Zoomed in photos changing to dark background

[cwinkler]

Didn't see anything similar to this so hoping for some explanation. Went out this morning to check out the camera with moon shots. When I zoomed in, the background of the phone went to black rather than the blue sky. Can anyone explain why this happens? Thanks!

[Aton47]

My S22 does the same. I figured it was just an atmospheric thing that happens when you zoom in past the Earth's atmosphere.

[Robin621k]

Computational photography, that's what all phones do.

[Ray_Ginald · Accepted solution]

Hello @cwinkler, this is nothing to worry about. It is simply AI, or as someone mentioned, computational photography. What is happening in that photo or "moon shot" is that Samsung applies its engineering feature, which they term "Scene Optimiser," that uses a combination of NPU AI learning (Neural Processing Unit), and multiple frame stacking to optimise whatever subject or scene you're shooting. So, in the moon shot, Scene Optimiser is at work here, AI recognises the object as the moon when you point your camera at it, and it then applies Super Resolution image stacking by combining multiple frames together to give a clearer picture. The dark background, optimised by the AI, is due to the fact that a bright blue sky will "outshine" the moon, which will give a washed out or barely visible photo of the moon and it wouldn't be a moon shot if you can barely see the moon. So by darkening the background, stacking multiple frames on top of the other, noise or graininess is eliminated and you get a more detailed photo of the moon such as that tiny dot at the centre-bottom of the moon, the Tycho crater, or the dark blots all over the moon (Lunar maria) which are volcanic basins.
You can always disbale this by turning off Scene Optimiser in your camera settings.

[cwinkler]

Thank you for the great explanation! Might try turning off Scene Optimiser just to see what it looks like ...