Camera colors on different phones and where are my threads

[Rgarner]

I just took a picture with the Pure and noticed that the colors were way off, and when I used my friend's OnePlus Nord it was more accurate, though still not perfect. Is there a way to adjust the Pure to do a better job? Also, the site just got an attitude adjustment that has definitely made it worse. I don't like having the alerts way at the bottom when they were much handier at the top. I cant even fnd my threads. Things should be left well enough alone...if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it!

 

[ocnbrze]

I just took a picture with the Pure and noticed that the colors were way off, and when I used my friend's OnePlus Nord it was more accurate, though still not perfect. Is there a way to adjust the Pure to do a better job? Also, the site just got an attitude adjustment that has definitely made it worse. I don't like having the alerts way at the bottom when they were much handier at the top. I cant even fnd my threads. Things should be left well enough alone...if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it!

this article might help you:

How to Shoot in Manual Mode with Your Android Camera

Using your Android's manual camera is a good gateway into photography. We'll take you through the basics of creating stunning photos in manual mode!

expertphotography.com

and as far this being broke.....it kind of is. we need more traffic on this site so @Rob is tweaking the site. and thus some things will get moved around. i would say nothing is permanent just yet. but expect a lot of changes going forward.

 

[Rob]

if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it!

AF is indeed broken... to fix it, we are rethinking our purpose, so expect the lots of big changes in the coming weeks. With an open mind and some optimism it'll be kinda fun! Like- hey, I wonder what's new and/or broken at AF today! Let's go check it out!

We've got LOTS of work to do but the changes are important to keep this community alive. Things are sloppy right now but hopefully you'll see things start to take shape over the next month. And your feedback is welcome over that time... you're probably right about keeping all the notifications at the top (I'm playing with options and settings of our theme).

 

[Hadron]

I've not noticed alerts at the bottom. I was away for a week or two, so maybe I missed something, but they seem to be where I always expected them to be.

As for photo colours, first question: what device are you looking at them on? Because if it's "on the phone's screen" and these are 2 different phones then it's hard to know whether the difference is the camera, the display or both.

But if you are looking at the photos on the same device, and its one whose colour rendering you trust, then yeah, different cameras may produce different colours. I could write you an essay on why, but it comes down to the fact that there is a lot of processing involved in translating amounts of charge produced behind different coloured filters (what the camera sensor actually measures) into a colour image, and that means a lot of decisions. And different manufacturers will make different choices, so if you photograph the same scene with 2 different phones at the same time the colour balances of the images will differ. In fact they probably don't aim for accuracy anyway: they want to sell phones, so if they think that most of their customers will prefer images that have a bit more saturation, a bit more contrast, be a bit warmer, a bit more vivid, than the real scene actually was, that's what they'll aim to do. But the net result is that 2 different phones will tend to produce different-looking images.

So what can you do about it? If your camera has a "raw" mode you can use that, copy the raw files (much bigger than the jpegs) to a computer and use software to produce jpeg images from them. That way you will have a lot more control over those choices, but it's a lot, lot more work! I do it with my "real" cameras, but not with my phones. So practically, if your camera app has a "pro" or "manual" mode, as @ocnbrze suggests you can see whether that helps. If it's the colour balance then look for a "white balance" (WB) or "colour temperature" option (these are the same thing). That will shift the overall colour balance of the image from reddish ("warm") to blueish ("cold"), which may be enough. On my s21's camera that's really the only colour control I have: exposure compensation ("EV") alters the brightness, which may be perceived as a change in colour in places, but that's about it. If the manufacturer has for example decided that both blues and reds should be over-saturated then white balance can't fix both, since turning one down will turn the other up.

One other thing you could check though: does your camera app have "filters"? On my Samsung this appears as a little "magic wand" icon in one corner of the camera, but others may use a different symbol or way of selecting. If it has such things, they can change the colour balance of the image. So if the colours look wrong, maybe check you don't have one of those applied. And if you don't, maybe see whether there is one that makes things look more realistic?

One other thing to remember: different types of lighting can also produce different colour casts, so what works in daylight might not work as well in artificial light indoors. The camera will try to figure out the correct white balance, but won't always get it right.

 

[Rgarner]

Thanks, I do mean the view from the screen on two different phones, a Moto G Pure and a PlusOne Nord. I found the filters, a differently named set for each phone, and they do have some interesting effects. What I really want most of the time is color as true to reality as possible. For instance, if something looks red I want red, not pink, green as green rather than blue, etc. I doubt either of them has raw and I wouldn't know where to look.

 

[Hadron]

You'd look in the camera app's settings to see whether there was an option for raw output. But as I say, that does add a lot of hassle.

Reds coming out pink and greens as blue is quite a severe error. I don't know whether that's something that can be fixed with a simple colour temperature (white balance) adjustment - and in any event the "correct" colour temperature depends on the lighting, so if the auto doesn't do it ~right you have to manually tweak it for every set of shots.

Have you tried viewing shots from one phone on the other, or on another device? Just to work out how much of the problem is the phone camera and how much is the screen?

 

[Rgarner]

No, I haven't done that but it would be a good idea. Probably the main difficulty is the cheapness of the Moto G Pure (sub $50 at walmart). The Nord might not be super expensive but it likely has overall the better specs. As for pink/red, blue/green etc., I might have been exaggerating somewhat. It's just frustrating to see a color in real life and not be able to capture it properly.