Today launched a public preview of Halide Mark III, the next generation of our flagship photography app. It's still a work in progress, but we're ready to start sharing what we've worked on for the past year through a series of app updates alongside posts like this. Today, we're diving into Looks.
Today we launched a public preview of Halide Mark III, the next generation of our flagship photography app. When you download today's Halide update in the App Store, you'll find a new "③" button to switch to Mark III.
Mark III is still a work in progress, and we'll share more details about that at the end, but we're ready to start sharing what we've worked on for the past year through a series of app updates alongside posts like this. Today, we're diving into Looks.
In the early days of digital photography, the look of a photo amounted to little more than contrast and color palette. In the era of smart phone photography, algorithms now alter lighting, local contrast and much more. Consider these four different interpretations of exact same data.
The first example is from the default the iPhone camera, which chose to "nope" most shadows
We don't point this to denigrate the first-party camera, which serves a billion people. It does this through simplicity. You tap a button, you capture a decent photo. Most people, most of the time, people want to see details in shadows and highlights.
The convenience of smart cameras has the unintended consequence of making everyone's photos feel the same. It's reached a point where folks who want a unique look to their images buy old digital cameras that lack algorithms. Others download advanced apps, only to be overwhelmed by hundreds of presets that all kind of feel the same.
This was my life until a few years ago, when I woke up one morning and found myself bored with digital photography. That's an awful place to be after a decade building camera apps. So I did what every millennial does in a midlife crisis and took a deep dive into analog photography.
It starts innocent enough. You buy a Canon AE-1 off the internet, remove the dead fly from inside the lens, and shoot your first roll. Next thing you know, there's a camera collection.
You learn to develop film at home. Then you dig into alternative processes like cyanotype, colloidal chloride, and platinum palladium.
... continue reading