Today’s Question: I just upgraded my iPhone to the new iPhone 14 Pro, mainly to take advantage of the RAW image options. When I set the image size to 12 MP, I have no problem acquiring images, transferring them to Lightroom on my laptop, and then working with the images. When I switch settings to acquire a 48 MP image, the image looks fine on the phone, and it looks normal in the tiny image preview on my laptop after I airdrop the image. However, when I then open the image in either Lightroom Classic or Photoshop, the image is MUCH darker than how it appeared on my camera – at least 2 stops darker, maybe more. This is happening with every 48 MP image, but never with a 12 MP image. Help! What is happening?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can solve this issue by changing the Profile (in the Basic section of adjustments) to “Apple ProRaw”. I suspect the issue will be fixed in a future update from Adobe.
More Detail: Adobe has indicated that the iPhone 14 is not yet officially supported as a camera for Lightroom Classic or Photoshop. At the moment, iPhone 14 captures created with the raw 48-megapixel setting appear very dark in Lightroom Classic (and Photoshop). Images captured with the 12-megapixel setting appear normally.
Changing the profile to “Apple ProRaw” corrects the issue, providing correct interpretations of the iPhone 14 captures. In particular, updating the profile will correct the dark appearance of the 48-megapixel captures without changing the brightness of the 12-megapixel captures. The Profile popup is found near the top of the Basic section on the right panel in the Develop module.
Note, by the way, that you can use the automatic synchronization feature in Lightroom Classic to update all photos, whether it is for the profile as in this case or for other types of adjustments. Start by selecting the photos you want to apply the adjustment too, and then in the Develop module turn on the “Auto Sync” switch found on the left side of the Sync button at the bottom of the right panel. With that option enabled all changes made will synchronize to all selected photos.
