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Reposting my comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34258744 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34258744 as I think it's relevant to the sentiments

Reposting my comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34258744 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34258744 as I think it's relevant to the sentiments here. I've addressed the technical side of this argument before, but I want to address a side that bother's me quite a bit but I don't see addressed often. Adding computational aspects into photography means that the images taken on these platforms will all have the same artistic interpretation at the level that that computation works. This is fine for snapshots, etc. Where it hurts is in artistic expression. It's almost as if all photos will go through an artistic AI after being taken. This process can, and likely will, increase the acceptability of those pictures that we use those cameras for most often. I truly think that computational photography will hurt the artistic expression and the feel of images taken outside of those situations. Right now, with a "real" camera shooting RAW, you keep as much detail of the image as possible and the photographer (artist) edits it to present what their mind's eye told them was there from that RAW data. With anything using computational photography the computer algorithm has already modified that data permanently, pushing and shaping it towards what that algorithm has determined is most pleasing for the largest number of people. I feel like this is a major win for most people who don't care about the art side of photography, but a major loss we aren't yet acknowledging for those who want to explore the artistic expression of the medium.

kaba0 4y ago
> It's almost as if all photos will go through an artistic AI after being taken. With all due respect, this is so far from the truth that it really takes away everything from the argument. How is computational photography any different than simply using other statistical methods to improve the signal-to-noise ratio? Is ISO and changing shutter speed any different? That also changes the actual thing.
- l33tbro 4y ago
  You can't control the parameters of computational photography. Shutter and ISO are subtle and predictable variants that you know exactly what tweaking them will do. Computational photography is a black box.
  - CobaltFire 4y ago
    Exactly this.
- CobaltFire 4y ago
  I'm curious if you actually understand what those AI models the iPhone is using DO? It looks at the noisy pixels (those that aren't mapping to the rest of the area) and decides, based on AI modeling using "attractive photos" in their dataset, what those pixels should be so the image maps to those attractive images. This can result in all kinds of suboptimal outcomes if you want a specific look other than that, whether that be as true to life as you can get it or something entirely different.

kaba0 4y ago

> It's almost as if all photos will go through an artistic AI after being taken. With all due respect, this is so far from the truth that it really takes away everything from the argument. How is computational photography any different than simply using other statistical methods to improve the signal-to-noise ratio? Is ISO and changing shutter speed any different? That also changes the actual thing.

l33tbro 4y ago
You can't control the parameters of computational photography. Shutter and ISO are subtle and predictable variants that you know exactly what tweaking them will do. Computational photography is a black box.
- CobaltFire 4y ago
  Exactly this.
CobaltFire 4y ago
I'm curious if you actually understand what those AI models the iPhone is using DO? It looks at the noisy pixels (those that aren't mapping to the rest of the area) and decides, based on AI modeling using "attractive photos" in their dataset, what those pixels should be so the image maps to those attractive images. This can result in all kinds of suboptimal outcomes if you want a specific look other than that, whether that be as true to life as you can get it or something entirely different.