Your smartphone photos can look way better. If you’re willing to put in a little extra work, use third party apps and spend a bit of time editing, it’s possible to take photos that – under the right circumstances – can rival dedicated digital cameras.

Over the last few years, smartphone camera sensors have gotten bigger, with better light gathering capabilities and higher resolutions. But even though the sensors have gotten bigger and better, the straight-out-of-camera quality through default camera apps hasn’t improved much, if at all. In some respects, smartphone photos have actually gotten worse – aesthetically, at least.

The reason driving this is what people generally use their smartphone cameras for. Smartphone cameras are mostly optimized for information transfer — sending photos of menus, signs, faces and objects that are clear and easy to see. This means phones will usually pull down highlights and pull up the shadows, creating a flatter image that makes it easier to see more information in the frame. But showing more information does not automatically make a photo better. In fact, much of our perception of aesthetics in a photo has to do with its ability to present depth.

To get the best possible photo, you’ll need to shoot RAW or DNG. These files are a bundle of practically all the information your camera collects, with extremely minimal processing. If you want the highest-quality photo, it’s best to make these creative decisions yourself. There are tons of apps available that let you shoot RAW, but the ones I use frequently and recommend are Moment Pro Camera II and Halide on iOS, and VWFNDR and Zerocam on Android.