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Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

googleresearch.blogspot.com

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Re: Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

#11

Post by ot »

joosters wrote: post #10
ot wrote: post #8

I posted this 2 hours ago [1] and both the posts are in home; the URLs differ just by a trailing question mark. How come the duplicate detector didn't trigger? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8515417

I think the duplicate detector looks at exact URL matches. Things like a trailing / or ? will let a new story go through.

The duplicate detector is usually quite more clever than just exact URL match. Why the downvote?

EDIT: In fact, I just tried to re-submit an existing link by adding a question mark and it didn't go through.

Re: Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

#13

Post by seunosewa »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #9

Meh. The camera software on Android is so bad that a default-setting picture from an iPhone looks as good or better than an HDR picture on Android. People have demonstrated the quality you can get from the sensor on a Nexus 5 if you capture raw and process offline[1]. I realize that these Google[x] researchers are probably not responsible for the mainline camera application, but the organizational details of Android…

I guess HDR+ is supposed to close that gap. Recent iPhones do something very similar all the time.

Re: Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

#14

Post by piyush_soni »

The blogspot fails to discuss why Samsung Galaxy S4/S5 HDR results are much better than my Nexus 5's. Also, there are limitations in leaving it on. Besides it being slow, it also has other restrictions like the inability to use Flash while in HDR+ mode. Howsoever good it may be by default, flash is sometimes important not only in dark, but also when facing sunlight while taking the shot.

Re: Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

#15

Post by shawabawa3 »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #9

Meh. The camera software on Android is so bad that a default-setting picture from an iPhone looks as good or better than an HDR picture on Android. People have demonstrated the quality you can get from the sensor on a Nexus 5 if you capture raw and process offline[1]. I realize that these Google[x] researchers are probably not responsible for the mainline camera application, but the organizational details of Android…

All that guy seems to have done is manually set the ISO to 100 when taking a relatively dark picture with his phone on a tripod. If the camera app did that by default pretty much every photo would be blurry

Re: Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

#16

Post by personZ »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #9

Meh. The camera software on Android is so bad that a default-setting picture from an iPhone looks as good or better than an HDR picture on Android. People have demonstrated the quality you can get from the sensor on a Nexus 5 if you capture raw and process offline[1]. I realize that these Google[x] researchers are probably not responsible for the mainline camera application, but the organizational details of Android…

What a dismissive bunch of prattle. Meh.

This is about algorithms to achieve better results with a given sensor. The Nexus 5, like the various Nexii that came before, has a poor image sensor -- it's a $300 smartphone, and LG wasn't going to put the best in it. HDR+ gives rather decent results in a wide range of settings despite that, and mine has managed a large number of fantastic shots.

The Nexus 6, being twice the price, apparently has a fantastic sensor, and with that dramatically better base results, made even better with HDR+. Awesome. That's good.

Re: Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

#18

Post by heliodor »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #9

Meh. The camera software on Android is so bad that a default-setting picture from an iPhone looks as good or better than an HDR picture on Android. People have demonstrated the quality you can get from the sensor on a Nexus 5 if you capture raw and process offline[1]. I realize that these Google[x] researchers are probably not responsible for the mainline camera application, but the organizational details of Android…

I have a Nexus 5 at the moment and while the pictures are not amazing, what boggles my mind is that the camera sensor and the phone's screen don't have the same aspect ratio!

Re: Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App

#19

Post by vilhelm_s »

sp332 wrote: post #5
bentcorner wrote: post #4

> However, bracketing is not actually necessary; one can use the same exposure time in every shot. By using a short exposure HDR+ avoids blowing out highlights, and by combining enough shots it reduces noise in the shadows. Does this mean they're using ISO bracketing instead of exposure bracketing?

No, it takes multiple photos with the same settings and just averages out the noise in the shadows. That wouldn't keep the shadows from lacking detail though. You'd just get a smoother black!

I think it should work for shadows also? Adding together 10 photos taken at 1/100s should give the same amount of light as one photo taken at 1/10s.
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