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Posts Tagged ‘Night’

How does iPhone 11 Night Mode compare to Google Pixel 3 Night Sight?

15 Oct

Many smartphones today take great images in broad daylight. That’s no surprise – when there’s a lot of light, it doesn’t matter so much that the small smartphone sensor doesn’t collect as many photons as a larger sensor: there’s an abundance of photons to begin with. But smartphone image quality can take a nosedive as light levels drop and there just aren’t many photons to collect (especially for a small sensor). That’s where computational techniques and burst photography come in.

Low light performance is a huge differentiator that separates the best smartphones from
the worst

Low light performance is a huge differentiator that separates the best smartphones from the worst. And Google’s Night Sight has been the low-light king of recent1, thanks to its averaging of many (up to 15) frames, its clever tile-based alignment to deal with hand movement and motion in the scene, and its use of a super-resolution pipeline that yields far better resolution, particularly color resolution, and lower noise than simple frame stacking techniques.

With the iPhone 11, Apple launched its own Night Mode to compete with offerings from Android phones. It uses ‘adaptive bracketing’ to combine both long and short exposures (to freeze any movement) to build a high quality image in low light conditions. Let’s see how it stacks up compared to Google’s Night Sight and Apple’s own previous generation iPhone XS.

The set-up

‘Low light performance’ is difficult to sum up in one number or picture when it comes to computational imaging. Different devices take different approaches, which ultimately means that comparative performance across devices can vary significantly with light level. Hence we’ve chosen to look at how the iPhone 11 performs as light levels decrease from evening light before sunset to very low light conditions well after sunset. The images span an hour-long time frame, from approximately 500 lux to 5 lux. All shots are handheld, since this is how we expect users to operate their smartphones. The iPhone 11 images spanning this time period are shown below.

7:00 pm, evening light
1/60 | ISO 100
485 lux | 7.6 EV

7:25 pm, late evening light
1/8 | ISO 250
25 lux | 3.4 EV
7:50 pm, low light
1/4 | ISO 640
5 lux | 1 EV		 8:05 pm, very low light
1/8 | ISO 1250
<5 lux | <1 EV

Note that Night mode is only available with the main camera unit, not the 2x or 0.5x cameras. And before we proceed to our comparisons, please see this footnote about the rollovers and crops that follow: on ‘HiDPI’ screens like smartphones and higher-end laptops/displays, the following crops are 100%, but on ‘standard’ displays you’ll only see 50% crops.2

Now, on to the comparisons. In the headings, we’ve labeled the winner.

Evening light (485 lux) | Winner: Google Pixel 3

Before sunset, there’s still a good amount of available light. At this light level (485 lux, as measured by the iPhone 11 camera), the option for Night mode on iPhone 11 is not available. Yet Night Sight on the Google Pixel 3 is available, as it is in all situations. And thanks to its averaging of up to 15 frames and its super-resolution pipeline, it provides far more detail than the iPhone 11.

It’s not even close.

Take a look at the detail in the foreground trees and foliage, particularly right behind the fence at the bottom. Or the buildings and their windows up top, which appear far crisper on the Pixel 3.

iPhone 11 (Night mode unavailable)

Pixel 3 Night Sight

Late evening light (25 lux) | Winner: Google Pixel 3

As the sun sets, light levels drop, and at 25 lux we finally have the option to turn on Night Mode on the iPhone, though it’s clearly not suggested by Apple since it’s not turned on by default. You’ll see the Night Mode option as a moon-like icon appearing on the bottom left of the screen in landscape orientation. Below we have a comparison of the iPhone with Night Mode manually turned on next to the Google Pixel 3 Night Sight (also manually enabled).

iPhone 11 Night mode (manually enabled)

Pixel 3 Night Sight

There’s more detail and far less noise – particularly in the skies – in the Google Pixel 3 shot. It’s hard to tell what shutter speeds and total exposure time either camera used, due to stacking techniques using differing shutter speeds and discarding frames or tiles at will based on their quality or usability. But it appears that, at best, the Pixel 3 utilized 15 frames of 1/5s shutter speeds, or 3s total, while the iPhone 11 indicated it would use a total of 1s in the user interface (the EXIF indicates 1/8s, so is likely un-representative). In other words, here it appears the Pixel 3 used a longer total exposure time.

Apart from that, though, the fact that the iPhone result looks noisier than the same shot with Night Mode manually turned off (not shown) leads us to believe that the noisy results are at least in part due to Apple’s decision to use less noise reduction in Night Mode. This mode appears to assume that the longer overall exposures will lead to lower noise and, therefore, less of a need for noise reduction.

However, in the end, it appears that under these light levels Apple is not using a long enough total exposure (the cumulative result of short and long frames) to yield low enough noise results that the lower noise reduction levels are appropriate. So, in these conditions when it appears light levels are not low enough for Apple to turn on Night Mode by default, the Google Pixel 3 outperforms, again.

Low light (5 lux) | Winner: Tie

iPhone 11 Night mode (default)

Pixel 3 Night Sight

As light levels drop further to around 5 lux, the iPhone 11 Night mode appears to catch up to Google’s Night Sight. Take a look above, and it’s hard to choose a winner. The EXIF data indicates the Pixel used 1/8s shutter speeds per frame, while the iPhone used at least 1/4s shutter speed for one or more frames, so it’s possible that the iPhone’s use of longer exposure times per frame allows it to catch up to Google’s result, despite presumably using fewer total frames. Keynotes from Apple and personal conversations with Google indicate that Apple only uses up to 8-9 frames of both short and long exposures, while the Pixel uses up to 15 frames of consistent exposure, for each phone’s respective burst photography frame-stacking methods.

