Best iPhone Camera Settings for a Film Look (2026)
Best iPhone Camera Settings for a Film Look (2026)
The film look starts before you open Lightroom. The settings you use in the iPhone camera determine how much latitude you have in editing — and how naturally your film presets render. These are the iPhone camera settings that produce the best results for film-style editing.
The most important setting: enable ProRAW
Apple ProRAW is the single biggest improvement you can make to your film editing workflow on iPhone. Available on iPhone 12 Pro and later.
Settings, Camera, Formats, Apple ProRAW — enable it.
ProRAW bypasses Apple's computational photography processing — no Smart HDR compression, no automatic sharpening, no aggressive contrast. The result is a file that:
Has 2-3 stops more highlight recovery than JPEG
Responds to film presets more naturally
Gives you full control over every adjustment
The trade-off is file size — ProRAW files are 15-25MB versus 3-5MB for JPEG. For photography you plan to edit, the quality difference is worth it.
Format and resolution settings
Settings, Camera, Formats:
Camera Capture: set to ProRAW (as above)
Photo Format: High Efficiency (HEIF) for casual shots, ProRAW for edited photography
Resolution: use maximum resolution (48MP on iPhone 14 Pro and later)
Higher resolution gives Lightroom more data to work with. This is particularly visible in highlight recovery — a 48MP ProRAW file recovers blown highlights significantly better than a 12MP JPEG.
Exposure settings in the camera
Slightly underexpose rather than overexpose. The iPhone camera exposes aggressively for subjects. In bright conditions, this often blows highlights that cannot be recovered even from ProRAW.
Tap and hold on your subject to lock focus and exposure. Then slide the exposure slider (sun icon) down slightly — half to one stop — before taking the shot. Recover shadow detail in Lightroom. You cannot recover blown highlights in the same way.
Turn off Smart HDR for edited photography: Settings, Camera, Smart HDR — toggle off. Smart HDR compresses tonal range automatically. For photography you plan to edit in Lightroom with film presets, you want the unprocessed data. ProRAW already bypasses Smart HDR but turning it off for JPEG shots is still useful.
White balance in the iPhone camera
The iPhone camera does not have manual white balance in the native app. Two options:
Use the native Camera app and correct white balance in Lightroom. This is the simplest workflow. Shoot, import to Lightroom, correct Temperature before applying preset.
Use a third-party camera app with manual white balance. Halide, ProCamera, and Camera+ all offer manual white balance control. Setting white balance in camera gives a more consistent starting point for Lightroom editing.
Grid and composition settings
Enable the grid in Settings, Camera, Grid. For film-style photography, the rule of thirds grid helps with composition that gives presets room to breathe — subjects placed centrally in evenly lit frames rather than subjects with complex backgrounds that fight against the preset's color adjustments.
Video settings for film look
For video: Settings, Camera, Record Video, Apple ProRes if available (iPhone 13 Pro and later). ProRes gives the same latitude advantage over H.264 that ProRAW gives over JPEG.
FAQ
Do I need ProRAW for film presets to work on iPhone?
No presets work on standard iPhone JPEG. ProRAW gives significantly better results, particularly for highlight recovery and highlight roll-off quality. For casual editing, JPEG is fine. For best results, ProRAW.
Does ProRAW slow down the iPhone camera?
Slightly — ProRAW files are larger so writing to storage takes a moment. In practice this is rarely noticeable unless shooting continuous burst photography.
Which iPhone model supports ProRAW?
iPhone 12 Pro and later. Standard iPhone models (non-Pro) do not support ProRAW.
