by Apple’s ProRAW camera function is a powerful tool to have in your back pocket. An image captured in ProRAW mode combines the same high post-processing flexibility of a traditional RAW file with the advantages of computational multi-frame photography. Kind of the best of both worlds! But once you’ve completed the steps to activate it on your iPhone and taken your photo, that’s when the real work begins: editing and converting it to a shareable format like JPEG, PNG, or HEIF.
ProRAW files are saved in Adobe’s ubiquitous DNG format, which is compatible with almost every RAW photo editing application under the sun. This means you have several options, including uploading the file to a computer and using desktop software. But you don’t need access to a computer — you can edit your image right on your phone, either using a third-party app or Apple’s editing tools. Here’s how to do it. (I followed these steps on an iPhone 14 Pro running iOS 16.3.1.)
You don’t need to download a separate app to edit ProRAW DNG files — Apple’s Photos app will do the job. A third-party app will give you much more control, but for quick and basic functions like exposure boosting, Apple’s app is fine.
- Open the RAW photo and tap edit in the top right corner of the screen
- If you’re viewing your image in the camera app gallery, editing options will appear at the bottom of the screen
- Scroll to the adjustment options below your image and use the tools you want
- You can tap the three-ring filter icon at the bottom of the screen to apply a filter. This is not to be confused with Apple’s Photographic Styles, which are baked into the capture process
- If you need to rotate the photo, use the crop tool, icon at the bottom right of the editing window
- Puncture Done bottom right of your screen to save your changes. There’s no option to save it as a separate image, but you can always revert your changes to the original by opening it back up in the Photos app, tapping the three-dot menu icon in the top right, and choosing Reset to original.
After making changes to the RAW file, you can use the Photos app’s sharing features to export a JPEG version of your image. You can email it, post it on Instagram, or put it in your digital photo frame — it’s your choice.
So what if you want to export the original RAW image? This is a bit difficult. After making changes in the Photos app, you can’t easily share the original DNG file. The only exception is if you’re AirDropping your image to a Mac. If this is the case, there is a way to send both the original file and a JPEG with your edits. Here’s how: If you’re not AirDropping to a Mac and want to save the DNG file somewhere else, you’ll need to make a copy of the edited RAW and restore the changes. If you want a PNG or HEIF of your image instead of a JPEG, you need to follow a few extra steps. You can either convert a raw DNG directly, or make your changes in Apple Photos first, then convert the resulting JPEG to PNG or HEIF — not ideal if you want to minimize compression, but it works. Here’s what you need to do: If you have a photo editing app you’d rather use instead of Photos, that’s no problem. You can start by either opening the Apple Photos app or opening the photo editing app you want to use. If you start from Photos, do the following: If you’d rather start with your photo editing app of choice, just follow that app’s process for importing a new image. For example, in Snapseed — my favorite free editor — all you need to do is open the app, tap plus icon and choosing Open from Device.
