Fix my "flat" phone pics

[Jaded62]

Hi all.

On the ABC some weeks ago there was a story about a bloke in Brisbane taking pics with his phone and how well they come out. This inspired me to use my Samsung S21 when I'm out and about to snap this and that.

I'm using pro mode and download the DNG files into ACR and PS CC.

BUT.............everything I've tried to process to date seems to come out pretty flat (no depth) and lifeless. This is no doubt caused by the lens capability (or lack thereof of the phone) and may be because I'm taking landscapes instead of up close portraits and alike (like the bloke on the ABC was doing).

Any advice and direction to work flow etc would be appreciated.


Cheers,

Mark

[ameerat42]

Interim reply...

Jaded. Welcome to DNG processing. I use(d) UFRaw to do the processing, and I thought
pretty much the same about the appearance of the original DNG output files. I'm a bit
rusty about the processes now, and I've just now found the old files I took, so I will have
some practice later. BUT... It has NOTHing to do with the lens of the camera, and AFAIK,
EVERYthing to do with the recording of the DNG files. I ended up with some fairly good
results, so don't give up.

BTW, my phone is a Nokia 50G, capable of 50MPx images, but at that time only using
"raw" (DNG). Since then they have brought out a S/W upgrade which lets me take the
same size in JPEG, without resorting to raw imaging. (And I've really only tried it 1 or 2
times.) But I usually just have it set at 12 MPx with "Motion" ON. (I think that's NR).
This produces a series of about 20-30 images, which the phone interpolates, with very
-ing results. I think the S21 should be even better in this regard.

I'll be back later with some info about processing.

- - - Updated - - -

PS: Can you find a link to that ABC show?

[flashc]

Hi...

I've taken photos on my old Samsung S5 in Pro mode, raw + jpg when I've been out without my DLSR

Processed the raw files in Photoshop CC and gave me a good result
I save the final edits as PSD and jpg files to process in my other editors

I guess you process your camera raw files in PS CC too, nef, cr2 or something else

I process the dng files from my drone too and I can make them much better than the jpg photos

[Jaded62]

PS: Can you find a link to that ABC show?

I've searched and can't find it. If I recall correctly this guys lost or left his job for health reasons and for exercise or therapy started walking around Brisy taking pics. The story was set at South Bank.

[ameerat42]

Back again after some searching around...

I found the dng files, and they default to UFRaw, but I remember also using Lightroom, and ACR.

Just now I opened a couple in Adobe Bridge, which opens them in Adobe Camera Raw (plugin). I recall
using that method on a few of them. All this was about a year ago so a bit hazy. I think I liked the ACR
interface best of all. Below is a screenshot from my [ancient ] CS2.

If you like/can/want, upload one or two of the flat DNGs to something like Dropbox and I will have a look
at some processing options.

DNG in CS2 ACR...
DNG-IN-ACR.jpg

[flashc]

You might find the show in ABC Iview online