iOS 10 paves the way for advanced mobile photo editing

By Anthony Thurston Published June 15, 2016

ios 10 raw support close up of recording video with smartphone during a concert toned picture — Yulia Grogoryeva/123RF

Android users have been enjoying raw support for a while now, and as was recently announced, iOS 10 will bring raw image support to the Apple ecosystem as well. This will, among other things, mean that iOS users will be able to enjoy better image quality and more advanced photo manipulation directly on their mobiles — no need to send it to a computer first.

But the iOS update doesn’t just bring raw support to the operating system, it also opens it up for app developers to take advantage of. This means that your favorite photo editing apps will soon be able to support the editing of raw files in the same way that many of them have been able to do on Android for a while now. Some new information about this raw capturing (shooting of raw images) capability was made available yesterday evening:

It won’t just work out of the box with apps; third-party developers will be able to shoot and store raw photos, but they will need to add that functionality into their app on their own.
Shooting RAW and JPEG simultaneously will be possible
Only the iPhone 6S, 6S Plus, SE, and the 9.7” iPad will be able to shoot RAW (for now)
Adobe’s Digital Negative (DNG) file format will be the filetype captured by your iOS device

lightroom mobile — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Moving beyond apps for just editing images shot with your phone, this also paves the way for users to be able to edit raw images taken with their expensive mirrorless and DSLR cameras. Adobe’s Lightroom Mobile has huge potential now on an iPad Pro for example, where users could take advantage of the large screen and pen apparatus to process raw files while lounging on the couch, or enjoying a day in bed.

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Of course, this update only opens the capability up to app developers, and it will be up to each developer to add the functionality into their app. It’s not hard to imagine that many will jump on this pretty soon after the update is made available, though, so we wouldn’t worry too much about having to wait for this on your favorite apps.

This is of course just one of the many feature improvements coming in iOS 10, and for more information on the update and everything coming in Apple’s next mobile OS update, you can check out our previous coverage here.

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Anthony Thurston

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Anthony is an internationally published photographer based in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Specializing primarily in…

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