Very low light (< 5 lux) | Winner: iPhone 11

iPhone 11 Night mode (default)

Pixel 3 Night Sight

As light levels drop even further, the iPhone 11 catches up to and surpasses Google’s Night Sight results. Note the lower noise in the dark blue sky above the cityscape. And while overall detail levels appear similar, buildings and windows look crisper thanks to lower noise and a higher signal:noise ratio. We presume this is due to the use of longer exposure times per frame.

It’s worth noting the iPhone, in this case, delivers a slightly darker result, which arguably ends up being more pleasing, to me anyway. Google’s Night Sight also does a good job of ensuring that nighttime shots don’t end up looking like daytime, but Apple appears to take a slightly more conservative approach.

We shot an even darker scene to see if the iPhone’s advantage persisted. Indeed, the iPhone 11’s advantage became even greater as light levels dropped further. Have a look below.

iPhone 11 Night Mode On

(Night Mode Off)

Pixel 3 Night Sight On

(Night Sight Off)

As you can see, the iPhone 11 delivers a more pleasing result, with more detail and considerably less noise, particularly in peripheral areas of the image where lens vignetting considerably lowers image quality as evidenced by the drastically increased noise in the Pixel 3 results.

Ultimately it appears that the lower the light levels, the better the iPhone 11 performs comparatively.

A consideration: (slightly) moving subjects

Neither camera’s night mode is meant for photographing moving subjects, but that doesn’t mean they can’t deal with motion. Because these devices use tile-based alignment to merge frames to the base frame, static and moving subjects in a scene can be treated differently. For example, on the iPhone, shorter and longer exposures can be used for moving and static subjects, respectively. Frames with too much motion blur for the moving subjects may be discarded, or perhaps only have their static portions used if the algorithms are clever enough.

Below we take a look at a slightly moving subject in two lighting conditions: the first dark enough for Night mode to be available as an option on the iPhone (though it isn’t automatically triggered until darker conditions), and the second in very dim indoor lighting where Night mode automatically triggers.

Night Mode

Standard Mode

Although I asked my subject to stay still, she moved around a bit as children are wont to do. The iPhone handles this modest motion well. You’ll recall that Apple’s Night mode uses adaptive bracketing, meaning it can combine both short and long exposures for the final result. It appears that the exposure times used for the face weren’t long enough to avoid a considerable degree of noise, which is exacerbated by more conservative application of noise reduction to Night mode shots. Here, we prefer the results without Night mode enabled, despite the slight watercolor painting-like result when viewed at 100%.

We tested the iPhone 11 vs. the Google Pixel 3 with very slightly moving subjects under even darker conditions below.

iPhone 11
Night Mode

iPhone 11
Deep Fusion

Pixel 3
Night Sight

Pixel 3
Regular camera

Here you can see that Apple’s Night mode yields lower noise than with the mode (manually) turned off. With the mode turned off, it appears Deep Fusion is active3, which yields slightly more detail at the cost of more noise (the lack of a smeary, watercolor painting-like texture is a giveaway that Deep Fusion kicked in). Neither iPhone result is as noise-free and crisply detailed as the Pixel 3 Night Sight shot, though. We can speculate that the better result is due to either the use of more total frames, or perhaps more effective use of frames where the subject has slightly moved, or some combination thereof. Google’s tile-based alignment can deal with inter-frame subject movement of up to 8% of the frame, instead of simply discarding tiles and frames where the subject has moved. It is unclear how robust Apple’s align-and-merge algorithm is comparatively.

Vs. iPhone XS

We tested the iPhone 11 Night Mode vs. the iPhone XS, which has no Night Mode to begin with. As you can see below, the XS image is far darker, with more noise and less detail than the iPhone 11. This is no surprise, but it’s informative to see the difference between the two cameras.

iPhone XS

iPhone 11

Conclusion

iPhone 11’s Night Mode is formidable and a very welcome tool in Apple’s arsenal. It not only provides pleasing images for its users, but it sometimes even surpass what is easily achievable by dedicated cameras. In the very lowest of light conditions, Apple has even managed to surpass the results of Google’s Night Sight, highly regarded – and rightfully so – as the industry standard for low light smartphone photography.

But there are some caveats. First, in less low light conditions – situations you’re actually more likely to be shooting in – Google’s use of more frames and its super-resolution pipeline mean that its Pixel 3 renders considerably better results, both in terms of noise and resolution. In fact, the Pixel 3 can out-resolve even the full-frame Sony a7S II, with more color resolution and less color aliasing.

Second, as soon as you throw people as subjects into the mix, things get a bit muddled. Both cameras perform pretty well, but we found Google’s Night Sight to more consistently yield sharper images with modest subject motion in the scene. Its use of up to 15 frames ensures lower noise, and its align-and-stack method can actually make use of many of those frames even if you subject has slightly moved, since the algorithm can tolerate inter-frame subject movement of up to ~8% of the frame.

If you’re photographing perfectly still scenes in very low light, Apple’s iPhone 11 is your best bet

That shouldn’t undermine Apple’s effort here which, overall, is actually currently class-leading under very, very low light conditions where the iPhone can use and fuse multiple frames of very long exposure. We’re told the iPhone 11 can use total exposure times of 10s handheld, and 28s on a tripod. Google’s Night Sight, on the other hand, tends to use an upper limit of 1/3s per frame handheld, or up to 1s on a tripod. Rumors however appear to suggest the Pixel 4 being capable of even longer total exposures, so it remains to be seen who will be the ultimate low light king.

Currently though, if you’re photographing perfectly still scenes in very low light, Apple’s iPhone 11 is your best bet. For most users, factoring in moving subjects and less low light (yet still dark) conditions, Google’s Night Sight remains the technology to beat.

