Samsung’s latest Galaxy S22 series has brought dark night shots to light with its Nightography function.
EVER consider yourself a YouTuber, an Instagrammer or a TikTok influencer?
Perhaps you are a filmmaker at heart, inspired by the cinematic wonders that you’ve seen and are eager to emulate noteworthy directors like Kubrick, Scorsese and most recently, Villeneuve.
Instead of rushing out to get expensive camcorders and GoPros, you might want to consider something a bit smarter and certainly more at hand – your very own smartphone.
And with the popularity of social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube or even the ubiquitous Facebook and Instagram, vlogging has gained a lot of traction.
As these platforms are mostly made for mobile devices via apps, Samsung has upped the ante by incorporating low-light cameras and AI that capture vivid, smooth videos at night on its new Galaxy S22 Series.
Find the light
The basics of filmmaking are similar to still photography as both disciplines are dependent on the complexities that ambient light presents.
Daytime shots offer a plethora of situations and opportunities for filmmakers and they can choose different times of the day to capture different moods and moments.
An example is the “golden hour” – that period just after dawn breaks and before dusk falls, when the sun effuses a softer, reddish-pink light that instantly makes for more dramatic and artistic shots.
Most night shots, however, tend to be grainy due to having to increase the ISO value, blurred because of a slow shutter speed or overly dark.
With the Samsung Galaxy S22 Series, the night takes on an exotic look as the smartphone’s latest Nightography technology opens up the possibilities for filmmakers to explore night scenes, with results that are crisp and engaging.
At the heart of Nightography is the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s main camera which has 50 megapixels and a larger image sensor – 23% as compared to Galaxy S21 Ultra – which can detect more light.
Then it makes its night mode smarter by choosing the ideal frame rate for the cameras to take in as much light and detail as possible.
The image is then processed via Galaxy S22 Ultra’s intelligent pixel-binning, which aggregates four pixels into one larger one so it can hold more light details.
With all these components working together, Nightography produces brighter images that are sharper and clearer for night scenes.
In fine form
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Series is 5G enabled and is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with its eight-core CPU. It has the Adreno 730 as its GPU and is energised by a fast charging Li-Ion 5,000mAh fixed battery.
It runs on Android 12 with its proprietary One UI 4.1 user interface on the Dynamic AMOLED 2X at a blazing 120Hz, which displays striking images.
It has three cameras mounted on the back – a wide 108 megapixel, a telephoto 10 megapixel with three times optical zoom, and an ultrawide 12 megapixel with super steady video feature.
The front selfie camera is a wide 40 megapixel piece that can shoot videos in 4K resolution at 30 or 60 frames-per-second or 1080p resolution at 30 frames-per-second.
All these are protected within the Armor Aluminum frame wrapped in a sleek Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ for both front and back, for more solid drop and scratch resistance.
Bright creativity
To showcase the enlightening clarity that Nightography offers, Samsung Malaysia has collaborated with four standout professional filmmakers to film #withGalaxy S22 Series across four genres – namely fashion by Laura Low, fitness by Ismail Jamaluddin, romance by Taufiq Kamal and music by Jawagar Samidurai.
Each of these directors was given the opportunity to craft their videos using the Galaxy S22 Series and were amazed with the smartphone’s dynamic camera experience and the quality results produced, as can be seen in their videos shown here.
To encourage more filmmakers to come out of the woodwork, Samsung Malaysia held a short film competition called Born of the Galaxy Stars (March 28 to April 24) which was endorsed by the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest).
Participants were required to submit a short script in-line with the theme “Borderless with Nightography” and select one of the concepts to include in the short script – fashion, fitness, romance and music.
Samsung Malaysia and MIFFest will select 22 winners who were presented with the Galaxy S22 Series to shoot and produce their short films.
The top three winners will have a chance to expand their network with industry leaders in Malaysia’s film and entertainment through the film festival in July this year, as the top three short films will be premiered at the 5th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) 2022 on July 10-15.
A grand prize winner will be selected from the top three and will receive a recognition award, a trophy and RM8,000 cash prize from MIFFest.
For more details, visit https://www.samsung.com/my/offer/mobile/born-of-the-galaxy-stars/
