Halide Developer Does Deep Dive Into iPhone 12 Pro Max Photographic Capabilities

[ohmyggg]

Ah. So what is the best way to to mitigate (with Halide?)?

With the native camera app, you might try experimenting with Scene Detection, Smart HDR, and regular HDR (the latter which can only be toggled on / off once Smart HDR is disabled in Settings).

Note, while your issue is mostly likely due to HDR processing, I’ve found that Scene Detection does some funky stuff that results in artifacts around edges too.

To turn off Scene Detection and/or Smart HDR, head to Settings > Camera.

Once Smart HDR is turned off in settings, you’ll get a “regular” HDR toggle switch in the upper-right corner of the native app/viewfinder. With regular HDR toggled on, you’ll be left with two image files for every photo you take. One will be a regular exposure without any HDR processing and the other will be a “regular” HDR shot which is a less aggressive version of HDR than Smart HDR (as I believe it only combines two exposures as opposed to 9 exposures for Smart HDR). Lastly, if you just hate HDR, period (or you know that a particular scene won’t require combined exposures due to a low dynamic range), you can toggle off the HDR switch and your phone will only take one regular exposure without any HDR processing at all.

 

[harmoniumfarfisa]

View attachment 1673740

It's a lovely photo, so my apologies for what I'm about to say which is just a technical critique, but the shrubs are still a digitized mess. Just to the left of the pole, and especially the ivy, it's very unnatural and looks CGI, like it was painted on.

The building and the tallest tree look as if they've been separated from the background with a crude auto masking process. The bottom right hand corner of the water, I don't even know how to describe that. Same with the left hand side windows and smaller trees. I see other sections that are a credit to the camera too...and the 12 Pro seems to be more aggressive than your 11 pro.

 

[harmoniumfarfisa]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I agree with this general trend (being too intrusive). This is the first time I think I've ever thought the iPhone's camera software was doing just a bit too much on a consistent basis.

Same here! The problem is it's noticeable.

It just looks like what happens when I open up Lightroom, Topaz Labs AI plugins, or various free photo editing apps and go "what does this slider do!?" then proceed to make photos look worse.

Needs to be a way to still get a good photo file without all the generic auto processing.

 

[harmoniumfarfisa]

Generally, yes. On the iPhone 12 Pro Max, I don't know. I don't have one. The author of the article seems to think that it is fine for most people, and points to some possible improvements (less unneeded noise removal for night pictures).

Maybe if everyone just adjusts to looking all CGI'd out and they think people will associate that with big budget.

I see this as dire as any yellow screen tinting if not more, but I don't think Apple will agree.

But I am noticing more people admitting they prefer the 11 pro cameras (which I think does the same thing, but applied to different photo situations, and a tiny less aggressively), so that tells me everyday people are noticing even if they aren't griping like I am.

 

[Hammerd]

View attachment 1672975
Halide guys does not understand the iPhone 12 pro max is 47% bigger by area. This is confirmed by the focal length of the lenses : 5,1mm for the max and 4,25mm for the iPhone 12. So, in fact, by diagonal, the max sensor is 1,2x bigger. This is how it looks :
View attachment 1672976

You are right and they are wrong

 

[charliesaigon]

Not yet, still waiting lol

Nope... but I headed over to the Halide blog, and there they were.

 

[SocialKonstruct]

Of course, it is. I wish I never sold my M8 and brass super primes

I find it amusing that everyone touts the virtues of the iPhone for photography. Honestly I carry around a small Dora Goodman medium format film camera and I really love it. Also been shooting with the OnePlus 8T and so far it's super nice too in addition to my iPhone 11 Pro Max.

 

[amartinez1660]

Most people aren’t good enough at photography to understand or realize benefits.

Most people also think brighter means it’s better.

I understand what you mean, but for the curious, “brighter is better” in a professional setting:
some photographers and film people do capture one or two exposures above in HDR and Log to have that light hit the sensor. Then in post it’s brought back down, camera specific LUT’ed and adjusted as desired.