The camera

The exact iPhone settings — for the gray-card method specifically.

This chapter is the gray-card method's camera setup: ProRAW, RAW badge, manual settings. If your session is paper, raw, or quick instead, your phone doesn't need any of this — the paper method's camera lives inside the phone-capture page itself, and raw/quick shoot with the plain camera app.

• Settings → Camera → Formats → ProRAW & Resolution Control: ON. Pro Default: ProRAW 12 MP. why: 12 MP bins four pixels into one: cleaner color and less noise than 48 MP. Color sampling needs signal quality, not resolution. Files are ~25 MB instead of ~75
• In the Camera app, tap the RAW badge so it is NOT struck through. why: the toggle resets. Check it every session
• Photographic Styles: Standard / off. No filters, no edits after. why: styles deliberately re-tone skin; an edited photo also shares as JPEG, destroying the RAW
• REAR camera, propped at eye level ~4 ft away, self-timer 3–10 s. why: the selfie camera is tuned to flatter, not to measure. With RAW active the timer takes a single frame instead of a burst
• Long-press your cheek in the preview until AE/AF LOCK appears, then drag the sun slider slightly DOWN (~⅓ stop). why: otherwise the camera meters the bright window and guesses; RAW recovers underexposed shadows easily but blown highlights are gone forever