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Halide Developer Takes a Deep Dive Into iPhone XS Camera and Skin Smoothing Rumors
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Why should he be thankful if he is happy with how he looks? what right does a company to assume the you want a photo edited the moment you take it?Dude should be thankful for the smoothing of his face. If you can't keep your face clean from blackheads and such, the filter smoothing does wonders!!
I do firmly believe that apple should have the camera to take a picture as realistically as possible, the superficial people can edit all they want afterwards.
This is one of the reasons why I still have a DSLR, its the only option if you want to be sure you get a quality realistic picture were you have control of the outcome
It's a smart filter - and that is nice. but has it come to the point where we are obsessing over a smart filter? Is this a rumor, is this a game changer? Incredible strides in computer technology reduced to pandering to narcissism? There are amazing things computers can do, and this is just a pimple.
Not really, the major complaint seems to be that Apple was trying to emulate the “beauty mode” that some Android manufacturers deliberately apply to appeal to selfie-obsessed users, at the expense of those who prefer accuracy.
The noise reduction is applied to all pictures, and it’s overly aggressive. Sure there’s more shadow detail and some other improvements but the loss of contrast and sharpness is not particularly desirable.
I’d guess Apple will modify their algorithms so the pictures aren’t de-beautified by the softening resulting from the heavy-handed noise reduction and the other computational photography processes being applied.
TL;DR: Working as designed, nothing wrong, but if you want it fixed then buy this guy's app.
Pretty bad reporting by MacRumors imo.
Pretty bad reporting by MacRumors imo.
Relax, no need to compare why a DSLR and iPhone process photo differently. It was tongue in cheek and meant for a laugh. That’s all.
It’s really not about skin smoothing.
It’s about not getting the image you shoot for.
Calling it noise reduction or beauty mode really doesn’t matter. It processes the images too much.
It’s about not getting the image you shoot for.
Calling it noise reduction or beauty mode really doesn’t matter. It processes the images too much.
TLDR; XS shooting at higher ISO, resulting in faster shutter and/or brighter image at same exposure, but at the cost of more noise which requires more software post-processing to even/smooth out, resulting in obviously noise-corrected images.
Problem is, they are forcing the higher ISO, which is in turn forcing the smoothing algorithm.
Both should be toggle-able/adjustable IMO. One size definitely does not fit all for this kind of photo manipulation.
Problem is, they are forcing the higher ISO, which is in turn forcing the smoothing algorithm.
Both should be toggle-able/adjustable IMO. One size definitely does not fit all for this kind of photo manipulation.
So. If you are an artist who wants complete control, buy an expensive camera with expensive lenses, and create that Rembrandt look on your own— or make it black and white, like a news photo taken in the ‘50s with a SpeedGrafx shooting 4x5s. Money no object, expertise, not a problem. Of course, if you’re photographing autopsies for evidence, you want all the blotches and bite marks. For the normal people, let the neural network figure out how to photograph a selfie with the sun at your back, with detail in the shadows. And removing pimple and moles? Most people like that: they want to see themselves as their love/spouse sees them.
I was hoping Apple would reverse course on the aggressive noise reduction that causes the infamous "watercolor" effect. It sucks the life out of photos on my 6S in certain conditions. It looks like they chose to intensify it instead. Blah Apple, blah. Do better.
Article says the iPhone XS favors faster shutter speeds and higher ISOs. I’m guessing this is because they want a lower F stop so they can optimize their new depth of field feature. Can’t think of another reason, as most sports photographers are still using SLRs. <g> Other guesses?
Right, it’s not about skin smoothing, it’s about everything smoothing.
I have no doubt the processing will be adjusted, and the pictures will be improved. Apple doesn’t always “get it right” with version 1.0 but version 1.1 or 1.2 or 2.0 will typically be better.
You must live a sad life, or you’ve just realized that if you want to make your living as a crime scene photographer, you need to use a $2000 Nikon. Sharp and accurate is all you want.
I can imagine someone with the “I take photos for the DMV” point of view taking pictures of their children and bragging about the cold sore that is so clearly shown on little Johnnie’s mouth. But most of us would like to see how cute he was when you visited grandma. Or went to the beach.