Footnotes:

1 Huawei phones have their own formidable night modes; while we haven’t gotten our hands on the latest P30 Pro, The Verge has its own results that show a very compelling offering from the Chinese company.

2 A note about our presentation: these are rollovers, so on desktop you can hover your mouse over the states below the image to switch the crop. On mobile, simply tap the states at the bottom of each rollover to switch the crop. Tap (or click) on the crop itself to launch a separate window with the full-resolution image. Finally, on ‘Retina’ laptops and nearly all modern higher-end smartphones, these are 100% crops (each pixel maps 1 display pixel); however, on ‘standard’ (not HiDPI) displays these are 50% crops. In other words, on standard displays the differences you see are actually under-represented. [return to text]

3We had updated the iPhone 11 to the latest iOS 13.2 public beta by the time this set of shots was taken; hence the (sudden) availability of Deep Fusion.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Five Foot Lens and 3.2 Gigapixel Camera Produced for Night Sky Photos

08 Oct

The post Five Foot Lens and 3.2 Gigapixel Camera Produced for Night Sky Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Image: L1 Lens of the camera polished and coated with a broadband antireflective coating by Safran-R...

L1 Lens of the camera polished and coated with a broadband antireflective coating by Safran-Reosc. LSST Project/NSF/AURA.

Last month, engineers packaged up the largest optical lens ever created, before shipping it 17 hours from Tuscon, Arizona to the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in central California.

The lens is five feet in diameter and four inches thick; it required a truck to transport it. It was attached to an additional (3.9 foot) lens element when shipped, and it will soon be followed by another.

Together, these three lens elements will be mounted to a camera that, when finished, will be the largest digital camera in existence. And the camera-lens duo will ultimately be attached to a telescope: the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which is over ten years in the making.

Note that the camera itself is constructed out of 189 sensors which, when combined, will create pictures of an astonishing size: 3.2 gigapixels. It’s still in production at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, but will likely be finished in 2021. The cost of the camera alone is a whopping $ 168 million dollars.

The purpose of this huge setup is to capture detailed photos of the night sky. The full telescope will be placed on Cherro Pachon mountain in Chile, where the camera will take exposures at 20-second intervals.

As explained in a press release by one of the laboratories involved in the lens construction:

This data will help researchers better understand dark matter and dark energy, which together make up 95 percent of the universe, but whose makeup remains unknown, as well as study the formation of galaxies, track potentially hazardous asteroids and observe exploding stars.

We recently reported on Xiaomi’s 108-megapixel smartphone, with its wrap-around screen, but a 3.2-gigapixel camera blows this out of the water. Even a recently announced security camera, which made waves when it was unveiled at the China International Industry Fair, topped out at 500 megapixels. Equipped with facial recognition technology, there are major privacy concerns when it comes to how this may be used in a country that already heavily monitors its citizens.

But, the high resolution of these cameras does bring to light something that is conveniently forgotten by tech advertisers: More megapixels will only produce greater detail if you have a lens that can resolve that detail. If your lens can only resolve 12 megapixels worth of detail, then you’re not going to gain from slapping a 108-megapixel sensor onto the camera. That’s why the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope requires ultra-precise optics if scientists want to gather meaningful data.

Of course, you don’t need a lens costing millions of dollars to produce highly-detailed 108-megapixel photos. But my suspicion is that the current optics used by smartphones (Xiaomi, but also Huawei, Apple, and Google) just aren’t up to the task of generating 108-megapixel photos.

So don’t fall prey to the megapixel myth. And keep your eye out for photos from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope!

What are your thoughts on these new lenses and cameras? Share with us in the comments!

The post Five Foot Lens and 3.2 Gigapixel Camera Produced for Night Sky Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.


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Leaked Pixel 4 photos show new and improved astrophotography, portrait and Night Sight modes

03 Oct

The Google Pixel 4 is just around the corner, expected to be announced at the Made by Google Event on October 15. We’ve already seen what the Pixel 4 will look like, thanks to both Google and third-party leakers, but today we’re getting more than a hardware leak. 9to5Google has obtained exclusive images that it claims Google will use to promote the new camera capabilities of its impending device.

9to5Google has kindly given us permission to share the full-resolution images directly from their source and only saved once with a watermark over them. The images, as you’ll see below, are a combination of images captured with the front-facing selfie camera and the rear-facing cameras (rumors point to there being a 12-megapixel main camera and a 16-megapixel telephoto camera). The images appear to include photos shot in multiple camera modes, including the improved Night Sight mode and a new star-shooting mode that’s been rumored for some time now.

First up are a few photos that appear to show off the portrait mode of the front-facing camera onboard the Pixel 4. Interestingly, these photos measure in at 4.5-megapixels, nearly half the resolution of the 8-megapixel onboard the Pixel 3, so we’re not sure whether these are simply resized or from a larger sensor that’s been supersampled, but whatever the case is, they look impressive. The faked bokeh looks both realistic and smooth, while the outline, even around hair, seems to be precise, with only a few notable exceptions (specifically the arm on the white jacket).

Next up are more portrait mode shots with what we presume to be the rear-facing camera on the Pixel 4. These shots measure in at 7-megapixels and were taken with the main camera (the Pixel 4 will feature multiple camera modules). Like the previous shots, the fake bokeh appears to be incredibly accurate, even on difficult subjects, such as a long-haired pet and flyaway hairs.

