Last updated: November 16th, 2023 at 21:24 UTC+01:00
Samsung has released an update for the Expert RAW camera app that is available for flagship Galaxy smartphones. Expert RAW is an advanced camera app that provides manual control over the shooting parameters, saves pictures in high-quality RAW format, offers a wider dynamic range, and enables features such as astrophotography.
Expert RAW comes with a few experimental tools, such as astrophotography (as mentioned earlier) and the option to manually combine images shot at multiple exposures into a single image, and Samsung has now added one more to the list: a neutral density (ND) filter.
What is a neutral density filter? It’s a filter that can be applied to cameras to reduce the light entering the lens, and it is used for long-exposure photography in broad daylight and other bright conditions.
For example, if you wish to create a daytime picture with motion blur, such as when capturing a waterfall, a slow shutter speed is required. But a slow shutter speed during the day can make the final image too bright and overexposed, which is where ND filters come in.
ND filters can be thought of as sunglasses for the camera for daytime long-exposure photography, as they prevent the shot from being overexposed while helping the camera retain the benefit of a slow shutter speed, just like sunglasses help your eyes see what’s in front of you by blocking out the light on a sunny day.
ND filters are usually physical filters for dedicated cameras, but they can also be applied through software, and that’s now possible with Expert RAW. Once you install the latest version of Expert RAW from the Galaxy Store, you will find the neutral density filter feature in the Expert RAW Labs section of the app’s settings.
After enabling the feature, you will find an icon that simply says ND at the top right corner of the viewfinder, and you can press that to customize the strength of the filter in multiples of two (starting from 2 and going up to 1000).
We weren’t able to test the ND filter in Expert RAW as it was nighttime for all the SamMobile staff at the time this article was written, but we will be sure to check it out later and update this article with our experience and findings of how well the feature works.
