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Process Zero from Halide — Natural film-like shots that are faster than ProRAW
Process Zero uses zero AI and zero computational photography to produce beautiful, film-like natural photos. This innovative mode aims to provide photographers with a more authentic and unprocessed image capture experience.
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Chris Messina
Top Hunter
Hunter
📌
Super interesting take on a different approach to all the generative AI-based photo "enhancement" efforts coming out of Big Tech lately. Instead of applying AI, Halide is taking a divergent approach with its own RAW-processing Image Lab style, maintaining more grain and producing opinionated images that look more authentic, rather than "generated".
Compare a standard iPhone photo:
With Halide Process Zero:
Or, this image:
Details of ProRAW:
Process Zero:
With Halide Process Zero:
Or, this image:
Details of ProRAW:
Process Zero:
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@chrismessina Thank you for hunting @chrismessina! We’re super excited to get this out in an era of more and more processing and AI in our photography pipeline. Giving you total control over what level of processing you get with every shot is just the beginning for us: this is, after all, our first homegrown process pipeline.
We’d like to offer photographers total creative control, and with processing in your iPhone camera taking increasingly creative choices for you, this puts you back in that editor’s seat. It’s just one more tool — and we hope to expand it to higher resolution captures and a more modular approach to the capture pipeline in the future.
This is a really intriguing approach! I'm curious about how Halide plans to position itself against the numerous AI-driven photography tools currently saturating the market. What specific advantages does Process Zero offer for professional photographers regarding RAW images? Is there a unique onboarding or learning curve for those transitioning from standard camera apps? I'm also interested to know if you're considering any collaborative features for sharing or editing in the app. Overall, this could shift some perspectives on what "authentic" photography means!
Congrats on the launch! This is a really fantastic tool and I love the photos it produces. I'm no photographer but this would be really helpful for me to get some great quality photos
This is a fresh perspective, especially given all the AI-driven enhancements dominating the photography space. I'm curious, how does the lack of AI in Process Zero impact the overall image quality, particularly in low-light situations? Also, will there be an option for those who enjoy some level of post-processing while using this feature?
@renchu_song I like to describe it as ‘film-like’ — and if you recall film, it has a particular ISO. The same kind of goes for raw sensor data and single exposure shots on a tiny iPhone camera. Once it gets dark, the noise goes up — with some manual tweaks (and the magic of your camera stabilization) you can still get some fantastic shots, but the strength of computational photography is that it lets you get shots you can’t otherwise get. This is a great way to remind you of its benefits :)
I shot mostly ProRAW at night before this, opting for that over night mode since it was less processed. I found it surprising how often I still enjoyed the P0 shots near or after sunset. But you’ll want to check and review your shots - the viewfinder on iPhone does do computational processing, so you can’t see the noise in your shot.
How does Process Zero achieve results 20x faster than ProRAW? Are there any trade-offs in terms of image quality or file size?
@kyrylosilin simply put, ProRAW uses all of Apple’s pipeline and stores this information in a deep file that is the result of many exposures. The computational work takes a few seconds.
Process Zero uses a single shot, and then processes raw sensor data. It’s just a lot faster and more minimal. That is not to say results are unilaterally better — they can be far worse! — but the point is both control and preference. If you want to have a lot less image processing in your shot, this is a great option. But we allow you to choose for every shot you take if you so desire.
I love how you've thought about the big screen and brought in features like the custom interface and Pro Tools XDR. The attention to privacy is also a huge plus in my book.
Love how Halide is pivoting from the typical AI-enhanced approach to emphasize authentic image capture with Process Zero. This could really resonate with photographers looking for unique, film-like results. Excited to see how this will impact the RAW processing landscape! PH upvote!
While the natural look is great, offering some adjustable settings for users who might want a bit more flexibility could enhance the overall experience
It's like having a full-fledged camera right on my iPhone. Keep up the fantastic work!
Manual focus and focus assist tools really stand out for me. I’ve always found it challenging to get that perfect sharp shot, so having these advanced tools on an iPhone and now iPad is fantastic.