Moving along, we have three photos (two 9.2-megapixels and one 5.2-megapixels) that appear to be taken with Google’s Night Sight mode. Based on the EXIF data embedded in some of the images, the photos were taken with the main 27mm (35mm equivalent) F1.7 camera onboard the Pixel 4. The actual lighting scenario in the scene isn’t known, but the images appear both bright and vibrant with nice dynamic range, even in the images that have multiple light sources at different color temperatures.

Along the lines of Night Sight, it appears a pair of photos showing off the much-rumored night sky camera mode expected to be onboard the Pixel 4. Based on the EXIF data, these images (the header image of this article and the below image) were also captured with the main camera unit and the GPS data reveals the shots were captured at Pinnacles National Park in Central California along State Route 146. For being captured with a smartphone, the amount of detail captured in the night sky is absolutely incredible. It seems as though stars get lost around the silhouette of the trees in the frames, but the rest of the sky showcases countless stars in the Milky Way.

The remainder of the photos showcase a number of scenes, but it’s not clear what specific camera modes are being used to capture these images. As noted by 9to5Google, it’s been rumored there will be a ‘Motion Mode’ with the Pixel 4, but that’s not yet confirmed, even though a few action-style shots are seen in the following images.

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Plenty still remains to be seen, but with the Made by Google Event less than two weeks away, it won’t be long before we know just what the Pixel 4 is capable of. 9to5Google has also detailed a new ‘Dual Exposure’ mode that’s believed to be avaialble on the Pixel 4.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The iPhone 11 Pro Features a New Triple Lens and Night Mode

13 Sep

The post The iPhone 11 Pro Features a New Triple Lens and Night Mode appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

The iPhone 11 Pro Features a New Triple Lens and Night Mode

Apple has just announced three new iPhones: the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

And, as usual, these iPhones come with new cameras and new camera technology.

But will these new smartphones be enticing for photographers? And if you’re looking to purchase a new smartphone, should you grab an iPhone 11 Pro?

Read on to find out.

The iPhone 11 Pro Camera

First things first:

While Apple has announced three new iPhones, the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Max are basically identical, save for the screen size. Hence, both the 11 Pro and the 11 Pro Max have the same camera specs:

Three cameras.

An improved front-facing camera.

Deep Fusion technology.

Let’s take a closer look:

iPhone 11 Pro: a three-camera setup

The three-camera design is Apple’s first foray beyond their (now standard) 2-camera setup. The iPhone 11 Pro boasts a telephoto lens (52mm equivalent), a wide-angle lens (26mm equivalent), and an ultra-wide-angle lens (13mm equivalent). The new camera (the ultra-wide-angle) should make it possible to capture sweeping landscape shots, or simply to gain a wider field of view when doing group portraits and event photography.

The iPhone 11 Pro Features a New Triple Lens and Night Mode

While the wide and telephoto lenses incorporate optical image stabilization, the ultra-wide-angle lens does not. This shouldn’t be a huge problem, because camera shake is less apparent in wider lenses. But it’s nice to have a bit of image stabilization, especially for night shots.

And speaking of night photography:

Apple has finally added a Night Mode to the smartphone camera lineup. This will supposedly increase detail in night photos, making it possible to produce less noisy images in near darkness. Given the poor performance of iPhones at night, this is a feature that Apple phones have sorely needed.

The iPhone 11 Pro Features a New Triple Lens and Night Mode

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait and see whether the iPhone 11 Pro’s regular shooting mode will have improved low light capabilities. I’m not holding my breath, however. The iPhone XS’s low light performance is dismal in low light compared to competitors such as the Google Pixel 3, and there are no indications of a significantly improved sensor on the iPhone 11 Pro.

While the iPhone 11 Pro rear cameras all sit at 12 megapixels, the front-facing camera will see an upgrade from 8 megapixels (in the XS) to 12 megapixels. The lens has also been widened. I don’t recommend using the front-facing camera for serious photography, but it’ll be nice to take some higher resolution selfies and wider selfie-group shots.

The iPhone 11

The iPhone 11 is the successor to Apple’s cheaper iPhone XR.

Fortunately, it offers a notable camera upgrade: from a single wide-angle lens, the iPhone 11 now features both a wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lens setup.

It also includes Night Mode, which will make shooting in low light (hopefully) easier.

Deep Fusion technology

The most intriguing aspect of the new iPhone cameras is the promise of a Deep Fusion technology. This should work on all the new iPhones, including the iPhone 11.

While this feature won’t be rolled out until after the iPhones are released (in a software update), Apple claims that this new technology will allow your iPhone to capture nine images at once, process them, and create a final image that’s optimized for detail, noise, and dynamic range.

If the feature is as impressive as Apple claims, then we have a lot to look forward to.

The iPhone 11 Pro: Should you purchase it?

If you’re a serious smartphone photographer, you’re going to want the iPhone 11 Pro over the iPhone 11. No question. It offers the additional telephoto camera, which you’ll appreciate if you ever want to shoot portraits or street photos.

The iPhone 11 Pro Features a New Triple Lens and Night Mode

But how does the iPhone 11 Pro stack up against its competition?

Personally, I would wait to grab the iPhone 11 Pro until you see what Google comes out with this fall. The iPhone 11 Pro, with its triple cameras and promise of Deep Fusion technology, is appealing. But Apple is currently behind Google in terms of low-light capabilities. And you don’t want to buy a new smartphone, only to wish you had waited just a bit longer for the Pixel 4.

The iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max are available for preorder starting this Friday, September 13th.

What do you think of Apple’s new smartphone cameras? Will you be purchasing an iPhone 11 or an iPhone 11 Pro, or will you wait to see the Google Pixel 4? Share your thoughts in the comments!

The post The iPhone 11 Pro Features a New Triple Lens and Night Mode appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.


