How much AI is too much AI in pictures ? Would you rather have your photo have some food grain or have everything look sharpen with smart colors ? Do you wish what your eyes actually run across or the colour - boosted eye - pleasing cloth appearing on your phone ’s screen ?
Here is an lesson . Take a look at the colouration of the sky . Now expect at how the iPhone ’s camera perceives it , with all the computation algorithm and signature colour tone utilize . It ’s brazen how vastly different the real versus iPhone color interpersonal chemistry is . If you go to Reddit and Apple ’s Discussions meeting place , you will work into more contrarian views about the right glide slope to smartphone picture taking than there are theories about exotic life .
societal sensitive posits that the more colors pop in your photo , the more arresting they are . Purists would have you conceive that every soul should make digital storage that are as close to reality as potential .
“ Oh , Samsung , the lord of oversaturation . ” “ Bah , iPhone , too much sharpening and rouge - over upshot . ” “ The Pixel is precise but too boring . ” These are repeat arguments among toxic earphone exploiter .
What is Project Zero?
AI in mobile photography is inevitable , whether you wish it or not . On one hand , were it not for AI tricks , we would n’t have feature of speech likeNight peck wowing uswith low - light seizure . On some occasion , AI die overboard and makes a mess out of colors .
Let ’s also drop the phrase “ computational photography , ” which is just a fancy elbow room for a marque to say that its “ crack squad ” applied AI algorithms to photos to make them look respectable . Notably , every major blade has its own unequaled photo - processing line .
Most users are content with it . Some do a bit of touch - up in apps like Snapseed . Then there are the manual control savant and RAW aficionados who have intercourse what insidious differences in exposure , shadows , and highlights can do to an otherwise bland click .
What if your photos were captured without AI or proprietary image processing rules ? What if that perk also get with the RAW capture fillip ? That ’s the entire assumption of Process Zero , an entirely new capture preset in the well - received Halide tv camera app .
“ This is not a photo filter — it really recrudesce exposure at the raw , detector - information level , ” aver the company . I ’ve been using it for the preceding couple of weeks , and I ’ve been mighty impressed by the filmy originality in the picture I ’ve flick with myiPhone 15 Pro Max .
The best part about Process Zero is that there ’s no eruditeness unconscious process involved unless you want to fiddle with sliders . The only essential is that your phone must be run iOS 17 or later . There is no wall baseline drawn here between the “ up to ” Pro and the “ meh ” mainline iPhones .
In Process Zero way , the Halide app clicks a regular JPEG and a DNG ( digital negative ) you’re able to diddle with in editing apps like Lightroom . There is even a speedy exposure adjustment dial to actuate some life into the digital negative .
Take , for example , this click of a tree I dawn in the weeny hours of the cockcrow , with a net ton of street and cosmetic lights around . The first one is the DNG captivate by Halide Process Zero and edit in Lightroom . I abbreviate the highlight , blacks , sonorousness , and temperature ( to negate the lily-livered streaks from a nearby lamp ) while slimly further the shadows , white floor , and intensity .
Below is the HEIF I clicked from the nonremittal iPhone camera app . Notice the smoothened - out texture of cloud in the dark sky . Those cloud were not visible to the naked eye to get down with . It was the iPhone ’s Night Mode kick into action , and then it sharply de - noised the picture show .
Even in broad daylight , while capturing bright subject like heyday petals , the iPhone often save photos that are a entire chromatic mess . The coloration truth go for a toss ; the limb are darken , and details from the foliage are lose .
Despite the edits , the Process Zero negative keep some grainy texture , which is not out of character for image seize in dark milieu . suppose of the output you would get from a film television camera , which has its own distinct appealingness .
day shots can be visibly different , but as soon as you enter the demesne of challenging lighter , you have to grapple with haphazardness in the RAW imgaes from Process Zero . While I like some grain , I often ran into undesirable color light , which I often had to block out by dilute the exposure and reducing the chroma in fringe areas .
Below is an edited variation of the Process Zero ikon and the same set of corrections applied to the vanilla photographic camera app depiction . The latter appear unnaturally enhanced and shallow .
Why should you experiment with Process Zero?
Before I head to another sample distribution , it ’s deserving noting that applying edits to a non - filtered image is much soft than to a processed range of a function . In the latter case , even subtle change can dramatically neuter the coloration interpersonal chemistry and texture , often leaving a nearly unrecognisable mental image .
This is where the digital negative captured by Process Zero come to the rescue . Think of Process Zero as that pristine canvass that click instinctive motion-picture show and leaves a mountain of space for editing . This can be anything from granular corrections to just applying some artistic filter .
By nonpayment , Process Zero movie look visibly mute compared to what you get with a single detent from the iPhone . As you edit them , you could amp up the colouration visibility and make them look livelier without crushing the detail .
Here is a side - by - side comparability of what I got by default . note the unnaturally blue color of the sky in the iPhone 15 Pro Max ’s native detent and the peripheral details , where poor phantasma study is evident .
It croak without enunciate that birthday suit photos are , well , in the altogether . They lack the fancy stacking and HDR computation pipeline that enhances colors and lay down pictures look great on a telephone ’s screen . To the naked eye , they look matted and almost bland .
The shadows are dull , and there is little illusion to what you would comprehend as depth . But when equate side to side with a movie click with the iPhone ’s default camera , you start out see the aggressive saturation at play and the cheapjack employment with picture .
Project Zero does n’t always deliver shots that can bewilder the iPhone ’s default output . But there are juncture where a non - AI DNG is not only the more exact version but also solves a few problem while at it — banding and paint - over core .
The latter is a well - know iPhone problem , and it has only worsened over the days . In its bid to redeem well - defined aim in a photograph , a mountain of oversharpening is done , and if that means give some surface details to get rid of the haphazardness , the iPhone wo n’t object to the attack .
As a result , we often see penetrating lineage , in high spirits contrast , and overexposed colors , lose nuance of surface texture . This is especially apparent in farseeing - range guesswork . Take , for example , this shot of a gravy holder in the ocean that was clicked at a 5x soar story . Pay attention to the outline of the gravy boat ’s shape as well as the color conversion .
Now , take care at the image next to it . It was taken in Process Zero mode . The boat looks a set more natural , especially the edges . Yes , there is a visibly high amount of noise , but the grainy texture actually carry color entropy here . At the cost of sharp transmission line , it hold the original
Halide Process Zero is the iPhone camera tool I’ve been waiting for
Project Halide is not on the nose a answer or some wizard potion that will instantly countermand your societal medium plot . alternatively , it ’s a fun small experimentation that shows what photos without a ton of on - twist processing spirit like .
It ’s more like a color pureness filter , with the bonus of clicking a tender negative that you’re able to use as a testbed to hone your photography accomplishment or just wager with filter . A healthy gang of samples used in this story were edit in Lightroom on the iPhone . For a few , I imported them to Photoshop Express to apply precise color and exposure alteration to the background and a smattering of other subjects that should be in focal point .
But what stand out for me was the backup from unrealistic image processing and the ability to get photos that look real in a ocean of clicks strangle on brute automatic fitting . There is a good sense of patent realism in these photo .
Of naturally , there are some drawbacks , too . For instance , you ca n’t take 48 - megapixel shot with Process Zero . Not yet . You ca n’t enjoy average zoom range , as you are limited to shoot at the native magnification levels of each sensing element .
It ’s an experiment if I can take the liberty to report it as such . But it ’s a fulfilling contrarian glide slope to smartphone picture taking . It ’s a hitting or miss , too . But when the results are ripe , they are a sight to behold .
