How to get your 8 Megapixel's worth!

**Colin** · 05-18-2010, 09:48 PM

So part of the reason I really wanted this phone was that with an 8 MP camera, I figured this could be my "carrying around" camera. (I also have a Digital SLR)

Unfortunately, the quality of the Incredible's images is kind of disappointing, even for a phone. These are largeish PNG images, so be careful about clicking links on mobile browsers.

Exhibit A: Lame image quality

But the good news is there's a fix that will make your Incredible's pictures look just as good or better than any other phone. The bad news is it takes an image editor and a little extra work.

So here's what you do.

1. Open up the camera application on the Incredible and hit the little tab on the left to bring up the settings.
2. Tap the Image Properties icon (it's the circle that's half full/half empty)
3. Turn the "Sharpness" dial down to the lowest setting.
4. Take pictures!

Exhibit B: A picture taken with the sharpness settings set to the lowest level.

5. Bring this picture into an image editor like Photoshop or GIMP or Pixelmator or whatever floats your boat. I used Photoshop CS4.

6. Use the image editor to sharpen the image up so it looks nice.

Exhibit C: An image from the Incredible that beats the pants off the Nexus One, as it should!

7. Now you don't feel like you got gypped in the camera department. Hooray!

Compare the three images I put in here. Maybe open up a couple browser tabs and switch back and forth. Notice how in the last one, the trees actually look like trees instead of horrible green carpet from the 1970s? Also notice how you can see the mortar between the bricks on the house? What an improvement! But why is the picture taken with Incredible's default settings so horrible?

The answer is cameras with small imaging sensors produce noisy, grainy images. This is true of almost any cell phone camera, and also true of most of the cheaper point-and-shoot cameras that can be had for $129 or so. In order to hide this, the cameras run an aggressive noise removal algorithm on their images before they even get saved to the card, which ostensibly produces more appealing images (I don't agree).
The noise removal algoritm usually leaves images looking a littly muddled and gummy, so then they turn right around and run a sharpening algorithm on top if it. I really hate that cameras do this, as it's the image-processing equivalent of drinking a shot of tequila and then following it up with a red bull so you don't feel the alcohol. It's better not to drink anything at all, right? That's basically what we're doing by turning down the sharpness setting on the Incredible.

So anyway, it looks like turning the sharpness slider down on the Incredible tones down both the noise-removal AND the sharpening. This is good, because it means we can set it to give us images that aren't completely ruined by the back-and-forth of noise removal and sharpening. Instead, we just get images that are a little bit soft, and that can be cleaned right up by Photoshop's Unsharp Mask filter, which does a WAY better job of sharpening than the internal algorithm used by the Incredible.

Here's another illustration, this time animated, and with indoor lighting.

**Execute** · 05-18-2010, 10:52 PM

I know nothing at all about photography, but the stock Incredible photo looks way better to me than the photoshopped "better" picture. Maybe I'm missing something, maybe it's my astigmatism, but the first picture looks the best to me.

*EDIT* I guess I can see what you are talking about better on the indoor lighting picture of the dollar bill, but I'm still not sold. Again, I have no knowledge of photography so from that standpoint you may be correct. I just can tell ya what I think looks better, and in both cases its the stock photos /shrug

**04redgto** · 05-18-2010, 11:03 PM

The pictures I have taken have been great! Folks have to keep it in perspective that it is a phone after all! I am most deffinatlly not dissapointed in the camera, of course i didn't buy it for a camera....

**Colin** · 05-19-2010, 01:19 AM

It's definitely nitpicking, and i'm definitely a photographer, but like i said, the phone wipes out a lot of detail in order to deliver high-contrast edges, and this is a method for preventing that loss. Hopefully I'm not the *only* person who finds it useful

**sum spicy rice** · 05-19-2010, 08:35 AM

im a photographer.. i use my DSLR for 'real' photos. if im in a restaurant or wanna snap something real quick to share on fb or email/mms.. then the camera fits my needs.

if i was going to open up CS4 to edit cell phone pics.. i might as well just bring my DSLR since i'll have to edit those as well.

i noticed the cell phone is better at taking close up pics. pics of people/food/flowers/whatever. doing landscape.. it seems to not be as sharp/clear. also it doesnt help when the sun is bright out and the colors get washed out

**huey** · 05-19-2010, 08:44 AM

great post Collin, thanx for the work and info. Nice to know we have some users who are have more expectations from their lil camera phone then others.