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NeuralCam Night Photo app brings Google-inspired ‘Night Sight’ functionality to iPhones

27 Aug

An app called NeuralCam Night Photo uses machine learning and computational photography to offer a ‘Night Sight’ mode on the iPhone. The technology works to transform very low-light images into brighter, clearer photos without the need for a tripod using only software.

NeuralCam Night Photo was recently featured on Product Hunt where app creator Alex Camilar had the following to say about the app:

‘Our inspiration for NeuralCam comes from all the various Night Modes available on Android phones, that helped people make brighter and nicer photos in low light settings, whether natural or artificial. We wanted to make the best out of the iPhone’s hardware and give it the software spin needed to get its own Night Mode photography update.’

NeuralCam Night Photo can be used in a variety of low-light settings, including for both indoor and outdoor shots, according to Camilar. The entire process is done behind the scenes, meaning NeuralCam should more or less work the same as any other camera app for iOS; compose the scene you want to capture, wait for the app to focus, capture the image, and within a few seconds you should see a much brighter and clearer photo than would otherwise be possible.

A comparison shared by NeuralCam to show the difference between an image shot in the standard iPhone camera app (left) and NeuralCam (right).

The app works by capturing multiple images and processing them using machine learning. This same computational photography approach has been used by Google for its single-camera Pixel smartphones.

NeuralCam Night Photo is available for the iPhone 6 and newer; it requires iOS 12 and is supports both the front and rear cameras on these phones with the exception of the iPhone 6s / 6s Plus, which only has rear camera support. A full list of supported image resolutions for each iPhone model can be found on the app’s App Store listing, where the product is temporarily discounted to $ 2.99.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to Turn Day to Night Using Photoshop for Urban Landscapes

19 May

The post How to Turn Day to Night Using Photoshop for Urban Landscapes appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

Have you ever wished you’d photographed something at night? You may not have had the time, knowledge, or gear to do it, but you still regret not getting that shot.

In some cases you may be able to return at night and have another go. But if you can’t, you can quickly turn day to night with Photoshop.

In this article I’ll show you how you to turn your daytime urban scene into a nighttime one using layers and masks. I’ll also give you a few tips on the details you should take care of for a more realistic effect.

But first I want to explain the idea behind this technique so you can apply it to all kinds of photography.

The blue night and the yellow light

You may have noticed that different lights have different colors. Sunsets are redder and warmer than the sunlight at noon. The table lamp from your bedroom is more yellow than the fluorescent light of an office building. And so on.

This is called the color temperature, and is measured in Kelvin degrees. (You can see it in full in this color temperature scale.) And you can take advantage of it to simulate night time by colorizing your image accordingly.

Make it night

First, you need to change the white daylight into a dark blue that corresponds to the night light by adding a blue layer. You can do this in various ways, although I find the easiest way it to select Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Color Lookup… from the menu and clicking OK.

From the Properties panel, open the top drop-down menu and choose any option that gives you a blue tone such as Moonlight, Foggy night, or Night from Day.

If you’re more experienced, and want to to have full control, you can work with a RAW file. At the top of the adjustment panel of the ACR window is a slider where you can adjust the color temperature. You can also enter the Kelvin degrees value you want directly according to the scale I mentioned before.

Turn the lights up

Next, create another layer that’s yellow or amber. If you’re using Adjustment Layers, remember to duplicate of the original first and then add the color one on top of it. If you’re sticking with the Color Lookup adjustment layer style choose Edgy Amber or Candlelight. Once you have it, merge the adjustment layer with the copy you created from the original.

If you’re doing it from ACR, don’t just duplicate your layer. Use the Create a New Smart Object via Copy option instead, or the first layer will go yellow too. You can find this option by right-clicking the layer and choosing it from the menu. Then double-click on the thumbnail to open ACR again and drag the slider to the yellow side.

You now need to add a mask to this yellow layer. You can do this by clicking on the Layer mask button on the bottom of the panel. Once you’ve created it, click Invert in the properties panel. We do it this way because the white mask will show all the content and the black one will block all of it. (To learn more about it, check out Getting Started with Layer Masks in Photoshop – a Beginners Tutorial.) For now you’ll want it all covered so you can paint only what you need to in the next step.

The yellow corresponds to the tungsten light from light bulbs, which you can use to paint lamp posts, windows and any other source of light that might be available during night time. Identify these sources and, using the Brush tool, start painting in the Layer Mask with the brush set to white.

For windows, I find it easier to paint the entire rectangle and then paint out the divisions with the black brush.

This also works for any corrections or detailed work. If you paint something by accident, change the color of the brush to black and paint back over it to cover it again. This is why we’re using masks. The work is non-destructive, and you can easily go back and forth.

The Giveaways

It’s up to you how much work you want to put into the transformation. But keep in mind that the more details you do, the more realistic the effect looks.

For example, the lamp will shed some light onto the wall where it’s hanging, so you’ll want to illuminate that part as well. With the same Brush tool you were using, diminish the opacity from the Options Bar and paint the wall where the light would be hitting. Keep diminishing the opacity as you get further away from the light source.

Another big giveaway is reflective surfaces because light would reflect onto them. In this example, the water in the canals needs to have reflected light. But it may also be needed for cars or puddles, so keep an eye on your scene and paint those as well.

There you have it: from day to night using nothing more than  layers and masks.

I hope you enjoyed this technique. I recommend you go out and do some night photography so you can learn how light, tones and colors behave. The more you understand it, the better you will be able to replicate it in post-production.

If you need some help getting started, check out The Ultimate Guide to Night Photography.

And to get some inspiration for your next digitally created night scenes, here are two great articles:

  • Creating Moods with the Kelvin Scale
  • After Dark – 22 Night Photography Images.

