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Original topic:

Selfie Color issues, color burn, distortion unless shot in 40mp mode on international S22 Ultra

(Topic created: 12-24-2022 08:04 AM)
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Pinipy
Asteroid
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Galaxy S22

EDIT:

This issue has 100% to do with HDR!!! Samsung removed the option to disable HDR early in the year, however using Camera Assist (samsung store) you are able to turn that setting off again. With HDR disabled, the colour issues don't happen, HOWEVER you lose all HDR so if you're against the sky or any other scenario like that, it will come out overexposed.

I believe the reason 40mp mode doesn't have the colour issues is not due to the lack of processing, but because it doesn't have any HDR! I've noticed selfies with the sky in the past using 40mp mode have looked blown out due to the lack of HDR

I would seriously urge samsung to A. give back the option to disable HDR so that people don't need to download a 3rd party app to do this, and B. fix HDR so that these issues aren't happening. Its ridiculous that we have to choose between accurate / correct colours and having HDR 😕

 

Hi there! I bought this phone in July and have been having some pretty ridiculous issues with the selfie camera.  Before getting into it all, I'm going to list the following as a disclaimer:

S22 ultra from Australia, I believe I am on snapdragon, latest firmware and all that jazz. 

  • Took the phone back to where I purchased it from and was told to go to samsung store / try online
  • Spoke with samsung support who told me to take it to the samsung store
  • Went to the samsung store who told me to take it to a samsung certified repair store
  • Went to the samsung certified repair store for 2 days straight and they replaced all the cameras, motherboard and did a full reset of the phone and deemed it "fixed". It was not fixed.
  • Took it back to the store I purchased it from and they gave me a new one as a replacement
  • New one, which I am still using to this day, has the same issues
  • I'm not the only person with these issues, someone on Twitter using a Z flip also has the same issues, so this is not an isolated issue and could very well be able to  happen to any samsung device

The issues:

  • Yellow tint added to skin, even when in perfect natural sunlight, cool light or even cool artificial light.
  • Reds and pinks are turned into orange
  • Colour distortion or "colour bleed" sometimes appears in random parts of the skin, or in the background
  • Colour blotchy or patchy areas appear on the skin and almost look like someone has grabbed really mismatched foundation and blotched it randomly over the skin in patches
  • Sometimes fixable if minor colour issue, but unfixable when major issue
  • Could take 10 photos in a row, all could come out bad, all could come out good, some could come out good and others bad.

Other things to note:

  • This can happen in natural light OR artificial light
  • Coloured hair has no effect - I have tested with natural coloured wigs
  • Glasses also do not affect this
  • Makeup / no makeup has no effect
  • I thought at one point it had to do with rgb lighting, but alas, this happens without RGB
  • Same with mirrors, I thought it could have something to do with HDR (which it very well may) mucking up in mirrors reflecting the sky, but this happens with no mirrors or windows present
  • Camera will show the correct colours while taking the photo, and for a moment while viewing the photo. It will then finish "processing" and you will watch the distortion and weird colour issues happen.
  • If shot in default selfie cam (not portrait) with motion photo enabled, you can press play on that to show that it records the motion photo using the correct colours. You can export the last frame to get a low quality still of the bad photo with the correct colours which could be fine for people who don't care about the massive loss in quality and aren't using these photos professionally.
  • This does NOT happen EVER when using 40mp selfie camera. However, 40mp has its drawbacks:
  • 40MP mode does not process the photo\
  • 40MP mode has a much higher file size (huge setback if you're doing photos full time)
  • 40mp mode often returns blurry photos if you don't hold your position AFTER the photo has been taken. 
  • If you move at all while taking the photo even the tiniest bit, it will return blurry
  • Same with holding the phone, if you move slightly it is blurry  (this happens even when on a tripod)
  • 40mp mode is stuck at 4:3 and you cannot change the resolution 
  • You cannot use potrait mode with 40mp mode, which means if you are having the same issue, you are pretty much restricted from having a nice depth of field.
  • Sometimes using 40mp mode you can get a nice natural depth of field, but again, this is not always the case and it will often just come out looking boring

Examples:

Excuse the selfies being terrible, am trying to show the issue not take a nice photo and often am not photo ready anyway, please don't come at me just cause I am a girl thank you :')

First example is a video, as this forum doesn't allow direct uploads I'm linking to imgur.

https://i.imgur.com/UfM8LV5.mp4

Above is a screen recording of me taking photos, the first one comes out with a minor yellow skin tint and reds / pink undertones turned orange (pay attention to my cheeks, my hair and my lips)

Second and third photo comes out with one of the major bugs - weird orange color burn all over my face and skin, green and purple burn all over the walls.  Here is a side by side where I've put the still from the motion photo on the right for comparison.

