With a little help from Sony, the iPhone 15’s camera can take fewer oversaturated or undersaturated photos.

Photos taken with the iPhone 15 camera should be less overexposed or underexposed in some specific situations thanks to Sony’s latest image sensors.

• What is happening? Sony’s new mobile imaging technology should allow iPhone 15 owners to take better photos with less overexposure.
• Why care? Because it looks like the next iPhone will finally let you take a picture of a person’s face, even if the subject is in bright backlight.
• What to do? If you enjoy reading iPhone camera rumors like this, why not check out our iPhone photography guide to improve your skills?

Shooting a person’s face in harsh sunlight

If you enjoy photographing people, especially on warm sunny days, you won’t get flattering results unless you shoot during Golden Hour (we have a dedicated guide on how to use the Golden Hour rule to enhance your photos).

Direct sunlight is too harsh on the human face and you often get poor results. Either the subject’s face is exposed correctly but the background is too dark, or the sky and background look correct but the subject’s face is too dark.

This is because the camera’s sensor saturation signal level is not high enough for the higher dynamic range required at these and similar settings. As the sensor struggles to capture the full dynamic range of the photo, some parts end up being underexposed or overexposed.

iPhone 15 camera can reduce overexposure and underexposure

A new report from Nikkei Asia claims that the next iPhone will solve this problem by taking advantage of new technology from Sony, which has been supplying Apple with iPhone camera sensors for years. As a result, the iPhone 15’s cameras should take better photos with less overexposure at high dynamic range settings, such as when shooting a person in direct sunlight.

The publication claims that Sony’s new sensor places photodiodes and transistors on separate layers of a semiconductor substrate, making room for additional photodiodes on the dedicated layer. The new method roughly doubles the amount of saturation signal in each pixel compared to conventional smartphone image sensors.

Sony’s new sensor captures more light and reduces overexposure and underexposure at certain settings, “allowing the smartphone camera to capture a person’s face clearly, even when the subject is standing in strong backlight.”

Other Camera Updates for the iPhone 15 Family

iPhone 14 Pro introduces a new main camera sensor with four times the number of pixels. It’s unclear if Sony’s latest sensor will be used in other iPhone cameras (telephoto and ultra-wide-angle cameras) or only in the main 48-megapixel sensor.

Other rumors suggest other camera upgrades for the iPhone 15 family, including deeper optical zoom thanks to a periscope lens with mirrors and a Thunderbolt connection on the iPhone 15 Pro for fast RAW photo and video transfer.