topic Re: Re: Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos) in Galaxy Gallery

Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

Pianodude58 — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 02:17:16 GMT

Scene Optimizer

The "myth" surrounding Samsung moon photos is that the phone's hardware is taking the detailed images, when in reality, it's primarily a computational and AI-driven process.

The myth is not that the photos are "fake" in the sense of a simple paste-over, but that they are not a true representation of what the camera hardware is capturing, which is a blurry mess.

AI adds details like craters to the image by recognizing the moon's shape and enhancing a blurry input with a learned texture, a process that can create "fake" details not present in the original shot.

Myths debunked

Myth 1: The phone is simply overlaying a pre-existing image of the moon.

Reality: While the result can look like a pasted-on image, it's not a simple overlay.

Samsung's AI analyzes the blurry input and adds detail using a learned model. Tests show that even a blurry, distorted, or partially obscured image of the moon on a monitor will still result in a detailed moon image with added texture, demonstrating that the AI is not just putting a stock photo on top.

Myth 2: The camera hardware is capturing all the detail.

Reality: The hardware is not capable of resolving the fine detail visible in the final image. The optical zoom and sensor are only capturing a blurry, low-detail version. The "magic" happens afterward, with a computational photography process that adds significant detail that wasn't captured by the lens.

Myth 3: The AI is just enhancing a real photo.

Reality: While the process involves enhancing the image, it goes beyond simple sharpening or noise reduction.

The AI is actively generating new detail, such as craters and texture, by recognizing the general shape of the moon and applying a texture based on its training data. This is more akin to "creating" detail rather than "enhancing" it.

The truth: A combination of factors

AI enhancement: The camera's AI uses a deep learning model trained on thousands of moon images to recognize the moon and improve the image.

Detail generation: The AI applies a "detail improvement engine" that uses a process similar to reversing a Gaussian blur to create detail where there was none.

Scene recognition: The AI recognizes the moon-like object and only applies these enhancements to the moon itself, leaving the rest of the photo untouched.

Hardware limitations: Without the AI, the resulting image would be a blurry, low-resolution mess, similar to what other phones produce when trying to photograph the moon.

Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

meself — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 02:25:14 GMT

Information useful

Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

Robin621k — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 02:49:27 GMT

Thank you!

The fake moon pictures are my least favorite think to see here!

Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

Pianodude58 — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 03:31:47 GMT

I must wholeheartedly agree

Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

meself — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 03:56:15 GMT

Mean the moon isn't cheese lol

Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

Pianodude58 — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:13:21 GMT

The myth that the moon is made of cheese originated in the Middle Ages as a metaphor for credulity, likely stemming from the proverb "the moon is made of green cheese," found in John Heywood's 1546 collection of proverbs.

This phrase was used to describe gullibility and likely drew from folktales where a simpleton mistook the reflection of the moon in water for a cheese wheel.

Re: Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

meself — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:17:25 GMT

Now I can't eat moon not fair haha

Re: Re: Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

Pianodude58 — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:19:50 GMT

Eat a Moon Pie

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

meself — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:20:34 GMT

Ruin the fun wanted a rocket

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

meself — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:25:20 GMT

Woohoo

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

Pianodude58 — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:26:06 GMT

Here you go

Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

maird — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:48:58 GMT

On the one hand, well said! OTOH, while it's important to know, if people are happy with their pictures it really only matters that people know it's not actually the optical view from the phone.

Attaching a 9MP moon crop from a 30MP full frame mirrorless camera (not taken with my S25U phone). Lens was 800mm f/9 but with a 2x teleconverter effectively a 1600mm f/18 which is a telescope focal length (32x magnification), though the lens field of view is only 3 degrees and a telescope would be 40 degrees FOV or more. The camera mount was a balanced, automated EQ tripod with lunar tracking enabled. ISO 100, 1/50s, f/18. The sole "enhancements" were to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise to correct for EQ mount orienting camera in a portrait alignment and using a negative 1.5 exposure compensation due to the bright moon being only one third of the otherwise black frame. EV-1.5 if in most phone camera terminology.

It's lost a bit of detail in conversion from the original raw image file via FB, downloded from there and re-posted here but it's still different from what a phone moon shot shows.

Notable things using a proper lens and sensor for photographing the moon are relief visible at 1:1 zoom round the disc edge; the plain visibility of the waning gibbous (earth shadow on very right edge, face is 99.9% lit); lots of areas of visible surface relief on the face.

It's not a failing of them but no Samsung phone cameras can obtain an image with this detail unless attached to a telescope.

I have another example, a 4 mile distant ridge with trees on it where at 100x magnification the S25U camera image I estimate is about a 1.8MP crop of the 12MP sensor enlarged to a 12MP image file. For comparison I estimate the same frame from the camera+lens used for my moon attachment photographs the same ridge with about 25x as much visual detail as the S25U 100x view of the same scene.

Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

Pianodude58 — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:28:29 GMT

Awesome telescopic photo of the moon

Re: Re: Myths Debunked (Moon Photos)

Daveydave — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:02:13 GMT

One of my moons looks similar to this one on my page