Moon shots Photo/scene-optimizer vs Pro modes

[MitchG]

Simple comparison of full moon shots comparing photos in:

(1) standard Photo mode with Scene Optimizer enabled which auto performs multi-image averaging to lower "noise" and enhance detail.

 Mar 23 7:23 am ISO-50 1/180s x71 zoom

(2) Pro mode with full manual settings, focus sharpest at 6.2 with the maximum x20 zoom available, and the same image zoomed in (cropped) to show similar aspect as (1) pict.

Mar 23 7:28 am ISO-64 1/180s x20 zoom

The Pro mode shot zoomed in has more noise (grain) which presumably the Photo mode + multi-image stacking in Scene Enhancer effectively removes but the level of detail is comparable with some contrast sharpening in the Photo/AI mode. 

[Joce1]

You are a Pro 👍🏻

[OfficialPrincess]

This is very nice, thanks for sharing!... Do you or anyone know why the color is so different? Which one of the moon colors was accurate to what you saw? Just looking up I've seen the moon in both of these colors and sometimes on the same night but hours apart not minutes apart

[MitchG]

it's fairly complicated .. partly the coloration of the pixel response of the camera sensor pixels/filters alone and the Scene Optimisation definitely biases the color.
Here is an excerpt from a wonderful old book 1954 which talks about all things "Light & Colour in the open air" (M Minnaert)

[OfficialPrincess]

Oh wow that's very interesting and explains it perfectly 👌🏾 thank you!

[MitchG]

I forgot to add that I think the color BY EYE is somewhere between the 2 colors in the photos (unless your phone/computer recolor it). The Moon is very tiny in the sky so apparent color is likely influenced by surrounding sky colors (and obvious atmospheric filtering and scattering effects). To Do: I'll try a subjective test looking at the moon by eye through 15x 70 binoculars and comparing color at the same time what the S23 Ultra grabs/processes and displays.

[OfficialPrincess]

That would be awesome if you could thanks! It's so fascinating! I just love everything moon, sun, sky, clouds, stars, nature, etc🤩😍🤭

[MitchG]

Here is a very basic color comparison of how the moon changes color with altitude above the horizon:
https://www.jensign.com/Astronomy/S23Ultra/MoonColour

[OfficialPrincess]

This is great thanks! 😊 It's so mind blowing to see these photos taken by phones in our pocket! Samsung did great adding this ability for its users 🤩👌🏾👏🏾 💯

[redyt]

Not to expose samsung buuuuut https://youtu.be/EKYJ-gwGLXQ?si=gR3bhmWbyeuJ8CU5