Camera DIM after snapping - AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshootin

Hi,
Since I have received by S4 new 3 weeks ago, I notice that when I take a picture, it appears bright at some points while it is capturing the picture, but afterwards, the picture is usually dimmer. I also notice that when there is a lot of light coming into a room, like from a window, it will cancel out the light so much, that the picture is completely dark.
Anyone have this problem? I am on stock, but rooted, UCUAMDL.

Make sure you have auto-dim and power save turned off on your phone settings. I'm assuming it's brightening the screen to allow you to acquire your photo subject and then dimming the screen to conserve power. I normally leave the brightness adjustment in my task bar so I can adjust as necessary.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

Yes, that is what it was. I just noticed that this morning, and was coming here to update the thread. It does still cancel out bright areas like a window of sunlight, but maybe I can fix that with the exposure options.

Related

Auto screen brightness doesn't work?

When I have my nexus one set to automatically adjust brightness, it doesn't seem to do anything.
I can move it between dark and bright environments and the screen brightness doesn't seem to change at all. Am I missing something or is this feature not working on my phone?
It works fine with mine. I just clicked auto in the brightness setting. Make sure you didn't accidentally change it to a different setting with the settings widget that is by default on the first home page to the right.
works fine on mine yet not a feature i use....i just set it statically.
I find the auto-brightness to be too dim for my liking. It would be great if you could adjust the overall brightness while still maintaining the automatic scaling.
Turns out it does work, it just need to be *really* bright to make it change.
It doesn't change really at all in my office between switching the lights on and off (even though that's a really big change in light levels to me). However, if i go outside, it does get brighter.
As you say though, it does seem to be set a bit low (hence it not brightening up when my office lights are turned on I guess).
If I enable auto-brightness on mine, it seems to constantly vary the brightness in my office. It's annoying as crap and I turned it off. Am I the only one?
It's probably taking a look at the available APIs to see if it's easy to write a quick app to do auto brightness with settings to be able to tweak it.
The auto-brightness feature changes constantly for me as well.
I 'm also having issues of the varying brightness when using auto-brightness -- even though the lighting in my environment has not changed and I avoid contact with the light sensor. It's VERY annoying.
I've since switched to using a static setting for the brightness.
auto brightness was one of the first things i turned off. it was way too dim for me
Not bright enough for me. Doesnt seem to change much.
I do see the variability occasionally. Most of the time it's stable, but it will take spells of shifting up and down repeatedly. Glad to know I'm not alone.
Auto bright annoyed me as well when I first got the phone. Then I realized where the sensor is (top left) and what it was responding to. Depending on where I'm sitting, what light sources are behind me, in front of me but reflecting off of me. It's usually just responding to a light source that's just withing view of its sensor. Also, my hand has shielded the sensor more than just a few times, confusing the sensor.
Now I leave auto bright on all the time, and it more often than not does a good job.
IMHO this is one of the few broken features on the phone. In continuous lighting it jumps from bright to dim to everything in between like a jack rabbit on speed. I still use it to save battery life but it pisses me off regularly.
am also having this problem. it constantly goes much brighter, and then, suddenly goes back to dim.. very annoying... however, the light sensor for calling works well... so, is it a software issue.. hope it gets google's attention and gets fixed in next update...
Bicster_ said:
If I enable auto-brightness on mine, it seems to constantly vary the brightness in my office. It's annoying as crap and I turned it off. Am I the only one?
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+1 so I also manually go between three on the widget
Note that the light sensor is under the glass on the front of the phone. Some cover-all cases cover this, and if you use one of these I assume your phone will remain on the dimmest setting.
In general, while indoors it will remain on the dimmest setting (for me anyway), but rise to the necessary full brightness when in sunlight.
w00yee said:
am also having this problem. it constantly goes much brighter, and then, suddenly goes back to dim.. very annoying... however, the light sensor for calling works well... so, is it a software issue.. hope it gets google's attention and gets fixed in next update...
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Click to collapse
There are two sensors, one is a light sensor and the other is a proximity sensor to detect when you've taken the phone from your ear. I think you're referring to the second.
w00yee said:
am also having this problem. it constantly goes much brighter, and then, suddenly goes back to dim.. very annoying... however, the light sensor for calling works well... so, is it a software issue.. hope it gets google's attention and gets fixed in next update...
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Click to collapse
+1 constant occiliation on dimmness levles under consistant light. It goes from way too dim, to just right then back dark again. I too hope that google will correct this with the next update. Hopefully the patch gets pushed soon, i'd like that extra memory

Is there a mod to lower the auto brightness levels?