The post How to Turn Day to Night Using Photoshop for Urban Landscapes appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.


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Huawei P30 Pro to come with periscope-style tele lens and updated night mode

06 Mar

Huawei will unveil the successor of its P20 series smartphone at an event in Paris on the 26th of March. However, the company has already revealed a couple of interesting details about the P30 Pro camera to Android Central during a meeting at MWC in Barcelona.

According to Huawei’s VP of Global Product Marketing, Clement Wong, the top-of-the-range model in the P30 series will feature a periscope-style tele camera, similar to what we’ve seen on OPPO’s 10x prototype that is expected to make an appearance in a finalized product any day now.

Huawei hasn’t provided any information about the exact magnification the module will provide but given the P20 Pro already offered a 3x optical and 5x optical zoom last year, we’d expect an improvement over that. So maybe, the P30 Pro will beat OPPO to the line and be the first smartphone on the market to come with a 10x optical zoom.

A photo of the moon that was recently captured with the device in question by Huawei CEO Richard Yu would certainly indicate a zoom factor that is not available on any current smartphones.

Photo: Huawei

In addition to the powerful zoom, Huawei engineers have also been working to improve the previous generation’s low light capabilities. The company did not provide any detail but suggested the next version of its night camera will be major upgrade over the already pretty impressive existing one. Despite the current lack of detail, it seems there’s a lot to look forward to for mobile photographers at the Huawei launch in a few weeks time.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Proposed rule changes would make it easier for drones to fly at night, above crowds

15 Jan

Despite a partial government shutdown in the United States, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced a new proposed rule that would simplify the process of flying drones at night and over crowds of people by removing the need for waivers.

The proposed rule, which can be read as a draft (PDF), would remove the need for commercial drone operators to file for waivers granting them permission to fly both at night and over large gatherings of people. It would also drones to have ‘an anti-collision light illuminated and visible for at least 3 statute miles, according to the document proposal.

‘This will help communities reap the considerable economic benefits of this growing industry, and help our country remain a global technology leader,’ said Chao in her statement to the nonprofit Transportation Research Board.

DJI chimed in on the proposed rule change with a blog post on its website that begins by stating:

DJI, the world’s leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, welcomes the U.S. Department of Transportation’s proposals announced today to help expand the use of drones in America, and looks forward to a substantive discussion that balances the requirements of the proposed rules with the benefits they would achieve.

The proposed rule change also lists out new rules for smaller drones. Specifically, drones weighing less than .55lbs / 250g would be able to fly over crowds without any new restrictions. However, drones weighing more would need their manufacturers to prove that if the drone ‘crashed into a person, the resulting injury would be below a certain severity threshold,’

The proposed rule change will be open for public comment for 60 days before anything can be set in stone.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Review: Color night vision with the SiOnyx Aurora

25 Nov

As someone who frequently photographs the night sky and nocturnal landscapes, I was intrigued by the recently announced SiOnyx Aurora IR Night Vision Camera. The Aurora is a compact camera designed to shoot stills and video in color under low light conditions, in addition to providing night vision capability.

The camera is marketed for outdoor enthusiasts (e.g., boaters, fishermen, hunters, hikers) who need to see in the dark and might want to capture their nocturnal activities. At a retail price of $ 799 it’s more than an impulse buy, but it promises some impressive capabilities. Being an aurora photographer, I was interested in its performance capturing the Northern Lights so I took the Aurora to Yellowknife, Canada.

Key specifications

  • ‘Ultra-low-light’ 1″-type CMOS sensor
  • 1280×720 resolution (stills and video)
  • 16mm (47mm equiv) lens
  • Three shooting modes: Night (F1.4), Twilight (F2.0), and Day (F5.6)
  • Image stabilization
  • Video frame rates from 7.5 to 60 fps
  • OLED viewfinder
  • IP67 water resistant

Night Vision

The SiOnyx Aurora features a one-inch-type ultra low light CMOS sensor—sensitive to both visible and infrared light —capable of capturing stills and video in either monochrome or color, though it’s limited to shooting stills and video at 1280×720 resolution.

This resolution may seem low by today’s standards but it makes sense for a night vision camera. In everyday photography pixel size has very little effect on image quality, other than that small pixels give more detail. However, the tiny advantage that large pixels can have can become significant in extreme low-light situations, which means a night vision camera is one of the few instances where bigger pixels offer a recognizable benefit.

The SiOnyx Aurora features a 1″-type ultra low light CMOS sensor sensitive to both visible and infrared light. It also includes effective image stabilization for handheld use in dark conditions.

Resolution and pixel size aside, as soon as I picked up the Aurora it became evident that its compact size and light weight were going to put this camera in its own category. The water-resistant Aurora is 11.7 cm (4.6″) long and weighs only 227 g (8 oz) so it fits easily in a jacket pocket. Its portability and the fact that a tripod is not required to shoot at night means that the Aurora can always be within reach and ready to shoot.

The Aurora has three shooting modes for daytime (F5.6), twilight (F2.0), and nighttime (F1.4) scenes. The daytime setting performs as expected but the twilight mode performs well only for a short window of time. My impression was that I needed to change the dial to the night setting long before twilight was over. When you rotate the dial from Twilight to Night, the infrared filter is removed from the optical path. The Night scene mode is the most useful (and fun) since at that setting the camera captures light at wavelengths way beyond what the human eye can see. Specifically, its wavelength range goes from blue (400 nm) to infrared (1,100 nm). In comparison, the human eye can see from blue (400 nm) to red (700 nm).

All videos below are straight-out-of-camera and were shot handheld.

