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1. minute (mntmn@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 07:13:43 JST minute

   in reply to

   • Esther, an actual photographer

   @esther i also have an iphone 13 mini and this "messing with the photos" stuff is one of my biggest gripes with it

   • Esther, an actual photographer (esther@strangeobject.space)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 07:13:45 JST Esther, an actual photographer

     in reply to

     Although, at least in the recent generations of iPhones I think Apple has overdone it a bit. The flaws in these images have become too obvious and I'd prefer some actual noise and blur over these weird artefacts of machine-learning image synthesis. Because that's basically what these devices to: they generate small elements of the image based in what is there in the actual capture. It's much more than just an enhancement of the image. It's actively adding new stuff. And if it works well, it's really impressive. But if it's a bit off, which it often is especially once you view images on anything larger than a phone screen, it looks strange and uncanny.

   • Esther, an actual photographer (esther@strangeobject.space)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 07:13:46 JST Esther, an actual photographer

     in reply to

     Now, this isn't necessarily bad. These tricks enable phones to be very capable cameras for everyday use. It's impressive what they can pull off with hardware that is inherently very limited by physics.

     But I often find myself doubting my skill as a photographer when reviewing images I've taken on a phone until I remind myself that there's all this intense processing going on that I can't really do anything about so I shouldn't blame myself she images turn out with this weird artificial look to them.

     It's just something to be aware of if you take photography a bit more seriously. It's not you, it's the phone.

   • Esther, an actual photographer (esther@strangeobject.space)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 07:13:47 JST Esther, an actual photographer

     While writing this post earlier today I noticed again how much modern phones mess with images in order to compensate for the physical limitations of their cameras. https://strangeobject.space/@esther/110458757289951800

     Here's an example shot of the exact same subject in the same light shot with an iPhone 13 mini and an O-MD E-M10mk3 (a micro-four-thirds camera, nothing too fancy).

     Both are just like the come out of the camera with no processing other than scaling them to the same size and adjusting exposure for consistency.

     You can see how the iPhone emphasises edges to make the image appear sharper but in doing s distorts the edges turning them into slightly squiggly lines. Look closely at the letters and straight lines on the battery.

     If you ever wondered why phone photos often look a bit "off" or uncanny, this is a big part of why.

     #photography