Indoor pictures....ehhhh?!?

[Bobbman]

I was wondering how everyone felt about the pictures indoors under natural to somewhat low light (not dark restaurant bar low light just maybe not the brightest room). Seems like they are quite noisy. Does anyone know settings or the mode that will help this? I know the low light mode but that seems not to work so well in this type of lighting. The outdoor pictures are absolutely stunning. Just seems that if you go indoors into normal lighting the quality goes down VERY quickly.

 

[SlickSpur]

I was really dissapointed in indoor pictures with the GS4 in the beginning. Then someone explained to me about the benefits of using flash, even when it's not very dark in the room. I medium lit room, or just about ANY indoor shot, should use a flash. Using it may also close the shutter quicker, letting in less noise. Try it out, it makes a world of difference.

 

[TheAutoMomma]

Somethings you photograph inside aren't really conducive to flash usage though. I take a lot of pictures of my kids, and as soon as the flash hits their faces, their eyes squinch up, making a not so good picture anyway. I agree that flash usage is optimal for low-medium light conditions, but not always possible.

OP, I've had the same experience thus far. Basically, lots of noise if there's no source of natural light. If I take a pic inside my living room, with the curtains open, it's fine, if I take pics in say, a basement, it's really noisy even with ALL the lights on.

Guess we need to mess with settings more. I want to love this camera and I do for outside... Inside, not as much.

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[Bobbman]

It is just really bizarre. Outside the BEST phone camera I have ever seen on Verizon (Nokia 928 included). Inside it is like a different camera. My old DNA and my wife's Iphone 5 are both better inside with natural lighting. Outside the S4 blows them away. Makes no sense. This is SOOO close to the perfect phone camera.

 

[packerbacker]

This is SOOO close to the perfect phone camera.

I agree, and have similar indoor frustrations with the camera.

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[trucky]

Excellent excellent outdoor full light camera. The video is great too. I've learned that indoors you have to open every curtain, turn on every light and keep the flash set to auto to get anything close to good quality in the final product. Guess we can't have it both ways... low light and bright outdoors at the same high quality.

Outdoors this phone rivals the photos of high priced professional medium format cameras I've owned in years past.

 

[SERBDVB]

i have the same problem then i try turning on option in camera settings auto night detection , automatically adjusts the camera in low light to give brighter pictures

 

[Bobbman]

Excellent excellent outdoor full light camera. The video is great too. I've learned that indoors you have to open every curtain, turn on every light and keep the flash set to auto to get anything close to good quality in the final product. Guess we can't have it both ways... low light and bright outdoors at the same high quality.

Outdoors this phone rivals the photos of high priced professional medium format cameras I've owned in years past.

I agree 100%. Why do you think other phones handle inside better? Iphone 5, DNA, I think even the S3 and Note 2 all do better inside with normal lighting. The S4 outside is off the charts stellar. Take that same stellar S4 camera inside and all my older phones did better. Did Samsung miss something? Software? Just really frustrating!!

 

[trucky]

I would never claim to know how Samsung thinks but I would guess they know that most people will take pictures outside more often than inside and they built to that spec. Kind of like building a race car... You can make one go real fast in a straight line, it's altogether different to make one go really fast and go in a circle, something completely different to go real fast and crash over boulders and sand washes and run across tortuous desert. It's a trade-off to make a camera that shines in outdoor light conditions yet still work, although not so good, in lower light conditions.

 

[Bobbman]

I would never claim to know how Samsung thinks but I would guess they know that most people will take pictures outside more often than inside and they built to that spec. Kind of like building a race car... You can make one go real fast in a straight line, it's altogether different to make one go really fast and go in a circle, something completely different to go real fast and crash over boulders and sand washes and run across tortuous desert. It's a trade-off to make a camera that shines in outdoor light conditions yet still work, although not so good, in lower light conditions.

I guess maybe. Just seems the older phones, even by Samsung, did ok to good, in both natural light and outdoors. The S4 does beyond great outdoors and in natural light fair at best. To be honest give me the Note 2 indoor camera with the S4 outside camera. That would be perfect!

 

[tytlyf]

For indoors I would recommend turning off the "Auto night detection" and enabling "Anti-shake"

 

[Bobbman]

For indoors I would recommend turning off the "Auto night detection" and enabling "Anti-shake"

Still so so at best. Strange camera when it gets indoors.

 

[trucky]

I guess maybe. Just seems the older phones, even by Samsung, did ok to good, in both natural light and outdoors. The S4 does beyond great outdoors and in natural light fair at best. To be honest give me the Note 2 indoor camera with the S4 outside camera. That would be perfect!

I think you have the answer. It's a compromise at best. It's easy to do ok to good in most lighting situations. You tweak one of those components up and the other is going to suffer. I guess I didn't get the phone because it has a great camera, but I'm very happy it's as good as it is. I haven't even played with the resolution setting but it would be interesting to take identical indoor, low light photos at all the different mega pixel settings. Maybe it gets better at lower settings...

 

[Fr0gburp3r]

The higher the pixel count, the more noise you're gonna get in low light situations. Unless you have a large censor to compensate for the high pixel count. The night/low light mode does a decent job at reducing noise but at the expense of losing details. If you want to get rid of noise in low light, use an app that allows longer exposure settings. Keep the ISO low but not too low, otherwise the image will be too dark. You'll have to play with the settings to get your desired results.

 

[Fr0gburp3r]

This indoor shot I took isn't so bad. Noise is fairly low (for a phone). I was attempting to achieve the most natural lighting in the image which is why I adjusted the exposure down. I don't like indoor shots that look unnatural and blown out. You just have to make adjustments.

Night mode
-2 exposure


Galaxy S4 Photos by Motogq, on Flickr



same shot with drapes closed and indoor lights on


Galaxy S4 Photos by Motogq, on Flickr

 

[ctychick]

Considering I've been using Android phones for about 5 years, this seems like a dumb question, but I've never had the need to ask before the s4... Is there a camera app that allows you to create your own settings presets? I feel like I'm always scrambling to make the same custom adjustments for indoor shots in my house. Would be nice to just select a custom setting on the fly. Does a feature like this exist?

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