in my camera roll. I’ve never messed with that setting and have never had this issue in my camera roll until yesterday. Could you explain HDR to me? Will something be lacking now that I turned it off? Thank you.

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Answer 4

Jeff Donald

Level 7

31,254 points

Jan 18, 2025 3:56 AM in response to zowenso

Notice the writing the red circle goes through. It has to automatically adjust the display to show the increased dynamic range an HDR image contains. TV’s do it when they switch from SDR to HDR and back. The screen goes black for several seconds while the internal circuitry adjusts back and forth. TV’s have only one image to adjust for. Depending on the app on your iPhone, you’ll see one or more image, some SDR and some HDR change as you display them.

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Answer 5

zowenso Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 18, 2025 3:40 AM in response to léonie

This is the one I switched off. Once I did that, the photo in my camera roll that was clearly going dark when I clicked on it to look at it, stopped going dark and now just stays bright.

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