Comparison of the Twilight and Night scene modes shot two hours after sunset. It was dark enough that I needed my smartphone LED light to safely walk around. Download original
Scenes shot in Twilight and Night modes two hours after sunset. Download original

The Night scene mode has three color settings collectively referred to as ‘Night Glow’: Grayscale and Green, both useful when there’s almost no artificial light and barely any natural light, and Night Color, beneficial when viewing colors is important, as in the case of the Northern Lights.

Scenes shot in Grayscale Night mode. The armadillo was shot near a street lamp. The scene in the park was very dark to the human eye since those trees blocked most of the artificial light. The third scene was shot under moonlight and some street lighting. Download original

Point, Focus, and Shoot in the Dark

The benefits of the Aurora for hunting, fishing, and other outdoor enthusiasts is very apparent, but I wanted to see how useful it would be to capture video of the Northern Lights. Since most of the time the Northern Lights move slowly, time-lapse photography with exposures of several seconds is the perfect technique to capture them. That way, we get to capture more light with long exposures and we get to compress (or speed up) time by playing the frames at a higher rate than those at which they were taken.

During a substorm the lower end of an aurora curtain can move at speeds exceeding 5 km/s and look motion-blurred in time-lapse sequences. The higher frame rate of video works better to capture the substorm motion…

Nevertheless, time-lapse photography might not be the best technique to capture a substorm: the sudden brightening and increased movement of auroral arcs that can last for tens of minutes. During a substorm the lower end of an aurora curtain can move at speeds exceeding 5 km/s and look motion-blurred in time-lapse sequences. The higher frame rate of video works better to capture the substorm motion, but the shorter exposure for each frame results in lower signal-to-noise ratios and lower image quality.

I set the camera to the Night Color mode, the frame rate to 30p, and set focus to infinity. Once a substorm started all I had to do was to take the camera out of my pocket, turn it on, and press record. The electronic viewfinder (EVF) shows you exactly what you are capturing so it is very easy to point, shoot, and follow your subject.

Handheld video showing strong green and red auroral emission during a substorm on the moonless night of 9 September 2018. The foreground in all of these auroras videos was extremely dark and the use of flashlight to safely walk around was imperative. Download original

As expected, the SiOnyx Aurora works best when the Northern Lights are at its brightest, and you can see how the video gets noisier when the lighting conditions are darker (0:20 and 1:08 marks on the video above). Also, the Auto White Balance appears to shift during faint periods (1:33 mark). Overall, the camera captured the colors and rapid motion of the substorm well.

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The images above are video frames taken from the SiOnyx Aurora camera. Both video and still images from the camera have a resolution of 1280×720.

A few nights later I shot a brighter auroral substorm from the side of a road. The infrared light reflected by nearby trees at the beginning of the video below indicates that the ambient light at that location was also brighter. Note that the infrared light detected by the camera comes from objects reflecting it and not emitting it. In other words, the camera does not detect thermal emission (light emitted due to the temperature of matter).

This brighter auroral substorm resulted in a video with lower noise. Notice the infrared light reflected by vegetation and the very fast motion of the aurora around 0:25. Download original
The SiOnyx Aurora outputs JPEG stills and MOV (H.264) video files with audio. Unless otherwise noted, images in this articles are frames from videos files. To compare the quality of a JPEG with the quality of a video frame, I shot a still in Color Night mode (F1.4) with an exposure of 1/30 sec at ISO 20,000 and compared it with a frame of a video of the same scene shot in Color Night mode (F1.4) at 30p. I can only assume that the chosen ISO (the Aurora always operates in Auto ISO) was 20,000 as well.

The video frame looks cleaner and the edges look slightly sharper but the shadows are clipped. This could be the result of further image processing and video compression. One definite advantage of shooting stills is the ability of taking exposures as long as 1.5 seconds.

Comparison of a still image with an exposure of 1/30 sec at ISO 20,000 and a frame from a video shot at 30p. Both were shot in Color Night mode (F1.4). The foreground tree was illuminated by a street lamp.

To see how the SiOnyx Aurora compares to another camera that performs well in low light conditions, I shot two scenes with the Aurora (set to Color Night mode) and with the Nikon D5 with a Nikkor 50mm F1.4G. Both image sets were shot with the same exposure parameters.

Still image shot with the SiOnyx Aurora: 1/30 sec, F1.4, ISO 20,000 Still image shot with a Nikon D5 and a Nikkor 50mm F1.4G: 1/30 sec, F1.4, ISO 20,000. Sampled down to 1280 px wide.
Still image shot with the SiOnyx Aurora: 1/15 sec, F1.4, ISO 102,400 Still image shot with a Nikon D5 and a Nikkor 50mm F1.4G: 1/15 sec, F1.4, ISO 102,400. Sampled down to 1280 px wide.

Not surprisingly, given its relatively low resolution, the images from the SiOnyx camera are not as sharp and clean as those shot with the Nikon D5, but they do show more vegetation due its extended range into the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The second scene was too dark for the unaided eye to clearly perceive and, while I was able to easily focus using the Aurora EVF, it was impossible for me to focus using the D5 viewfinder or Live View mode. It is evident that the advantages of the Aurora are its infrared sensitivity, bright EVF, ease of use, compactness, and light weight.

The Aurora sports a fixed 16mm lens (47mm equivalent in full frame terms) which provides a diagonal FOV of 48 degrees. Although, I wished I had a wider FOV to capture the auroral displays, I think the fixed 48-degree FOV is a good compromise for most uses. Lens focus is manual only, but I was surprised how easy it was for me to focus in the dark thanks to the bright OLED EVF. Additionally, the camera features focus peaking, which displays a red highlight on in?focus edges.

