Like so many great inventions, Expert RAW was a group effort — driven by Samsung’s experts and Galaxy users’ valuable feedback. To learn more about the Expert RAW experience, Samsung Newsroom spoke with the experts at Samsung Research² who collaborated on the app.

Read on to see what Hamid Sheikh, Head of the Intelligent Imaging Team at Samsung Research America’s (SRA) Mobile Processor Innovation (MPI) Lab, and Girish Kulkarni, Head of the Camera Solutions Group at the Samsung R&D Institute India-Bangalore (SRI-B), had to say about this innovative camera collaboration.

Q: What does the Expert RAW app do? What are the main benefits for users?

Hamid: Expert RAW really gives users the ability to take full control of their mobile photography experience much like a professional photographer would. The app captures much more comprehensive data for each image, which can be used to both improve photos and artistically enhance them with editing software like Adobe Lightroom — the go-to app for professional photographers.

To improve the overall camera experience, we worked closely with Adobe to tightly couple Expert RAW with Lightroom. The result is that photographers have full control over their creative experience. Novice photographers can also utilize automatic set points for camera controls, and then use the Samsung-specific default values in Lightroom. In both cases, the tight integration of the two apps makes for an enjoyable experience.

Girish: Expert RAW is an epic leap forward for photography. It essentially places a professional studio in your pocket. Whether you are a pro photographer or you’re just a user who wants to capture amazing content, anyone can take full advantage of the Galaxy S22’s pro-grade camera with Expert RAW. It captures high-quality, high dynamic range pictures in the multi-frame RAW format that enables precise post-capture editing and professional results.

With Expert RAW, people can capture much more information in a single picture — from dark details to bright highlights. It also drastically reduces noise and increases sharpness and detail. If you’re looking for the ultimate creative controls, you can choose your own settings for aspects like ISO, shutter speed, white balance, EV and focus, and even choose which lenses you want to use for the subject and the scene. Finally, because both JPEG and DNG files are saved when shooting, you can hop right into the Adobe Lightroom app on your smartphone or PC and edit with ease.

Q: What was the original inspiration for Expert RAW?

Hamid: Samsung camera technologies have always relied on sophisticated computational photography algorithms to produce the best picture quality. However, the standard camera app makes many decisions about how the image will be rendered in terms of color, tone, detail and noise. The user has very limited say in these decisions.

Our inspiration came from the confluence of user experience limitations and the leaps in computational and AI capabilities of today’s mobile processors. We asked ourselves, “How can we make the photography experience more inspiring for users?” So really, our inspiration came from the expert and enthusiast photography community, which yearned for an easier mobile photography experience, without sacrificing the creative control that DSLR and post-capture editing allows. Expert RAW was born out of a desire to transform that inspiration into reality.

Girish: As we heard the input of professional photographers who were mostly utilizing DSLR cameras, they wanted to achieve a pro-grade experience with smartphones. Our consumer research also showed that after using their smartphone’s auto camera for a long time, typical users were very passionate about exploring Samsung’s pro-grade camera capabilities in-depth to become better photographers.

The more we talked to professional and amateur photographers, the more we understood their needs in terms of RAW image capturing, camera controls, the post-editing experience, creative capabilities and more. That’s when we set out to create a new pro-grade experience based around RAW capturing so that every level of photographer could merge our camera controls and their creativity to enjoy professional-looking photos.

Q: What makes Expert RAW such an important release for mobile photography in general?

Hamid: The camera experience is one of the most important experiences that a user has with his or her smartphone. Samsung has been at the cutting edge of camera quality, and the gap between consumers and professional/enthusiast photographers has always been a tempting one to bridge.

I think with the release of Expert RAW, users will find that their photography experience will take a quantum leap in terms of creative control and artistic expression. I expect more and more people will find this new experience rewarding because it lets them personalize their camera based on their tastes — exactly how they want them — and not based on what some other engineers chose for them.

Girish: As an app, this platform has simplified the RAW capturing process with precise camera and lens controls and post-editing with Adobe Lightroom. It’s for every user who is willing to go beyond — to unleash the true power of an Expert RAW camera, and explore their creative side.

Q: What role did the MPI Lab play in Expert RAW’s development?

Hamid: Any time we are creating a brand-new user experience, we have to consider and overcome many tough engineering challenges. The MPI Lab developed the main idea behind Expert RAW and its technologies, and we knew it was challenge worth pursuing.

