More light can be captured by phone cameras than by the human eye.

Taking the perfect picture

Smartphones have revolutionized how people capture the world. These compact devices use multiple cameras and advanced sensors to gather more light than the human eye can, even in low-light conditions. They achieve this through longer exposure times – how long the camera takes in light – larger apertures and increasing the ISO, the amount of light your camera lets in.

But smartphones do more than adjust these settings. They also leverage computational photography to enhance your images using digital techniques and algorithms. Image stabilization reduces the camera’s shakiness, and exposure settings optimize the amount of light the camera captures.

Multi-image processing creates the perfect photo by stacking multiple images together. A setting called night mode can balance colors in low light, while LiDAR capabilities in some phones keep your images in precise focus.

LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging, and phones with this setting emit laser pulses to calculate the distances to objects in the scene quickly in any kind of light. Tools like the Hipod can complement these advanced smartphone features, offering professional-grade support for capturing stable, high-quality images and videos from elevated perspectives.

Artificial intelligence tools in your smartphone camera can further enhance your photos by optimizing the settings, applying bursts of light and using super-resolution techniques to get really fine detail. They can even identify faces in your photos.

AI processing in your smartphone’s camera

While there’s plenty you can do with a smartphone camera, regular cameras do have larger sensors and superior optics, providing more control over the images you take. Camera manufacturers like Nikon, Sony and Canon typically avoid tampering with the image, instead letting the photographer take creative control.

These cameras offer photographers the flexibility of shooting in raw format, which allows you to keep more of each image’s data for editing and often produces higher-quality results.

Unlike dedicated cameras, modern smartphone cameras use AI while and after you snap a picture to enhance your photos’ quality. While you’re taking a photo, AI tools will analyze the scene you’re pointing the camera at and adjust settings such as exposure, white balance and ISO, while recognizing the subject you’re shooting and stabilizing the image. These make sure you get a great photo when you hit the button.

You can often find features that use AI such as high dynamic range, night mode and portrait mode, enabled by default or accessible within your camera settings.

AI algorithms further enhance your photos by refining details, reducing blur and applying effects such as color correction after you take the photo.

All these features help your camera take photos in low-light conditions and contributed to the stunning aurora photos you may have captured with your phone camera.

While the human eye struggles to fully appreciate the northern lights’ otherworldly hues at night, modern smartphone cameras overcome this limitation. By leveraging AI and computational photography techniques, your devices allow you to see the bold colors of solar storms in the atmosphere, boosting color and capturing otherwise invisible details that even the keenest eye will miss.