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The limits of "computational photography"

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Re: The limits of "computational photography"

#101

Post by interpol_p »

ecpottinger wrote: post #61
nomel wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use the camera app. It’s all in the settings menu for Pro models: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/take-apple-proraw-pho... This is a “there’s already a solution, but the average consumer wouldn’t know about it, because the defaults are made for them” type of problem. One could claim that it's a UI problem, and should be exposed in the Camera app. This may be true, but the files are 10 to 12 times large…

Sorry, I do not have an iPhone. How easy is the 'RAW' feature to find? I understand what you mean about most users do not need such a feature. But while supporting computers I am surprise how many features of programs users do not know exist not just because they do not use them but also how hard it is to get at some features. Personally, I seen too many programs where you need to know to turn OFF certain functions b…

To find the RAW feature you need to do two things:

Go to Settings -> Camera -> toggle Apple ProRAW on

Then in the Camera app there will be a "RAW" button that you can tap on to enable RAW capture

Third party camera apps like Halide (https://halide.cam) focus on just using the RAW capabilities by default

Re: The limits of "computational photography"

#102

Post by prmoustache »

matwood wrote: post #92
psychphysic wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly sometimes I just want to apply whatever ai magic elixir my phone does to the raw image from my DSLR. Messing around in lightroom etc is just not worth it for hundreds of shots I take per day sometimes.

So true. Not only that, but pulling out my phone and quickly snapping a shot is often better than quickly pulling out my non-phone cameras - especially in challenging lighting conditions. I absolutely can get better shots with my non-phone cameras, but they take more work.

I understand carrying and taking shot with a DSLR is much more involved than pulling out a phone from a pocket, but have you ever used compact cameras with 1" censor like a Sony RX100 or Canon G9x ?

They both fit in your pocket and startup as fast as you can activate the camera on your phone. Out of habit I usually reach the power button inconsciently when grabbing it from my pocket and the lense is usually extending while my arm is moving in position so it is usually immediately ready to snap a picture.

If you are in a setting where you are almost certain to take picture, a micro four third format also works great and depending on the lense are usually small enough if you are the kind of guy who wears small shoulder or sling bags.

Re: The limits of "computational photography"

#104

Post by zimpenfish »

jiggawatts wrote: post #71
nl wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't true. I've done a lot of action photography. The stabilization of video really is pretty close to a GoPro (and why not - it's software). The ability to do 4K video is much better than most cameras. > One needs all idevice and isoftware ecosystem to function and survive in the iworld. And that world is mostly controlled and directed by the company! I don't understand this. You take the photos or movies off…

To be fair, the second you export a picture from an iDevice, it auto-converts it back to JPG with SDR sRGB, to make it compatible with the terrible hardware and software in the rest of the world. You can upload HDR videos[1] however. I put mine up on YouTube and send Android users the link. This doesn't preserve 100% of the quality, because YouTube doesn't support Dolby Vision and hence is forced to recompress the co…

> it auto-converts it back to JPG with SDR sRGB,

That depends on your settings - Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC allows "Automatic" (guess whether HEIC or JPG is best) and "Keep Originals" (whatever the photo was shot as). I keep mine on "Automatic" because it sends HEIC to my Mac but JPG to family members who aren't up-to-date with phones etc.

Re: The limits of "computational photography"

#105

Post by kuschku »

mikewarot wrote: post #100
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #16

I would like to see computational photography applied to raw images from DSLRs and MILCs with APS-C and larger sensors. Perhaps Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Fujifilm could have built-in options in their cameras for ‘social media mode’, with a modicum of noise reduction (honestly unnecessary at ISOs lower than about 1600 for modern cameras), but drastically improved HDR and white balance. Many of these cameras are able to…

Long ago I did some experiments with SuperResolution[1] which is a technique of aligning images to sub-pixel resolution and stacking them to increase the amount of information with the square root of the number of exposures. I was using Hugin to align the images from my Nikon DSLR. I found that you can get to at least double the resolution in both dimensions fairly quickly, but you'll never get to "enhance" like in T…

Modern cameras use the optical image stabilization for pixel shift photography, where you can get up to 9× the normal sensor resolution (by moving the sensor slightly).

Re: The limits of "computational photography"

#106

Post by prmoustache »

xgbi wrote: post #35
jlarocco wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking for here. In my experience (and as seen in the article) the image processing in most digital cameras will already blow an iPhone out of the water. As far as I know, iPhone and Android aren't doing anything that isn't already done by digital cameras. They ramp up the settings on things like noise reduction and sharpness to balance out their tiny sensors, but it's more or less th…

I think you’re missing what makes iPhone photos look so good; they do much more than just ramping up the sliders on sharpness. When you take sunlit panoramas for instance, the iPhone will auto bracket and perform hdr treatment, it’s fantastic : you can see both the ground and the blue sky and the clouds. You can’t do that easily with a dslr, certainly not like a phone is doing right now, which is integrating the last…

Most cameras have an hdr mode nowadays.

Re: The limits of "computational photography"

#107

Post by prmoustache »

cycomanic wrote: post #37
jlarocco wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking for here. In my experience (and as seen in the article) the image processing in most digital cameras will already blow an iPhone out of the water. As far as I know, iPhone and Android aren't doing anything that isn't already done by digital cameras. They ramp up the settings on things like noise reduction and sharpness to balance out their tiny sensors, but it's more or less th…

> I'm not exactly sure what you're asking for here. In my experience (and as seen in the article) the image processing in most digital cameras will already blow an iPhone out of the water. > As far as I know, iPhone and Android aren't doing anything that isn't already done by digital cameras. They ramp up the settings on things like noise reduction and sharpness to balance out their tiny sensors, but it's more or les…

What they typically do is create a fake ugly bokeh and oversaturaate pictures. That doesn't make better photos in general.

That makes mostly better thumbnails. Perfect for instagram but shitty for everything else.

Re: The limits of "computational photography"

#108

Post by zimpenfish »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #68

iOS postprocessing is garbage and must be changed. It's an embarrassment. The most infuriating thing is that you can usually see the image before post processing if you are quick enough and those look sharp and good, but this trash software can't be turned off.

> but this trash software can't be turned off.

Are you talking about proRAW? Or JPEGs straight from the Camera app?

Re: The limits of "computational photography"

#109

Post by fsloth »

godsfshrmn wrote: post #74
morsch wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can’t do that easily with a dslr, certainly not like a phone is doing right now, which is integrating the last x frames and modulating the digital shutter to capture multiple exposures. Standalone cameras have been doing this for at least a decade. The same is true for nighttime exposures. That's not to say that the iPhone doesn't do it better, maybe it does, it certainly can throw more processing power at it.…

My mirror less Olympus does this as well. Set number of f stops, exposures etc all in-camera

It composes the hdr as well?

Re: The limits of "computational photography"

#110

Post by dwighttk »

psychphysic wrote: post #79
dusted wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already are. However, most photographers do not appreciate this type of distortion being applied to their images. At a glance, my samsung note 22 ultra takes better picture than my nikon d7500. At a glance. However, as soon as you want to actually DO anything to it, like, view it in any real detail, or on anything but a tiny screen, reality returns.. While the phone is absolutely fantastic for a quick snapshot,…

Similarly sometimes I just want to apply whatever ai magic elixir my phone does to the raw image from my DSLR. Messing around in lightroom etc is just not worth it for hundreds of shots I take per day sometimes.

I don’t use it, so I don’t know, but doesn’t Google Images offer do this to any photo you upload?
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