Yep. I do not understand why there is no other option. Since the 7, the smoothing is very bothersome if you want detail. Most don't obviously, but it can't be hard to give those that do the option...
It also makes action photos and any picture of children look like crap.
Sebastiaan de With, the developer behind photography app Halide, has taken an in-depth look at the front and rear-facing cameras in the iPhone XS and XS Max, providing some insight into complaints about a possible skin smoothing "beauty mode" that results in less realistic selfies than prior iPhone models.
A soft filter on selfies "doesn't exist," says de With, with the smoother look attributed to more aggressive noise reduction techniques and the merging of exposures that eliminates sharp light and dark contrasts where light hits the skin.
Both the front and rear-facing cameras in the iPhone XS and XS Max are using computational geography to improve photo quality, a feature that takes multiple shots at once and then merges them into a single perfect photo.
Apple's iPhone XS website explains all of the different things that are going on behind the scenes when an image is captured, and part of the process involves taking shots that are underexposed, overexposed, and captured at different times, with the camera taking the best elements of each shot and combining them.
According to de With, this results in a "whole new look" for photos that represents a "drastic departure" from images captured with previous-generation iPhones. As the Halide blog post explains, the small areas of contrast seen in photos from older iPhones can make images look sharper, but these areas of deep contrast have been eliminated in the iPhone XS models.
Apple says the iPhone XS performs 1 trillion operations per photo
Using the exposure merging techniques, the iPhone XS reduces the brightness of the bright areas and the darkness of the shadows. While the detail is still there, we see it as less sharp because of this loss of contrast. Skin ends up looking smoother because the "light isn't as harsh."
The iPhone XS and XS Max are also using much more aggressive noise reduction techniques than in previous iPhones. de With says this is because the iPhone XS models prefer a faster shutter speed and a higher ISO level, capturing photos quicker but resulting in more noise. Taking care of that noise sacrifices some detail and contrast.
In the front-facing camera specifically, which uses a smaller sensor than the rear-facing camera, the heavy noise reduction paired with the image merging techniques leads to the noticeably smoother selfies that people have seen with the iPhone XS camera.According to de With, Apple can tweak these settings through software updates if the majority of people are unhappy with the selfie camera, so we may see a better compromise between noise reduction and the filtering of harsh lighting in the future.
Noise in a RAW iPhone X image (left) compared to RAW iPhone XS image (right)
All in all, de With believes the iPhone XS camera is better than the iPhone X camera thanks to its superior dynamic range, with some post processing able to re-add the contrast where necessary.
There are issues with RAW image capture because of the noise level. When taking RAW photos with an app like Halide, de With says it is a must to do so manually and to reduce the exposure. Otherwise, RAW images will end up looking worse than Smart HDR JPEGs.
To account for the changes to RAW image capture, Halide is gaining a new Smart RAW feature that uses the new sensor tech in the iPhone XS to get better images. It avoids Smart HDR all together to cut down on noise reduction and pull out more detail.
Halide's full blog post is well worth a read for anyone interested in an in-depth look at the camera changes Apple has introduced in the iPhone XS and XS Max. The Halide app can be downloaded from the App Store for $5.99. [Direct Link]
Article Link: Halide Developer Takes a Deep Dive Into iPhone XS Camera and Skin Smoothing Rumors
Why can't they just admit that they messed up the camera instead of going into long explanations?
I'm quite disappointed about the XS camera.
In that comparison, the worst problem by far with the XS camera is that the horrible grey bar got even bigger.
It convinced me enough, pulled right into focus exactly why I wasn't happy with the shots I've been taking. I'm very analog with my photos so it's just always been personal preference to make things be what I see and not what's decided for me.
Well whoever decided to jack up the noise reduction did it way too much. But I doubt it was done to please “teenagers on Instagram”.
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Rant: This really isn’t that big of an issue. Most people crap-edit their shots anyways so at least this takes the work out of it. Plus, nobody wants too see pimples.
Calm tone: Whoever jacked up the NR on this camera did it way too much. But I can see why they did. (See above)