**Argent** · 05-19-2010, 08:55 AM

being a photographer myself - I find this to be a great spur of the moment camera - combined with Vignette and Photoshop.com Mobile it makes the best point and shoot I've used.

**bigk** · 05-19-2010, 09:31 AM

At the Verizon store I was trying out the camera and found that the phone took awesome photos. I'm guessing it was because the objects with in the store were 6 inches to 6 feet away.

**Kainz15** · 05-19-2010, 10:05 AM

Thanks for the tips! I probably won't use them on most of my pictures I randomly take, but if I need to spruce up the picture a little bit now I know how! Thanks again!

**Huffdaddy1982** · 05-19-2010, 11:23 AM

I do have a DSLR but there are those times where an unexpected opportunity to get a great shot pops up and I wish I could capture it. In those instances I see it worth going through the steps listed and I thank you for passing it along. I like other posters on this thread am fine when taking a shot at the bar etc for facebook with the Inc in its stock form but definately can think of a couple of times where if I knew this at the time would have been worth doing this and having a good quality shot.

Thanks!

**Upstreammiami** · 05-19-2010, 11:42 AM

hey i dont know about you guys but my phone takes awesome pictures.. you have to change the settings

**bobstudent3** · 05-19-2010, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Upstreammiami

hey i dont know about you guys but my phone takes awesome pictures.. you have to change the settings

Which settings have you changed?

**Colin** · 05-19-2010, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by Huffdaddy1982

I do have a DSLR but there are those times where an unexpected opportunity to get a great shot pops up and I wish I could capture it. In those instances I see it worth going through the steps listed and I thank you for passing it along. I like other posters on this thread am fine when taking a shot at the bar etc for facebook with the Inc in its stock form but definately can think of a couple of times where if I knew this at the time would have been worth doing this and having a good quality shot.

Thanks!

What I'm actually going to do is set up Aperture (the photo app i use on my computer) so that it runs a non-destructive sharpen on everything I import from my phone, and then leave the built in sharpening turned way down. That way I don't actually have to do any extra work. Just haven't had time to set it up yet.

Also, I'm not saying the Incredible doesn't take good pictures. I love my Incredible

I'm just giving a way to tweak them a little bit by setting the phone to take a more "hands off" approach with its built-in image processing. Obviously, it takes a little extra effort, but for some folks it's worth it.

It's a little bit like using RAW mode on a pro camera. More work, but more control, and potentially better image quality. Not saying it's for everyone.

**Sere81** · 05-19-2010, 04:13 PM

the picture that you edited in PS looks really noisy, not to mention it's not at sharp as the photo with the stock settings...

In my opinion, the first picture is the best out of all three.

**BSG75** · 05-19-2010, 04:14 PM

I've seen it reported in posts that if you tap and to a long-hold on the screen, you'll get a focused picture of what you were pressing on. That snaps a picture instead of having to hit the track button, which may cause jitter. That may or may not help with landscape type pictures which you were experimenting with.

**Hybrid4830** · 05-20-2010, 04:27 AM

wow, good call on the holding down on the screen thing. works to perfection. and OP thanks for that little tutorial. will definitely be using it when the time comes

**kicko** · 05-20-2010, 08:33 AM

Yes i was waiting for that to be mentioned, the touch and hold screen works awesome because if you press the button the slight movement can blur the images. I'm not using the cam as my main digicam but it doesa hella job.

**tvith** · 05-20-2010, 12:48 PM

Idk if it's just me thinking this, but I downloaded the gallery file (for inc ported from nexus one) and when i go to camera via the nexus one gallery app, it seems to take a more focused pic.
I've done the long press on the screen, actually almost all the recent touch screen phones take pics by this method. I had it on the storm, the eris, and no this.

**biggins82786** · 05-20-2010, 01:01 PM

My pictures turn out fine. A good bit of people don't know that to focus the camera on a specific point, you have to tap that point on the screen.

This picture is unedited.

A picture of the driver door "fresh paint bubble" on my VW.

A picture of my brother and sister-in-law using an app on the phone to desaturate it.