AI has become a common feature in smartphone cameras that either enhance photos or adds effects on top of them. Samsung has now shared a detailed explanation of how its AI works behind the scenes to enhance portrait shots. This is especially true for its latest series, the Galaxy S21.
The selfie camera is pretty straightforward. First, it identifies faces in the image for further processing and then enhances the details in the hair, eyes, and facial features. It also alters the white balance to get natural skin tones based on ambient light.
The portrait mode is also able to figure out which parts of the image are humans, which are pets, and which part is just the surrounding. This allows the software to create a rough “seed map” of the image and apply the correct processing where needed.
After that, the software highlights the borders between the subject and the background. It traces the fine details within these borders and keeps hair and facial details from blending into the background. Finally, it uses its depth estimation to calculate the distance to objects to create a shallow depth of field effect.
Facial features, hair, or other details blending into the background is a sign of poor software processing and AI implementation. The accuracy of photo mapping and software processing is what sets good AI cameras apart from one another. Below is an example of a portrait shot done well.
Naturally, all of this is done on Samsung Galaxy S21 phones for both portrait shots and selfies. It’s interesting to see how the tech has evolved over the years when the portrait shots often looked overdone or unnatural. In any case, we hope to see more smartphones in 2021 using similar tech to enhance portrait shots this way.
