camera module output ~ (embiggenable)
processed~ (embiggenable)
(embiggenable)
I AM FOLLOWING, WITH MORE THAN A MODICUM OF INTEREST, Mike Johnston’s new-found embrace of the “modern miracle” known as the iPhone camera module. After years of expressing his thoughts-based upon the use of vastly outdated iPhone camera modules-re: iPhone / smartphone picture making capabilities, he has now arrived in the future with his acquisition of a new iPhone 13 Pro. Whereupon he is now waxing, if not poetically, wondrously about the the iPhone’s capabilities, most notably the Night Mode, declaring it to be…gasp….superior in that regard to a “real” camera. In addition to Mike’s enthusiastic response to the iPhone’s picture making capabilities, the TOP comment-ariat are chiming in with endorsements as well.
All well and good, but only up to a point. That point being the application of George Eastman’s early marketing slogan of, “You push the button, we do the rest” wherein it is being suggested that after you push the “button” on an iPhone, the camera module’s AI does the rest. To which I respond, “Bull shit.”
To be perfectly clear, I have been an iPhone picture maker, almost exclusively, for the past 3+ years and I would be amongst the last to deny that the iPhone picture making AI handles a remarkable number of “difficult” picture making scenarios very well. However…
iMo, based upon my expansive use of the iPhone camera module, I can write that the picture making AI has one significant flaw-at least for those seeking to capture a realistic rendition of the light found in wide range of picturing situations-that being that the AI software developers seem to think that all the world’s a kodachrome-like sunny day complete with nice bright colors. A “flaw” that I am quite certain makes the average non-”enthusiast” picture maker very happy. Me, not to so much.
That written, the iPhone picture making AI does not always get it perfectly right. Close, maybe, but not perfect. I find that, to get the results I am am seeking, I do as much processing work-corrections and adjustments-on an iPhone picture file as I have done in the past on a “real” camera picture file. Although, it can be written that much of that works is less “extreme” on iPhone files than on “real” camera files. In that regard, and Mike has it right, go can go very “deep” in making adjustments / corrections with iPhone files, even with jpegs. The files are remarkably rich in information.
The diptych in this entry is a good example of my point. The file from the iPhone displays a result typical of that made on an overcast day-with any picture making device-wherein a prominent referent in the pictutre is in the shaded area of the scene. It takes more than a simple adjustment of the color balance slider to balance the color balance for the both the shaded area and the non-shaded area in the scene. (FYI, I got the color balance “right” by making color adjustments in LAB color space. I never touched the color balance adjustment slider.) In addition, global and selective area contrast and brightness adjustments were made. And, is almost always the case with iPhone files, a bit of color saturation adjustments were applied, both globally and on selective colors.
All of the above written, I just wanted to bring a bit of reality to the wonders of the iPhone picture making capabilities. Those capabilities are impressive but no one should think that the end of image file processing days are over. After you push the “button” there is plenty of the rest for you do.