Face distortion: Samsung S21 FE 5G

meridius · Jan 19, 2024

I was recently involved in filming a theatre performance with one person on a stage in front of a projected background with a screen, some of photographs, others of paintings.

For the video work I used my normal camera, but I was stuck using my mobile phone for taking photos. For these photos of the dress rehearsal which I wish to use again, the face of the actor is distorted but outdoors in natural light with the same settings the actors face was not distorted. These photos were taken as .jpg format. This theatre environment, like many was low light.

I only have GIMP and the free Adobe Photoshop Express (not the full version). I have not tried Photoshop because I will be stuck with a one-year subscription.

I have tried a few settings to try to solve this problem in GIMP and Adobe Photoshop Express. The actor does not wish me to put these photos online but any ideas on how to solve this problem at this stage and what are the standard solutions for trying to solve these types of problems? Is there other non-subscription software I could try if need be?

jeffashman · Jan 19, 2024

Salaam aleikem and welcome! I was recently introduced to two software products you might try, both of which are free if you can download them. One is darktable, and the other is RawTherapee. I can't tell you much about them yet, because I've just downloaded them myself, but give them a look and see if they will do what you need.

meridius · Jan 20, 2024

jeffashman said:
Salaam aleikem and welcome! I was recently introduced to two software products you might try, both of which are free if you can download them. One is darktable, and the other is RawTherapee. I can't tell you much about them yet, because I've just downloaded them myself, but give them a look and see if they will do what you need.

Thanks so much. I downloaded both of your recommended apps but am not entirely convinced that sharpening is necessarily the solution to this problem. This has happened before on other Samsung mobile phones and even happens all the time on my main phone. There can be no substitute for a professional camera and the next time I will need to buy another one for photographs and use the other for filming.

On the day of the performance I took some shots from a distance using the same camera but with its supposed RAW setting and I got a whole load of pictures in both .dng and .jpg format, although I much prefer the one's from the dress rehearsal as I was stuck behind the controls during the show and could not really do close ups. Unfortunately, all the dress rehearsal photos are only in .jpg format as I was using the phone for the first time.

All in all another hard lesson has been learnt about taking pictures!