Will Adobe’s “High Resolution” image upgrade work with smartphones?

About a month ago, Adobe dropped the ‘High Resolution’ feature. for its photo editing software Photoshop, allowing users to upgrade the size of the image without causing breakage, crumbling or adding noise. Initial tests with photos taken from the camera show that it works quite effectively.

But the question is, can this feature be used with smartphone photos? As Adobe recommends, the High Resolution feature is optimized to work with RAW images, a feature more commonly found on cameras. However, AI is also trained to work with JPEG and HEIC files (files exclusively for iPhone), which have been processed by smartphone software.

Like cameras, smartphones have recently made great strides in resolution. Even mid-range smartphones have 48-megapixel, 64-megapixel sensors, high-end Samsung and Xiaomi models also have up to 108-megapixel sensors. However, image quality can always be further upgraded, especially for the purpose of zooming, collage or even printing for wall mounting.

But unlike cameras, smartphones, when taking pictures, will rely heavily on in-camera editing algorithms such as HDR, sharpening, color correction … The High Resolution feature can work as well as with RAW images. Or not we will find out shortly.

Pixel analysis

Eric Chan, digital photo scientist at Adobe shared a few more insights into how High Resolution works:

“We have trained the High Resolution AI to work with many different sensor sizes and pixel sizes. However, this feature will work best on unedited images. camera correction compared to a smartphone JPEG image. Image upscaling increases with the higher quality the input source becomes. “

The original image

Once processed with High Resolution

There are several reasons for this. Smartphone after taking pictures will apply a strong anti-noise layer, especially in low light conditions, sometimes it will cause small details to be lost. Adobe cannot recover these details because they are completely lost. Fabric details on clothing may have turned into a single color, even with the resolution upgrade performed.

JPEG images on smartphones have also gone through a compression step to reduce the weight of the file, making it easier to upload online. High resolution will sometimes mistake the noise during compression for information contained in the image, making them appear even clearer instead of cleaning them up. This is why Adobe says that the cleaner the input image, the higher the quality.

Capture RAW images on smartphones

Photo taken in Apple ProRAW mode

In the new high-end smartphones, manufacturers have allowed users to capture RAW images so that more information can be retained, thereby also helping the High Resolution feature work better than JPEG, HEIC. .

“With RAW images on smartphones, the High Resolution feature can apply an Adobe technique released in 2019, Enhanced Details) with the ability to sharpen images pixel by pixel in the process. convert from RAW to JPEG. “

Photo has not been edited

After being upgraded to high resolution, we see a few small details

To get the highest image quality, you can apply High Resolution in Photoshop then convert the DNG file for color correction, brightness in Lightroom. Or conversely, you can also edit a photo in Lightroom first then export a DNG file to apply High Resolution later. Adobe is planning to apply High Resolution to Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC so that users do not need to use two different software, but the release date has not been confirmed.

Compared with older generation DSLR cameras

As mentioned, the noise when taking high ISO images (night shots) causes the image to no longer look clean for the High Resolution feature to work in the best possible way. On smartphones there is also Night Mode night photography feature to solve this problem, but then they will also apply sharpening steps and reducing noise through the software, which will also make it “difficult” with High Resolution.

The original image

Photo after being upgraded and edited with Lightroom

“The best files for upscaling are photos with the lowest ISO possible, be they RAW or JPEG, and have not gone through the camera’s noise processing. The more detailed the original image is, the better it will be.” the upscaling becomes even more detailed. Low-light shots like inside a bar won’t be as good as shots taken outside with a lot of sunlight. “

Photos taken from the iPhone 7 Plus after being upgraded

The image quality of smartphones today cannot be compared to cameras with large sensors produced at the same time, but what about old generation DSLR cameras? The JPEG images from the camera line from 2006 to 2007 still have a wide color gamut, especially the amount of noise is also less than the RAW image of the smartphone, so it will give more likely results with the Resolution. high.

Practical experience

Currently, there are a lot of manufacturers using DNG files for their smartphones, including Apple (known as ProRAW) and Android smartphones in professional shooting mode. But even with JPEG images, High Resolution produces pretty good results. Testing upgraded 1.2MB photos from this feature Pixel to produce a photo weighing up to 126MB, which contains more than 100 times the amount of information.

Compare the original and scaled photos from the iPhone 12 Pro Max in ProRAW mode

Currently Adobe develops only 1 image upscaling mode, which is 4 times the size. The reason for this, Mr. Chan shared: “When training AI for High Resolution, we have to fix the image upgrade size otherwise the processing will be much slower. Isn’t that enough, how much more do people want to get these big pictures? “

The amount of pixels after the upgrade is increased by 4 times