Night & Dark Photos

I've been going through some old photos in my Google backup and decided to edit & post a few.  I'll start with some low light pictures, as I was discussing night shots with a friend yesterday.  I brashly said something along the lines of "I could do better than that with a phone, staggering back from the pub.  Drunk!" whilst discussing someone else's pics.  I may be about to eat my words, but all of the pictures on this blog are taken with a mobile phone.  As some of these are a little older, I might share details of the phone model (by way of a caveat for the low quality!)

What's through there?

The picture on the left here was actually taken with my current phone, a Sony Xperia Z2.  The manufacturer has aimed this one squarely at the low light problem, with a larger aperture, larger sensor, and down-sampling tech to produce a less noisy but lower resolution image by averaging local pixels.

A tower of light.

The result was actually a pretty decent original picture.  I've messed about with this (obvs.) but I still like the result.  The only light source was a security light on a house on the other side of the hedge, making the gate stand out.  I like the sense of curiosity with this one.  What's on the other side?

The image on the right was taken with my old Sony Xperia S.  It's a bit noisier, but still a very respectable shot.  The light source was fairly strong, as the cathedral is illuminated at night, but you still might not expect a mobile phone to take such a respectable snap.

The harbour lights.

We're going even older with this one on the left.  This picture was taken with a Sony X10i, the first phone to drop the Ericsson branding altogether.  It had an 8mp sensor with few concessions for taking low light images.  As such, I think this one turned out very well indeed!  I toyed with going black & white on this one to help bring down the noise, but I decided it had much more warmth as a colour image.

Stratford sunset.

Lastly, a sunset (obviously).  This was snapped on the Xperia S again, so we're talking about a 13mp Exmor sensor.  Exmor was supposed to help reduce noise by altering the layering of the sensor and bringing the pixels in closer contact with the light coming in.  Perhaps just marketing mumbo jumbo, but it did take a nice snap if there was enough light.  Sunsets are bright enough for a reasonable result and the colours in this sunset were stunning.  Like a special effect from Star Trek or something!

Low light smartphone photography.  Discuss!

As always, these pictures are free to use (if you really want!) with a link back to this blog.