Features Galore

The Aurora is packed with shooting features including shutter speeds from 1.5 sec to 1/8,000 sec, burst mode (2.5, 5, or 10p), HDR, self-timer (2, 5, or 12 sec), panorama (up to 180 degrees in landscape or portrait mode), and time-lapse. Video frame rates range from 7.5 to 120p. The Aurora also features Electronic Image Stabilization and remote operation using the SiOnyx mobile app (iOS and Android).

Lens focus is manual only, but I was surprised how easy it was for me to focus in the dark thanks to the bright OLED EVF.

Its EVF displays shooting parameters and modes, current time, compass direction, GPS coordinates, and optionally, focus peaking, grid (to aid in image composition), and pitch & roll (to aid in keeping the camera level in two axes).

The EVF has the option to turn itself on only when you move your face close the eyepiece. Although this definitely helps to save power (from a standard Fujifilm-style NP-50 lithium ion battery) I thought that battery life was very limited. Fortunately, the Aurora can draw power from an external source via USB. (NB: For this to work you still need a battery inside the camera). This is very helpful, for example, when taking long time-lapse sequences.

The SiOnyx app lets you connect remotely to the Aurora via Wi-Fi to: browse and delete content in the microSD card, change settings, and shoot stills and video.

Final Thoughts

Not only can the Aurora capture video and stills at night, but the list of uses (thanks to its bright EVF) in wildlife watching, hunting, boating, fishing, and other nocturnal outdoor activities is long.

I think it’s important to stress what the camera is not for. It’s neither designed for capturing high-resolution images for prints or HD monitors nor for shooting video for professional productions. Hence, it is not in the same category as low-light mirrorless cameras or DSLRs. The camera is very useful as a device to do tasks in the dark—especially when safety might be an issue—and to capture outdoor activities and the natural world at night in a fun and easy way.

Video frame of Northern Lights tour participants warming up and waiting for the natural spectacle to begin.

I benefit tremendously from using high-end DSLRs to take long exposures and time-lapse sequences of natural phenomena. I don’t see the SiOnyx Aurora as a substitute to my equipment but as a complement instead.

I’ll let my high-end DSLRs do what they do best—capture time-lapse sequences for my science films—and use the Aurora to capture nocturnal videos that allow me to demonstrate phenomena in my science lectures (e.g., how fast can the Northern Lights appear to move). As a science communicator, handheld videos shot in real time, especially with audio, help me bring audiences closer to the natural phenomena I present and, as a photographer, the fact that I can take this camera out of my pocket and be ready to shoot in seconds is a big plus.

As a science communicator, handheld videos shot in real time, especially with audio, help me bring audiences closer to the natural phenomena I present…

Does the SiOnyx Aurora let me see things in the dark that I can’t see with the unaided eye? Absolutely: the infrared sensitivity makes a big difference and, hence, my stress on the night vision capability of this device. The fact that you can also capture what you see is a plus. For me it was capturing Northern Lights, but I’m also looking forward to capturing surface lava flows in Hawaii, bioluminescence in Puerto Rico, as well as other phenomena around the world.

What we like:

  • Pocketable, always with you size
  • Easy to operate in the dark
  • High enough image quality for instructional use or social media
  • Image stabilization

What we’d like to see improved:

  • A dial less prone to accidentally turning off the camera
  • Ability to set white balance manually
  • Video metadata saved to XMP file (GPS coordinates, direction, etc.)
  • A hot shoe (for accessory lights)
  • A lens cap

José Francisco Salgado, PhD is an Emmy-nominated astronomer, science photographer, public speaker, and tour operator who creates multimedia works that communicate science in engaging ways. His Science & Symphony films through KV 265 have been presented in more than 350 concerts and lectures in 18 countries.

José Francisco is a seasoned night sky and aurora photographer and filmmaker. If you would like to view, photograph, and learn about the Northern Lights please inquire about his Borealis Science & Photo Tours in Yellowknife, Canada.

You can follow him on: Flickr, Instagram, 500px, Facebook, and Twitter

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Google’s Night Sight allows for photography in near darkness

15 Nov

Google’s latest Pixel 3 smartphone generation comes with the company’s new Night Sight feature that allows for the capture of well-exposed and clean images in near darkness, without using a tripod or flash. Today Google published a post on its Research Blog, explaining in detail thecomputational photography and machine learning techniques used by the feature and describing the challenges the development team had to overcome in order to capture the desired image results.

Night Sight builds on Google’s multi-frame-merging HDR+ mode that was first introduced in 2014, but takes things a few steps further, merging a larger number of frames and aiming to improve image quality in extremely low light levels between 3 lux and 0.3 lux.

One key difference between HDR+ and Night Sight are longer exposure times for individual frames, allowing for lower noise levels. HDR+ uses short exposures to provide a minimum frame rate in the viewfinder image and instant image capture using zero-shutter-lag technology. Night Sight waits until after you press the shutter button before capturing images which means users need to hold still for a short time after pressing the shutter but achieve much cleaner images.

The longer per-frame exposure times could also result in motion blur caused by handshake or to moving objects in the scene. This problem is solved by measuring motion in a scene and setting an exposure time that minimizes blur. Exposure times also vary based on a number of other factors, including whether the camera features OIS and the device motion detected by the gyroscope.

In addition to per-frame exposure, Night Sight also varies the number of frames that are captured and merged, 6 if the phone is on a tripod and up to 15 if it is handheld.

Frame alignment and merging are additional challenges that you can read all about in detail on the Google Research Blog. Our science editor Rishi Sanyal also had a closer look at Night Sight and the Pixel 3’s other computational imaging features in this article.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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