InShot_20221224_205800825.jpg

InShot_20221224_205148398.jpg

Here is another photo where on the left, you can see that its turned my face yellow (I'm very pale with pink undertones, so having orange gunk put all over me is not flattering). Its also added blotchy patches of orange all around my neck that looks like someones sponged makeup there when there is no makeup on my neck.

InShot_20221224_191722930.jpg

InShot_20221224_191825161.jpg

InShot_20221224_191926433.jpg

InShot_20221224_191631603.jpg

20220729_153132.jpg

A few more examples of the worst kind of distortion it does

InShot_20221224_192107262.jpg

Pinipy_1-1671887026166.jpegPinipy_2-1671887032275.jpeg

Pinipy_0-1671887020630.jpegPinipy_3-1671887039678.jpeg

Pinipy_4-1671887044067.jpeg 

Heres with RGB lighting, it turns my dress, my hair, my glasses red, for reference, these were all shot one after another, to demonstrate that some look different to others even with no change in the enviroment or lighting

InShot_20221224_182435299.jpg

InShot_20221224_182244063.jpg 

InShot_20221224_182420169.jpg

And lastly, from today, as there have been various software updates since I first had this issue and I wanted to see if anything had changed.  The sun was starting to se though so I wasn't able to do a full test. It did the issue but only minorly and this level of colour difference, while really frustrating, can be fixed in lightroom.  I'm using the 40mp mode selfie (correct colours) vs the portrait selfie (bad colours), one shot after another.

Its also worth noting that this has happened to someone else! Until today, even after months and hours of scouring the net, I have not found anyone with the same issues I am facing.

https://twitter.com/kitteys_/status/1606623161310941186 

FkvfPYMUEAAw7VO.jpgFkvfP4QUYAAPWqb.jpg

You can see the same blue/green/purple distortion on her dress that I was having in the major issue photos, and then the colour / skin burn shown on her skin in the 2nd image which I have had on SO MANY photos.

What can be done about this? I use the phone for professional work and despite the issues, when using 40mp mode it takes amazing photos, albeit the lack of depth of field can be a bit frustrating, but no other phone that I've used has come close to this level of quality, so please don't say "just buy *insert other phone*" or tell me to use an actual camera, cause that doesn't solve the issue or take away from the fact that there very clearly is an issue with the software.

Sorry for the insanely big post, I feel like the more detail the better idk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
6 Replies
tom2055
Supernova
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Galaxy S22
I'm not sure if you mentioned it, but try turning off scene optimizer. It's in the camera settings. Hope this might help!
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Pinipy
Asteroid
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Galaxy S22

That is only available with the rear camera. As stated, this is the selfie front camera. Thank you for the suggestion though. 

 

 
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tom2055
Supernova
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Galaxy S22
Ohh my bad I didn't realize it was only on the rear cameras
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The_Lemon
Red Giant
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Galaxy S22
Have you tried turning off/on the effects in the top right corner of the camera? Those could be causing the issue. If that is off and this is happening by default, try turning it on and find an effect that makes the camera look more how would like it to.Screenshot_20221224_111643_Camera_1000001993_1671902203.jpg
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Pinipy
Asteroid
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Galaxy S22

I don't use any effects or filters with my photos. 

 

 
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Solution
Samsung_Moderator
Community Manager
Community Manager
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Galaxy S22

Thanks for reaching out. This forum is for support of US products and customers. As your product is a non-US model and support for these models is very limited, please seek a support team for your area. You can do so by using this link: https://www.samsung.com/us/common/visitlocationsite.html

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