Process: Zero, a first experiment

I read enough Apple-specific sites to have become vaguely aware of the new Process Zero mode of the camera app Halide. This is what it does, according to the developer:

Process Zero is a new mode in Halide that skips over the standard iPhone image processing system. It produces photos with more detail and allows the photographer greater control over lighting and exposure. This is not a photo filter— it really develops photos at the raw, sensor-data level.

I wasn’t inclined to explore it, until I heard someone talking on a podcast about it (I forget who). They described how it removes the over-saturated HDR look than many iPhone photos. Or, to be more accurate, because it dodges the whole computational photography aspect of the iPhone camera, it stops those effects being added automatically by the phone camera when it thinks it needs it. And that creates something a little bit more like you get from a traditional digital camera — or even (whisper it) film…

That was intruiging. And so, on a sunny autumn morning, as I walked up to City St George’s for work, I had a wee play.

These aren’t the images straight out of the phone. I have done a little post-processing on them. As Lux, the makers of Halide, put it:

Just like film, Process Zero photos come with (digital) negatives, affording incredible control to change exposure after the fact. Much like film, it has grain. It works best in daytime or mixed lighting, rather than nighttime shots.

But as I was working through them, I was struck how they appeared to be a little but more like traditional photography. Detail was lost in some shadows, and a lot of highlights. The colours were muted, and the images were a little soft.

I was able to tweak up the colours a little bit, but I was happiest with them a little below the iPhone’s normal levels of saturation. And I made no real attempt to reclaim detail in the highlights, although I did in the shadows for some images.

Overall, I like the look. It’s just a.bit more naturalistic than the iPhone’s own processing:

This is the one I’m most pleased with:

Yes, it’s burnt out in places, and the iPhone default would probably have rescued those highlights. But, to me, they help make the image work.

I’ll be doing more of this.