Digital ND Filter

[CamcyclopediaExpert]

1. ND Filter
   2. Digital ND Filter capture
       1. Digital ND Filter workings
       2. Digital ND Filter capture settings
       3. Digital ND Filter capture guide
   3. Conclusion

ND Filter

ND (Neutral Density) filter tones down the intensity of light filtering through the camera lens evenly. ND Filter is used to get an appropriate amount of exposure in a bright shooting setup. Using the ND Filter allows you more flexibility with adjusting the exposure by either increasing the exposure time or using a wider aperture. The long shutter speed using the ND filter can capture the movement of waterfall, waves, etc. in soft motion.

Now you can experience filming quite similar to using a physical ND filter, using the Digital ND filter feature [1] of the Galaxy smartphone.

Digital ND Filter feature working principles

The Digital ND filter captures multiple frames of images for the duration set by the user. (The picture on the left below is an image set.) All these images have a temporal difference between them. This feature uses the Temporal interpolation technology to fill those gaps. The technology uses image secured at point t and t+1to create image t+½. You get a more tight- knit image set by applying the Temporal interpolation technology to the images captured during the shoot. (The image set below in the middle.) And, these images are made into one using the Motion aware multi-frame processing technology. Motion aware multi-frame processing is similar to Multi frame processing technology we saw in Nightography, but there is a marked difference when it comes to creating soft motions in a picture.

Digital ND filter settings

You can find the Digital ND filter feature in the Expert Raw app [1] . You can download the Expert Raw app from the Galaxy Store. This particular feature is On by default at the beginning, so you can use it right away. In case it is not enabled, select the setting button at the top left of the Expert Raw app and choose the Expert RAW Labs. Then, enable Neutral density (ND) filter from the Labs menu. After that, once you enable the Digital ND filter icon at the bottom of the screen, you can enter the Digital ND filter mode, and you can go out of the same by disabling the Digital ND filter feature.

You can change the degree of Digital ND filter by selecting the V of the toast on the top in a Digital ND filter enabled state. Digital ND filter starts from 2 and increases in multiples of 2 and goes on till 1024 (marked as 1000). The smaller the number, it allows little but some light to pass through, but the higher the number gets the more light it starts blocking. You can figure out and configure the details depending on the shooting environment.

The below image show you how the preview brightness changes when the Digital ND filter is set to low or high. As explained above, you can see that the preview gets dimmer with the rise in Digital ND filter intensity because of its light blocking function.

The configuration that you have to look out for the most in Digital ND filter is the ISO, SPEED (exposure time) and the Digital ND filter intensity. Once you go to Digital ND filter, all these three configurations have to be dealt with manually. People using the pro mode may be a little more used to the manual configuration, but it’s alright even if you aren’t. You can shoot suitably bright pictures with the help of the EV value at the top of the shutter button. Usually, you can click pictures with good brightness after tinkering the ISO, SPEED, Digital ND filter combinations to make the EV 0.

However, the range of SPEED (exposure time) at your disposal differs according to the Digital ND filter figure, so be a bit careful with that.

Digital ND filter shooting guide

Now, we will show you how to take pictures using the Digital ND filter.

1. Selecting what you want to click
   Firstly, you have to figure out what you want to click using the Digital ND filter.
   If you check out social media, you will see that people use it to click sceneries featuring ‘water’ a lot (for example, waterfalls, waves, etc.).
   Of course, it is not necessary to limit yourself to selecting ‘water’ related sceneries, but people mainly choose it because the Digital ND filter effect makes for a good waterfall or wave scenery shot compared to other sceneries.
2. Getting ready to shoot
   Once you have found what you want to click, now you have to get ready to shoot it.
   It is recommended that you use a tripod when shooting with the Digital ND filter. If the camera shakes in the middle of the shoot, the whole picture gets blurry and dials down the Digital ND filter effect. If you don’t have a tripod, we recommend that you secure your Galaxy device against something to ensure the camera is steady, and then get down to shooting.
3. Shooting configuration
   You have to get a good configuration combination of ISO, SPEED, and Digital ND filter to get a secure suitable brightness and click a good picture.
   We will tell you how to configure the Digital ND filter before shooting.

When you go to Digital ND filter, check if the preview brightness if alright.
You can check the final brightness using the preview or even with the value pointed by the EV.
The appropriate brightness may differ according to the intention behind each shoot, but to make it easier you can think 0EV as the closest to the perfect brightness.

If the Digital ND filter shows that EV is +2.0 (in image 1 below), first, change the ISO to minimum.

In image 2 below, we have brought down the ISO to the minimum 50, but the EV still remains +2.0.
In this case, increase the Digital ND filter intensity to secure proper brightness.

In image 3 below, we have adjusted the Digital ND filter from 2 to 64 to secure the appropriate brightness.
If you shoot with this configuration, you will get a well-lit picture.

Now, let’s think of the opposite situation.

If the screen is dim in Digital ND filter, first, try reducing the Digital ND filter intensity. In image 1 below, the EV is -2.0, and Digital ND filter is at 1000.

In image 2, we bring down the Digital ND filter to a 64, but the picture gets a little too bright. (EV is +1.7.) In this case, we reduce the ISO to secure the brightness we want.

You can refer to image 3 and see that we have adjusted the ISO from 125 to 64 to get somewhere near the perfect exposure (+0.7EV).

Even if you are at a perfect exposure level, but want to expose the camera to motion a bit more, try reducing the ISO while increasing the SPEED.
If the ISO is set to minimum, you can crank up the Digital ND filter and SPEED.

     4. Shooting
Once you are done prepping the configurations, it’s time to shoot and wait it out.

A lot of people are used to shooting just by touching the shutter button with fingers. But, Digital ND filter shoots take a long time, and even the smallest camera jerk can affect the results. The little jerk caused by touching the shutter button could put a domino effect in motion and ruin your picture. To reduce any such effects, we recommend you use the timer or S-pen for the shoot. (It’s better to practice before the actual shoot.)

As you can see in the image below, you can set the timer to take pictures after 2/5/10 seconds.
You can also take out the S-pen and the below button once to start the shoot.

We recommend avoiding the following four shooting environment, to increase your chances for better results.
  1) Shooting objects zooming past at high speed from a close distance
  2) Shooting objects in motion that are blocked from view by stationary objects
  3) Shooting at high ISO
  4) Shooting at night

We are in the midst of modifying algorithms for some of the situations out of the four.
We will enable you to use the Digital ND filter in diverse environments through the modifications underway.

Conclusion

Try out the Digital ND filter feature and take pictures in rich and versatile shooting environments.
Digital ND filter offers you an extended creative space to get more imaginative with your pictures.

Lastly, we will leave you with some sample pictures that we took while developing the Digital ND Filter feature. 

Reference

[1] This feature is provided as a beta service to S23 customers who have upgraded to One UI 6.0. The models it will be available in and the dates for that are still TBD and will be notified once the beta service is rolled back.