All of the best iPhones do an incredible amount of image processing behind the scenes when you take a photo, much of which is handled by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. Sometimes, though, that’s not ideal, and you just want the raw, unfiltered image instead so you can edit it to your liking. In such cases, the popular Halide photography app may have just what you need.
That’s because the latest version of the app, the 2.15 update, has a new feature called Process Zero, the app’s developer explains in a recent blog postThis feature comes with “no AI, no computational photography at all – giving photographers a counterbalance to the increasingly AI-intensive processing and tooling on smartphones,” the developer says, potentially giving you results that are much closer to what you’d expect from a more traditional camera.
Halide has offered tools like this in the past, but they’ve always reduced the level of processing your iPhone does, not eliminated it entirely. With Process Zero, you have complete control over what post-processing you want to do to your images, without your iPhone having to take any action on your behalf. That gives you more choice with your iPhone photography, and means less “giving up choice as an artist,” says Halide’s developer.
Doesn’t this sound like your cup of tea? Don’t worry; you don’t have to use Process Zero. Halide still lets you use standard iPhone processing, reduced image processing, or ProRAW image capture if you prefer.
Real raw photography
Shooting with Process Zero can present a few issues for the inexperienced photographer. As the developer puts it, it works “best in daylight or mixed lighting, rather than night shots,” where the lighting isn’t optimal. Likewise, the iPhone’s AI intelligently balances light and dark areas when both occur in the same shot, something you’ll have to handle manually when using Process Zero.
And because Apple’s computational photography is tied to the hardware of its iPhones, Halide’s Process Zero is limited to 12MP shots instead of the full 48MP resolution that modern iPhones can capture.
But those trade-offs will all be part of the appeal for a broad group of iPhone photographers. Without Apple’s AI tweaking your images—its interpretation of what makes a “good” image might not match your own—there’s more room for you to apply your own post-processing effects to get the results you want. If you want to fix some noise in your images, for example, or simply want the digital equivalent of photographic negatives to use as you see fit, Halide’s new feature will be tempting.
Anyone who loves taking photos with their iPhone but is frustrated by the lack of control over the end result will likely be tempted to use Halide’s Process Zero. Once you start using it, you’ll find that the results are exactly what you’re looking for.