I’m not sure that, at 70, my eyes aren’t slightly failing me? Maybe?
Or whether it’s the result of the hyper-realistic retina displays on the iPhone? Perhaps?
But the images coming off and out of my iPhone 15 Pro Max seem to be so crispy and sharp.
Holy Crispness Batman
Of course, there is a very fine line between being sharp and too sharp?
But, in my humble opinion, I think Apple has done a great job at finding this balance.
Contributing to this “crispy” factor, on newer iPhones, there are three pipelines at work-SmartHDR, Deep Fusion, and Night Mode.
Smart HDR captures multiple frames at different exposures (3) and blends them for an image with more detail in the highlights and shadows.
Deep Fusion uses a similar multi-capture (9) approach but focuses on texture and detail in medium to low light by analyzing multiple exposures and synthesizing the best parts.
Night Mode also captures a series of images over a period of time and combines them to brighten photos taken in low-light environments.
On top of these three very distinct and separate pipelines, Tone Mapping, on the other hand, is a post-processing technique that occurs after the photo is captured. It adjusts the luminance of an image so that it can be properly displayed on devices with a standard dynamic range, ensuring that the final image looks natural and retains detail across all areas.
So, while Smart HDR, Deep Fusion, and Night Mode are about capturing the right data from the scene, tone mapping is about presenting that data in the best possible way on various displays. They work in tandem to produce the high-quality images associated with iPhone cameras.
It’s truly all so “Mad Science”. You gotta love it.
I look at my iPhone 15 pro max photos with grateful wonder and awe.
Who would have ever imagined, in photography, any of this was ever even possible?
What a great time to be alive, creative, and shooting
Click.
Jack
