Photography is Magic Again

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Remember when you were developing a print in a red-lit darkroom and the image would slowly emerge in the developer tray? That was magic for many of us.

Fast forward: Night Mode by iPhone

Images taken in almost total darkness appear well-lit. Pardon the mundane subject (my kitchen), but I could not resist to try to demonstrate it. All images are straight out of camera and hand-held. First two images are taken without Night Mode (13mm lens) and with (26mm lens), just to set the scene. The image on the right is more or less how my eyes saw it.

The next pair is a close up on a magazine on the countertop, without the Night Mode, then with.

 

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

My only problem with this demo is that your images appeared instantly, rather than slowly emerging in the developer tray.   

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

My only problem with this demo is that your images appeared instantly, rather than slowly emerging in the developer tray.   

Couldn't they make an app for that ?

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Couldn't they make an app for that ?

With built-in presets fr common developers: Dektol, Pyro, etc. ?

[BernardLanguillier]

Another reason why low end APS-C camera manufacturers are in very deep trouble...

Most of their users are totally unable to use the software that would enable to do something similar with their cameras, and built-in camera software can’t do this at all.

Imagine the shame when their 13 years nefew shows up with his brand new iPhone and knocks it out of the park in one touch...

Cheers,
Bernard

[hogloff]

Another reason why low end APS-C camera manufacturers are in very deep trouble...

Most of their users are totally unable to use the software that would enable to do something similar with their cameras, and built-in camera software can’t do this at all.

Imagine the shame when their 13 years nefew shows up with his brand new iPhone and knocks it out of the park in one touch...

Cheers,
Bernard

Imagine the shame when that same 13 year old nephew out does the guy with the $5,000 full frame kit. 

[BJL]

Remember when you were developing a print in a red-lit darkroom and the image would slowly emerge in the developer tray? That was magic for many of us.

That reminds me of the fun of using Olympus Live Bulb mode for very long exposures: the rear screen shows a frequently updated cumulative exposure (up to 20 steps I think) and you can end the "bulb" exposure when the preview gets bright enough.

Anyway, Night Mode and Deep Fusion are yet more ways that cameras with small sensors and small lenses and fast microprocessors can do great things — so long as it is possible for the camera to take enough time in total to take the multiple exposures involved. None of this technology will handle situations where allowable exposure time is limited due to subject motion; then there is no substitute for the faster light gathering of larger aperture diameters. That includes video in low light, because for example 30fps is limited to about 1/60s exposures.

[BernardLanguillier]

Imagine the shame when that same 13 year old nephew out does the guy with the $5,000 full frame kit.

I have seen work by some P1 IQ3-100 backs owners for which the same could be said...

But overall, most owners of high end kits are reasonably knowledgeable about digital photography, both in camera and post processing.

That's the key difference with owners of lower end kits that basically just use the camera in auto mode, click the shutter and share the jpgs as is. My guess is that 90% of DSLRs owners use their camera that way.

Cheers,
Bernard