We developed a brand-new computational photography pipeline that can produce both DNG as well as processed JPEG files. Developing a complex computational photography pipeline from scratch was not easy. We no longer had the benefit of an older, mature technology base to build upon. But our team successfully developed this new, AI-based 3DISP technology to produce raw data that looks very natural when users load it in editing apps like Adobe Lightroom.

Q: What role did SRI-B play in Expert RAW’s development? What were the team’s main areas of focus?

Girish: Expert RAW was a complex R&D project, and SRI-B’s role was to think in terms of end-to-end for the best consumer experience. This required multi-domain expertise and deep collaboration among multiple teams.

SRI-B is equipped with strong multi-domain expertise teams, so we formed a task force of talented experts. They all worked together as a single team within SRI-B and also worked with a larger team of experts based in Korea and at the MPI Lab.

The multi-domain expertise and close collaboration with all key stakeholders helped SRI-B continuously focus on improving Expert RAW’s product experience, end-to-end pipeline, etc.

Q: Could you offer more details on your collaboration with one another?

Hamid: The MPI Lab has been working with SRI-B throughout our entire history at Samsung. SRI-B contributed its amazing skillset and resources towards the development of the software technologies, as well as key AI blocks for the Expert RAW pipeline. They also owned the UI piece of the Expert RAW application and provided many innovation points on the Expert RAW experience. It’s always fun working with them.

Girish: The MPI Lab has world-class expertise in computational imaging domain, and has a proven record of developing successful IPs for Samsung flagship products. That expertise was one of the key requirements for Expert RAW’s development. The MPI Lab came up with the multi-frame pipeline building blocks implementation, which helped SRI-B integrate and enhance the same for the end-to-end architecture and pipeline.

One of the major expectations for Expert RAW was that it would enable the best image quality in different lighting conditions, which requires the tuning of the multi-frame processing pipeline. MPI’s strong expertise in this area helped us continuously improve image quality before the commercial launch. In summary, MPI’s expertise in computational imaging and SRI-B’s breadth of knowledge in multiple subdomains helped SRI-B prepare Expert RAW’s end-to-end experience for commercial launch.

SRI-B and the MPI Lab used their 12-hour time zone difference effectively to plan and collaborate on Expert RAW. SRI-B’s day was MPI’s night, and vice versa. It helped to have 24/7 development to finish this complex feature in record time. We are proud of Samsung’s culture that enables respectful collaboration among different overseas R&D centers and we always enjoy working with MPI Lab.

Q: How do the MPI Lab and SRI-B plan to build on this collaboration to develop even more innovative camera technologies?

Hamid: Our journey with the new RAW camera experience is just beginning. I am excited to think about what new improvements and enhancements we can make. One of the best parts of the Expert RAW experience is that the photographer is front and center. We’ll preserve that as we actively look into the experiences of different users and continuously implement improvements to make Expert RAW even better than before.

Girish: The MPI Lab and SRI-B have been working together for the last few years developing the world’s best night mode for Samsung flagship smartphones. This collaboration helped lead us to the success story that is Expert RAW on the Galaxy S22. We’re excited to continue that momentum for the next innovative products to come.

In the future, we would like to continuously enhance Expert RAW with a focus on creating a new ecosystem for pro photography that fully utilizes pro-grade camera capabilities.

Collaborating for Creativity 

Features like Expert RAW underline Samsung’s commitment to developing tools that empower users to unleash their creativity.

Going forward, the company will continue to strengthen collaborations that leverage the knowledge and capabilities of its world-class network of R&D centers. Doing so will help unlock technologies that change the way we live, work and create.

¹ Expert RAW must be downloaded separately from the Galaxy Store, for free, before use. Expert RAW app availability is currently limited to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and S22 series. Samsung Members notified Expert RAW will become available on Galaxy Z Fold3 in April 2022 and Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy Note20 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold2 later this year.

² Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, which leads the development of future technologies for its Device eXperience division

Summary

• Usha Kodandaramaiah, an engineer at Samsung Research & Development Institute – Bangalore (SRI-B) is also an accomplished marathon runner
• She discovered her passion for running 3 years ago, when she prioritized her health after being diagnosed with a Vitamin D deficiency
• She has previously completed a 12-hour marathon, in addition to competing in several 10 km, 21.1 km, 42.2 km, 50 km marathons and ultramarathons
• She recently completed a 24-hour continuous run, covering 114.2 km

Many people kickstart a healthier lifestyle by exercising, but relatively few of us will compete in a marathon. For Usha Kodandaramaiah, her foray into running three years ago was the beginning of a life-changing passion.

The engineer from Samsung Research & Development Institute (SRI-B) in Bangalore, India, has now participated in several marathon running events in India and abroad, having rapidly transformed herself into a long-distance runner.