I really like the auto brightness feature, but it's consistently too bright for my taste.
Is there a mod or tweak out there that will allow me to lower/adjust my automatic brightness levels to save some battery life?
(Currently running Blackhole 3.0 / DL09, will go to Blackhole 4.0 once it's out tomorrow)
anybody have any ideas
Unless you know how to modify the kernel source (which I believe is written in C, correct me if I'm wrong devs) or modify some file that is the delegate for the ambient light sensor, you're SOL buddy.
Its probably hardwired into the kernel, would be my guess.
Hmmm, I thought automatic meant automatic. My bad. J/K
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Yes, automatically too bright in most situations. Yet not bright enough in sunlight.
I almost need to cover the light sensor some to fool it.
This is where Samsung fumbles. Their software is poor. Whomever is writing the code, set the light sensor to brightness conversion wrong. At least on DL30 they fixed one mess up. On the original rom, when you plugged in external power, the brightness would go to a fixxed level. If you were outside in a car and plug in power, it would dim the display. Indoors at night, plug in power, and it would BRIGHTEN the display. What's up with that.
worwig said:
Yes, automatically too bright in most situations. Yet not bright enough in sunlight.
I almost need to cover the light sensor some to fool it.
This is where Samsung fumbles. Their software is poor. Whomever is writing the code, set the light sensor to brightness conversion wrong. At least on DL30 they fixed one mess up. On the original rom, when you plugged in external power, the brightness would go to a fixxed level. If you were outside in a car and plug in power, it would dim the display. Indoors at night, plug in power, and it would BRIGHTEN the display. What's up with that.
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Whats wrong with manually changing it? It doesnt even take 5 seconds to change the level.
Kaze105 said:
Whats wrong with manually changing it? It doesnt even take 5 seconds to change the level.
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Exactly. Why would you expect your phone to automatically make your life easier or function at an optimum level?
Kaze105 said:
Whats wrong with manually changing it? It doesnt even take 5 seconds to change the level.
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Click to collapse
What's the purpose of having a light sensor if it never works?
Often when I pop my phone open to do a specific task, '5 seconds' is about as long as it would have taken to do that whole task. And it's just annoying to unlock the screen, begin to attempt doing something, and then notice 'oh hey, the screen is basically unseeable!' and have to interrupt whatever you're doing. Or, even worse, when you're going from place to place and go through areas that are lighter and darker, forcing you to keep interrupting your work.
worwig said:
Yes, automatically too bright in most situations. Yet not bright enough in sunlight.
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Click to collapse
KitsuneKnight said:
What's the purpose of having a light sensor if it never works?
Often when I pop my phone open to do a specific task, '5 seconds' is about as long as it would have taken to do that whole task.
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Click to collapse
You guys nailed it. The screen is far brighter than I need while indoors at the office, but step outside and it just doesn't keep up with the bright Colorado sun (I can adjust it manually to a level that can be seen in sunlight just fine).
I could spend 5 secs adjusting the backlight each time the light environment changes, but why not spend 30 min optimizing the auto brightness levels and then never have to worry about it...
I know with my Moto Droid, someone had made a code that altered a particular file to change the lowest brightness level, but I have yet to see that for the Fascinate. It's a shame since the Fascinate's screen is so much nicer, but not set up optimally.
I know some dev's had also integrated the ability to change the auto brightness levels within custom ROMs for the Moto Droid. That'd be a great feature on the Fascinate!
KitsuneKnight said:
What's the purpose of having a light sensor if it never works?
Often when I pop my phone open to do a specific task, '5 seconds' is about as long as it would have taken to do that whole task. And it's just annoying to unlock the screen, begin to attempt doing something, and then notice 'oh hey, the screen is basically unseeable!' and have to interrupt whatever you're doing. Or, even worse, when you're going from place to place and go through areas that are lighter and darker, forcing you to keep interrupting your work.
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That is to peoples own preference. I use auto most of the time and its fine. Doesn't work would indicate it doesn't change the brightness at all.
You can't expect it to auto sense it to every persons liking. Also does power control change it so you can see the screen, cause that doesn't take '5 seconds'
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
spenceuiuc said:
I really like the auto brightness feature, but it's consistently too bright for my taste.
Is there a mod or tweak out there that will allow me to lower/adjust my automatic brightness levels to save some battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try Screen Filter - its in the app store. With screen filter applied I keep my phone set to auto and screen filter reduces that more - in my case 50% more.
Well in the DL30 rom you don't have to go to the settings menu to change the brightness, just press and hold on the notification bar and then slide left and right to change the brightness.
Zong00 said:
Try Screen Filter - its in the app store. With screen filter applied I keep my phone set to auto and screen filter reduces that more - in my case 50% more.
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Ill check that out. Thanks!

Should I Switch My S4 for Another One?

