One of the best hidden features of your Android phone’s camera is the pro mode that enables you to capture images in the RAW format. In essence, the RAW mode instructs your phone’s camera to capture and store all information without adding any compression or post-processing. This results in images that can later be edited with more flexibility. Both Android devices and iPhones have their own versions of a pro mode that leverage the goodness that RAW images bring.
Once again, depending on which Android phone you have, the pro mode may be accessible within different menus, but is usually its own section within the camera app. On Samsung Galaxy smartphones:
- Launch the camera app
- Tap the settings cog icon in the top-left corner of the display
- Navigate to “Format and advanced options”.
- Enable the “RAW copies” toggle.
- Head back to the camera app, select the pro mode and capture an image.
Your phone will now store two copies of every picture you take — a regular JPEG and a RAW file. You can use iPhone’s ProRAW feature to yield similar functionality:
- Navigate to Settings > Camera > Formats
- Turn the “Apple ProRAW” toggle on.
- Launch the camera app and tap the “RAW” or “RAW MAX” toggle in the top-right corner of the display.
- Capture your image by tapping the shutter button.
Photos taken in the RAW format on both Android and iOS might take a split second to capture fully and are often heavy in file size compared to regular images.
