4 iPhone Camera Settings That Instantly Make Your Photos Look Better

We’ve been shooting on iPhone for years.

The goal has always been the same – get photos that don’t immediately look like they were shot on a phone.

The default iPhone camera settings are fine for quick shots.

But if you want photos that look more natural and give you better results when editing, there are a few things worth changing.

These are the four settings we always use.

1. Turn on ProRAW

This is the most important setting.

Go to Settings → Camera → Formats. Turn on ProRAW and Resolution Control.

Then set ProRAW to JPEG-XL (Lossy).

This keeps file sizes reasonable while giving you more detail and more room to edit later.

If you use Lightroom or presets, this makes a big difference.

iPhone photos are often too bright.

Open the Camera app, tap the arrow at the top, find the ± icon, and lower the exposure to around –0.7.

This stops highlights from blowing out and makes photos look more natural.

You can brighten a photo later if needed.

You can’t fix blown highlights.

Stick to the 1× (24 mm) lens whenever you can.

It’s the main camera and gives the best quality overall.

Photos are sharper, colours look better, and it handles lower light more reliably than the other lenses.

For consistent results, this is the lens to use.

When you shoot in ProRAW, photos can look flat at first.

That’s normal.

Presets make editing easy.

You apply one, make small adjustments if needed, and you’re done.

It saves time and keeps your photos looking consistent.

iPhone Creator Kit is built around this exact setup.

It includes simple camera setup guides and iPhone-specific Lightroom presets that are made to work with ProRAW photos.

Everything is designed to be quick and easy, even if you’re new to editing.