TL:DR – Controversy about faked moon photos.
In the wake of controversy regarding Samsung’s purported manipulation and “enhancements” of user moonshots taken on Android phones, I asked MidJourney to “Generate a photorealistic image of the full moon that might have been augmented by controversial mobile phone camera enhancing technology.” Is this better than the faked moonshots users have been reporting? I think so…especially that one bottom-left which looks like a gravitational lensing image superimposted on a mobile phone!
Faked moonshotsIf you want to see some real moonshots I’ve taken occasionally with a dSLR and a 600mm zoom, sometimes with a phone attached to my telescope, then follow me on the Sciencebase Instagram for the latest.
Meanwhile, I asked ChatGPT about this controversy using the following prompt:
You are to act as an expert in Android phones and in particular Samsung phones. There has recently been some controversy about the camera technology and how it can “process” a photograph of the moon and enhance it beyond reality. The processing was called out as fake when people were taking photos of low-resolution printouts of a photo of the moon and getting near-perfect higher-resolution output. Please tell me more about this and why it is simply wrong for a company to fake its users’ photos like this.
This is what it had to say:
In recent years, Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers have been adding advanced camera technologies to their devices, including features that can enhance the quality of photographs taken with the device. One such feature is called “Space Zoom,” which is designed to allow users to take photos of faraway objects, such as the moon.
However, there has been controversy surrounding Samsung’s camera technology and its ability to enhance photographs of the moon beyond what is possible with the naked eye. In particular, some users have claimed that Samsung’s camera technology is “faking” the details of the moon by artificially enhancing the image.
It is important to note that any form of photo manipulation or enhancement that misrepresents the reality of the scene being photographed is ethically wrong. It is the responsibility of manufacturers to be transparent with their users about the capabilities and limitations of their camera technology and to ensure that their users are not misled or deceived by the features they offer.
In addition, it is important for users to understand that the quality of a photograph depends on a variety of factors, including lighting conditions, camera settings, and the skill of the photographer. While advanced camera technologies can certainly enhance the quality of a photograph, they cannot create details that do not exist in the original scene being photographed.