iPhone HDR in Photoshop

[NextStepTV]

HDR photos, especially HEIC, appear blotchy and over-saturated, even in the latest beta of Photoshop.
Final Cut Pro has a multitude of ways to compensate for this in video and images, with just one click. For Photoshop, I can find lots of help about creating HDR, but nothing about editing an imported HDR file.
What can I do to adjust these images?

[LAMY2017]

Which phone? Which iOS? Latest PS Beta and public version?

What are your camera settings?

I think this info matters for what you see and do in Ps.

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Found this:

HEIC files.

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By the way, I open HEIC in Ps 2025 with no trouble. I'll see if I can take an HDR photo with my iPhone16 Pro Max to see if I just dodged a bullet all this time. [an aside: iPhone Settings>Apps>Photos>View Full HDR is toggled on;  Settings>Camera>Formats>High Efficiency is checked. The only mention of HDR that I have found in Settings is the description in the Camera Capture section: "HDR Video requires High Efficiency." Settings>Camera>Record Video shows four HD(R?) settings, four 4K settings. If a setting that associates HEIC and HDR photos exists, I didn't see it.]

[NextStepTV]

macOS 15.4.1 running Photoshop Beta 26.8.0
iPhone 13 Pro running iOS 18.4.1

Thus, there is no setting, because HDR is always on by default in iPhone 12 Pro and later models.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi @NextStepTV

Here are a few tutorials that might be helpful:

• YouTube: HDR Tutorial

• Adobe HelpX: Merge Images to HDR

Hope this helps! If you’re still having trouble, feel free to share some screenshots or sample images where you're getting stuck — I’d be happy to take a closer look.

Regards,

Srishti

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

I just looked at some HEIC images from my iPhone 15 and they seem OK in Photoshop. What computer/display are you viewing them on, and if it’s a Mac with an XDR display (such as the 14" or 16" MacBook Pro), what Reference Mode preset is the display set to in System Settings > Displays?

In Photoshop, one thing that might affect it is the setting Precise Color Management for HDR Display, as shown in the picture below. Make sure it’s enabled.

[NextStepTV]

Thanks, Conrad. I did not know about this check box. Unfortunately, setting it (and restarting Photoshop) had no effect. By the way, the hover-help for the check box says that the display must be set to more than 100 nits. My display goes up to 500 nits.