Kodandaramaiah smiles for the camera as she runs in the 24-hour ultramarathon heat at the Kanteervara stadium in Bengaluru, India

Stepping into Running Shoes

Kodandaramaiah was initially motivated to pursue a healthy lifestyle when she was diagnosed with acute Vitamin D deficiency. She had trouble sitting down for long hours and would have to wear a special belt for lower back support. While she was receiving treatment, Kodandaramaiah felt that her recovery was slow and that she needed to add exercise to her daily routine.

At first, Kodandaramaiah thought of pursuing dancing to raise her spirits and get herself moving. But she couldn’t see herself sustaining this hobby and soon enrolled in a gym. This also failed to keep her interest, but then a friend encouraged her to start going on short runs. This was when she truly discovered her passion.

Usha recently completed the 21 km international half marathon event in Seoul, South Korea

“Every time I ran I would feel very relaxed and my mind would be free. I felt like that was my ‘me’ time, where I could think peacefully and calmly. I would feel so happy and refreshed after every run. These benefits motivated to keep running and pursue it further as a hobby.”

Kodandaramaiah started with short 1-2 km runs and quickly began to time her runs as well. As her run times garnered more and more admiration from her peers, she decided to take a step further and sign up for her first marathon.

Balancing Profession and Passion 

Kodandaramaiah identifies herself as a career-oriented woman and carefully plans her running sessions during her leisure time. She wakes up at 5 a.m. on three weekdays per week to run for an hour. On weekends, she goes on long 20-25km runs that can last for about 3-4 hours.

“My professional life has actually helped me manage my passion for running in a better way. I have now become more disciplined thanks to the new routines that I created for myself. As part of the SRI-B Runners Club, I have found a very supportive group of fellow runners from Samsung who encourage and motivate me to keep running.”

Kodandaramaiah says that running has also taught her several lessons. As marathon runs are physically demanding, she plans them very carefully in order to maintain her pace and conserve energy. She applies the same planning mindset to her work every day and has become more efficient as a result. She also attributes her increased patience, focus and reduced stress to her passion for running.

At the Start Line and Beyond  

Kodandaramaiah follows a strict diet and training regime to prime herself for marathon events, consuming small meals every 2-3 hours during the day and avoiding food altogether after 7 p.m. She has also eliminated sugar from her diet after realizing that it is not helpful for her body while running.  “There are of course some challenges, like craving a particular item of food when you’re at a buffet lunch with friends. But I compensate by eating a lot of vegetables the day after or just tasting just a bit of the food that I crave.”

Kodandaramaiah training with Mr. Kumar

She is coached for marathon events by her friend, Mr. Kumar Kuppuswamy, a veteran runner who has participated in many ultramarathons – races that exceed the standard marathon distance of 42.195 kilometers. Kodandaramaiah says that as her mentor, Kumar, always understands her capabilities and motivates her to push herself a little more and to go further during each practice session.

“Kumar would run along with me in marathon events and ensure that I was staying hydrated throughout the course. His advice and training have been invaluable at every event.”

Moments before any race, Kodandaramaiah says she has thoughts of failure. “I do think about situations where my body gives up or where I might injure myself. However, thanks to the regular training, I have built a positive mindset that helps me combat these thoughts,” she confides “I always tell myself that, come what may, I have to fight it out and complete the race. Even during the course of the race, if I start feeling tired and I have five more kilometers to go, I break it down to single kilometer goals and convince myself to cover the next kilometer and so forth, till I reach the finish line. Overall, it’s important to reinforce the thought that ‘Yes, I Can Do It!’”

During her visit to South Korea, Kodandaramaiah spent time with her colleagues and their families

Kodandaramaiah has previously competed in several 10 km, 21.1 km, 42.2 km, 50 km marathons and ultramarathons. She recently competed in a 21 km international half marathon event in Seoul, South Korea in June 2018 and has even accomplished the rare feat of running continuously for 24 hours in an ultramarathon, covering 114.2 km in the process.

Kodandaramaiah aims to participate in international marathon events and interact with more runners around the world, in addition to taking part in marathons across hilly terrains. She plans to compete in the Mumbai Marathon in the upcoming months. She has also set her sights at conquering the next big summit in marathons – a 36-hour marathon.

Reflecting on what running means to her, Kodandaramaiah offered these final words: “Running has transformed my life in more ways than one. Not only has it made me healthier, and more focused at work, but it has also made me more disciplined, reduced my stress and helped me expand my social circle!”