A reality bending mistake in Apple's computational photography

Post by WWLink » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:10 AM UTC

afavour wrote: post #32

Aurornis wrote: post #12

Purists will always hate the idea of computational photography, but I love how well my iPhone captures handheld nighttime, low-light, and motion images. I’ve captured some photos at night that I never would have thought possible from a physically small sensor due to the laws of physics. Is it 100% pixel perfect to what was happening at the time? No, but I also don’t care. I’ve used HDR exposure stacking in the past.…

I have no objection with what we have today either but it does feel slippery slope-y, especially in the AI era. Before we know it our cameras won’t just be picking the best frame for each person, it’ll be picking the best eye, tweaking their symmetry, making the skin tone as aesthetically pleasing as possible, etc etc etc. It was always this way to an extent but now that we’ve given up the pretence of photos being “r…

Post by rmaccloy » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:11 AM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #12

Purists will always hate the idea of computational photography, but I love how well my iPhone captures handheld nighttime, low-light, and motion images. I’ve captured some photos at night that I never would have thought possible from a physically small sensor due to the laws of physics. Is it 100% pixel perfect to what was happening at the time? No, but I also don’t care. I’ve used HDR exposure stacking in the past.…

Post by kderbe » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:12 AM UTC

macintux wrote: post #59

PlunderBunny wrote: post #29

I heard mention on a podcast recently [0] that if you hold down the button in the iPhone camera app it will capture a set of photos and then mark the one that it thinks is the 'best' (based on, for example, the photo where everyone has their eyes open). Not the same as what happened here of course. (I keep forgetting to try this, not least because I always try to get the people out of my photos!) [0] This one, I thin…

Unfortunately they changed the behavior a few major releases ago: now holding the button down switches to video recording. Annoying for me, since I don't do video. If you use the software button you can slide to the left for burst, but afaik there's no way to trigger burst photos from the volume buttons. Maybe the new programmable button on the iPhone 15 series.

Post by willseth » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:14 AM UTC

leephillips wrote: post #83

willseth wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to photograph a toddler without this feature. Good luck. Does the fact that the iPhone allows me to do this pretty reliably without any fuss mean I have more or less control?

Odd. I have hundreds of great shots of my toddlers, none taken with these “features”.

Post by autoexec » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:15 AM UTC

graypegg wrote: post #84

autoexec wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it 100% pixel perfect to what was happening at the time? No, but I also don’t care. No photographer thinks images the they get on film are perfect reflections of reality. The lens itself introduces flaws/changes as does film and developing. You don't have to be a purist to want the ability to decide what gets captured or to have control over how it looks though. Those kinds of choices are part of what make photo…

To play devils advocate here: the best camera is the one you have with you, and computational photography does mean you can just push a button without thinking and get a clear picture that captures a memory. It’s obviously an argument to say that Apple shouldn’t get to choose how your memories are recorded, but I know I’ve captured a lot more moments I would’ve otherwise missed because of just how automatic phone cam…