Erik WinquistFeb 28
Have been tinkering with #saulala on my laptop since @petrikas made it available as a web app. But today was the first time I tried running it on my iPhone. Amazing! Finally a way to get some decently formed images directly on the phone without Apple's rubbish "make everything a midtone" insanity. If you haven't tried https://app.saulala.com yet, you should. Apple vs Saulala:
Show threadClaus
@quister @petrikas Not sure if I love the completely blown out clouds, but the green and water feels a lot more pleasing and warm. Would love to see a comparison using Apple Photos' editing tools though. Just a standard output vs a fine-tuned raw file isn't really fair.
Mar 1 at 10:28amWeb
Show threadPetrikasMar 1

@claus @quister The "blown out clouds" is what gives the picture depth. The trees next to the waterfall are clearly a "shadow" area, which would be ridiculous if it would the same energy levels as the sky and the clouds. (And it is ridiculous in the first picture).

You're immediately discarding authorship. If the author's intent was to bring all focus to the waterfall, without losing depth, it only makes sense that "the sky" gets attenuated. It is of non-importance.

Show threadPetrikasMar 1
@claus @quister there's also "information" outside of the "Field of View" of the camera; the author chose not to include it either.
Show threadClausMar 1
@petrikas @quister Is it the author’s intention or is it the tool’s restriction? I cognize the sky as bleak and misty, which doesn’t stroke with the rest of the image. I think there’s room for Apple’s local tonemapping but not nearly in the amount they’re doing it.
Show threadPetrikasMar 1

@claus @quister it is not the tool's restriction, since it's got 'exposure' and "contrast" control.

All 'local tone-mapping' is garbage since it produces broken pictures as shown by countless "HDR" or "phone" pictures that disregard the we read / parse / decompose images.

Show threadPetrikasMar 1

@claus https://unsplash.com/photos/a-green-plant-in-the-dark-on-a-black-background-8Zj1wywkEhQ

The black background here, for example, isn't created by restriction of the tool either.

And I can bet that there was more information captured than that.

Photo by Atsushi Tsubokura on Unsplash

Download this photo by Atsushi Tsubokura on Unsplash

Show threadPetrikasMar 1

@claus Notice how your focus shifts from "the sky" to "the cliff".

All this ties well into why the HDR technology as a whole doesn't work.

Show threadtroy_s Mar 3

@claus @petrikas @quister

If we bundle up the ideas into a broader “integration theory”, I think we can see some hints.

For example, try to parse the air material of the waterfall mist. Notice how there can only be one continuum of energy in the totality of the pictorial depiction? If we increase the gradients of the “sky”, we are always implicitly *losing* the depiction of the air material.

I *suspect* this is the ineffable quality of depictions of clouds, too.