Mystery solved! https://twitter.com/mitchcohen/status/1476951534160257026
iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
411–420 of 467 posts
Re: iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
#412Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sensitivity of digital is amazing. You cant really get past ISO 400 on film without large compromises. But, as for size, photo cameras sporting film smaller than 35 were rare. Yes Kodak had the advantax (?) system and some other weird cameras here and there, but the vast majority of consumer pictures were taken on 35mm. As to the subjectivity of film, as I mentioned in the other post, most of the subjectivity came fr…
> But, as for size, photo cameras sporting film smaller than 35 were rare. Strong disagree here. 126 film is what brought color photography to the mass market, and others like the Kodak Disc were wildly popular among point-n-shoot users. 35mm was standard for pro photogs, but consumers went for convenience.
I should also point out that while 126 popularized color photography, a decade later 110 came along and largely dominated consumer photography until the digital revolution.
Re: iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
#413Man takes photo of leaf, surprised to see leaf in photo
Re: iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
#414Earlier quoted context omitted.
No free lunch is right. iPhone photos look incredible on iPhone screens. They look terrible on my high resolution desktop screen. Instagram kids don't know this, but that's ok, because we don't need them to, and neither do they.
Increasingly these photo"graphs" have nothing to do with reality either. I may be part of a weird minority but when I take pictures I do it to document things, I don't want them to be all fake and wrong. Some Chinese manufacturers have taken this to a ridiculous extreme, they make normal friendly faces look outright scary. Pictures shouldn't be edited by default, the user should be given the option if they want to. A…
> when I take pictures I do it to document things, I don't want them to be all fake and wrong
> Pictures shouldn't be edited by default
I don’t think you can have both of these things. In general, if you want to closely reproduce what your eye sees, you’re going to have to do some editing.
Re: iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
#415There was an update -- sounds like a leaf was really in the shot:
> Big news! I sent @sdw the original image. He theorized a leaf from a foreground tree obscured the face. I didn’t think anything was in view, and the closest tree is a Japanese Maple (smaller leaves). But he’s right! Here’s a video I just shot, showing the parallax. Wow!
Re: iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
#416There was an update -- sounds like a leaf was really in the shot: > Big news! I sent @sdw the original image. He theorized a leaf from a foreground tree obscured the face. I didn’t think anything was in view, and the closest tree is a Japanese Maple (smaller leaves). But he’s right! Here’s a video I just shot, showing the parallax. Wow!
This thread has been an amazing example of confirmation bias.
Re: iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
#417Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. I wish I had a list of everyone parroting the wisdom that "it's all about the size of the lens, a smartphone can never be as good as a DSLR" so as to ignore their future opinions. Camera phones now beat cameras worth thousands of dollars with better software and larger R&D budgets, at least in low light performance and color gamut. Closely related: "It's impossible to just 'enhance' an image to make a license…
In theory what prevents me from using a huge lens and sensor on a DSLR or a mirrorless camera and then using the same advanced software but now running on a desktop computer or a server that is many times more powerful than a smartphone to do advanced post processing?
The iphone’s depth sensor is one factor. I don’t know of any lidar integrated cameras that aren’t phones, for example.
Also, because phone cameras have gotten so good, the skill floor for what you’re talking about is higher. There’s more skill involved in using software like lightroom than you might think. I’m a hobbyist photographer, and sometimes my iphone just seems more skillful than I am using my nicer camera and Lightroom.
Re: iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
#418It was actually a leaf from a foreground tree, not an image processing artifact:
Re: iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
#419He posted an update. It was a leaf on a tree in front of the woman and it obscured her face.
Re: iPhone camera app replaces person’s head with a leaf in photo
#420Before we criticize, before jumping to conclusions -- I just want to point out, it is a great leaf. Are we certain that the camera's decision was wrong? I mean, maybe we should consider the camera's judgement about what the best picture is. I'm not a photographer, if my camera tells me that my friend's head is best represented as a combination of sticks, leaves, and other natural objects, who am I to argue with that?…
Clearly, the ML algorithm had been given the goal of optimizing the happiness of the user. It had ascertained that the user was quite active on social media and had tied a significant amount of their self-worth to the number of likes received from posts and photos. It had correctly calculated that the user would extract more enjoyment from the photo by way of likes if their friend's face were replaced with an arrangement of foliage. The user clearly did not like that friend very much anyway due to the lack of engagement with their posts. Truly impressive technology.