You're using your iPhone camera wrong if you haven't turned on one clever setting

Apple releases a new iPhone every year and the features are always the same, with a few cool additions. So, what’s the point in buying the newest model if you’re not actually going to use those new features?

If you have one of the latest iPhone models, specifically the iPhone 14 Pro Max or iPhone 15 Pro Max, you’re probably not making the most of it. One ex-Apple employee has revealed you’re using your phone’s camera wrong!

Photo by Ming Yeung/Getty Images

You’re using your iPhone camera wrong

The iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro Max are specifically designed to have a really great camera, 48-megapixel to be exact. That’s why those designs have three cameras rather than just two, and it’s incredibly powerful.

However, the default settings only allow both phones to take 24-megapixel pictures, which is half of the maximum resolution. That means the quality of every single photo in your camera roll could be so much better!

“All of you with a 48-megapixel camera, it’s not on by default. When you do this [taps camera button], you’re not taking a 48-megapixel photo,” former Apple employee Tyler Morgan said in a viral TikTok video.

He then explained that you have to turn the option on in your iPhone’s settings to start taking the best quality photos possible.

How to turn on 48-megapixel photos

On your iPhone 14 Pro Max or 15 Pro Max:

  • Open Settings
  • Click on ‘Camera’
  • Press ‘Formats’
  • Turn on ‘ProRAW Control’
  • Click on the drop down underneath
  • Select ‘HEIF Max (up to 48MP)’

You can also choose ‘ProRAW Max (Up to 48MP) for the absolute best quality, but this will take up 75mb of storage per photo which will use up your iPhone’s storage pretty quickly. So, the Apple expert advises using ‘HEIF Max (up to 48MP)’ for great quality while using up less storage.

Now, return to your camera screen as you’ll see ‘HEIF Max’ in the top-right of the screen. Click on that to take super high-quality pictures on your iPhone.

You’ve probably got one of the Apple devices in your hand right now, but do you know what the ‘i’ in ‘iPhone’ stands for?