I got my S4 last week and it's great. This one doesn't have any lag, or at least not anything that concerns me. However, it does have screen issues, especially with the light adjustment. Sometimes the screen will randomly go full brightness for a second and then go back to normal, I notice this when accessing messaging sometimes. I know it also does this for Instagram, but it is suppose to do that.
Now, sometimes it seems like it does a colorshift. the screen will appear less blue and more yellow. It did this when I was accessing the facebook messenger app once and maybe another one. I might be making this up, but it just seems like the color changes ever so slightly. Also, once in a blue moon when it is adjusting screen brightness, all these vertical black lines appear for a microsecond on certain parts of the screen, it seems like an even distribution of lines. Reminds me of something old game boys might do.
I am very happy with the phone though, and I don't want to switch it if I don't have too. However, if another version might not have these issues, I want to switch ASAP, I only have a week left to swap for a new one. After that, my 14 days are up and they said they would only give me refurbs. :[
Do it.
I'm stuck with a defective screen 16GB because the 32GB did not come in on launch day which was my last day to return.
My only option at this point is to get another 16GB that's refurbished from warranty.
The irony in all this is that I manage the kiosk where I purchased the phone on my personal account.
My employees' phones and demo don't have the same screen issues I have.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
There is a setting in accessibility that called color adjusment mess with that and see if that helps it
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
I will check out the settings. The events that this glitches happen are rare, but it has only been a week and they have happened numerous times. The auto lighting adjustment sucks, times when it should be bright it's not. Plus the black line stuff that happens sometimes. If all of them experience this I dont want to trade in for another one. I don't want to risk trading my working phone for one that won't work so well.
DuffmasterFresh said:
I will check out the settings. The events that this glitches happen are rare, but it has only been a week and they have happened numerous times. The auto lighting adjustment sucks, times when it should be bright it's not. Plus the black line stuff that happens sometimes. If all of them experience this I dont want to trade in for another one. I don't want to risk trading my working phone for one that won't work so well.
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Click to collapse
I would swap it if I were you.. I came from the HTC one because of repeated problems and switched to the s4... I've only had it a few days now but have only experienced some lag (fixed by tweaking settings) and the auto brightness is a little slow to adjust sometimes (I've always though this about all my Samsung devices).. But no color changing or bars appearing.. Just my 2 cents..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
that is partially due to the type of color meter and ambient light sensor type (should be a 40-something segment black and white unless my info on the sensor specs are off. i believe apple has designed a proprietary multisegment rgb meter for theirs). b/w meters get lumens correct, but not perceived brightness (human eye is not the same as a sensor).
the color changing issue you are having may be due to the display mode being set on auto (start, settings, display mode) and under lighting that the sensor cannot correctly meter for (fluorescent lights flicker at the same hertz as your AC current, and are actually pretty dim and WAY off for color balance, so that SHOULD throw the sensors off continuously, which would lead to auto brightness hunting and inaccurate selection of the 'correct' color mode).
try turning auto brightness off and color mode to professional photo or movie (i use move as its very flat and closer to real colors). there ought to be a way to trick the ambient brightness sensor to sample and average at a faster rate, and ramp up/down more smoothly, but i cant code for android otherwise i would have been working on one.
i work in tv/film industry on the sensor/lighting side btw. if the issue goes away, turn on auto brightness and check it out under NON FLUORESCENT lighting. if its gone, it was probably the display mode changing along with auto brightness.
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Slade8525 said:
that is partially due to the type of color meter and ambient light sensor type (should be a 40-something segment black and white unless my info on the sensor specs are off. i believe apple has designed a proprietary multisegment rgb meter for theirs). b/w meters get lumens correct, but not perceived brightness (human eye is not the same as a sensor).
the color changing issue you are having may be due to the display mode being set on auto (start, settings, display mode) and under lighting that the sensor cannot correctly meter for (fluorescent lights flicker at the same hertz as your AC current, and are actually pretty dim and WAY off for color balance, so that SHOULD throw the sensors off continuously, which would lead to auto brightness hunting and inaccurate selection of the 'correct' color mode).
try turning auto brightness off and color mode to professional photo or movie (i use move as its very flat and closer to real colors). there ought to be a way to trick the ambient brightness sensor to sample and average at a faster rate, and ramp up/down more smoothly, but i cant code for android otherwise i would have been working on one.
i work in tv/film industry on the sensor/lighting side btw. if the issue goes away, turn on auto brightness and check it out under NON FLUORESCENT lighting. if its gone, it was probably the display mode changing along with auto brightness.
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I had no idea the S4 had these options. I guess I am used to my Atrix which didnt do much. I went in and adjusted the settings. The auto screen brightness never really did a good job, I feel that it is way too dim in situations where it should be brighter. I will text your advice the next week and see what happens. If I still get issues, I will return it as I have one week left of my 14 days. Thank you very much for the excellent advice!
DuffmasterFresh said:
I had no idea the S4 had these options. I guess I am used to my Atrix which didnt do much. I went in and adjusted the settings. The auto screen brightness never really did a good job, I feel that it is way too dim in situations where it should be brighter. I will text your advice the next week and see what happens. If I still get issues, I will return it as I have one week left of my 14 days. Thank you very much for the excellent advice!
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no problem; the auto brightness on the GS4 is only slightly better than the Atrix 4G (had one too), and same as the GS3. The color mode thing (which is awesome; closer to real life colors versus waaaay oversaturated screens on most phones. also check power saving settings.
also see this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=41616076#post41616076
Well, I have not seen those black lines since I turned off auto brightness and turned off the screen automatically doing it's own color adjustments. I will turn these back on to see if I can duplicate the issue. I do feel that I have more lag now, but I could just be paranoid.
OK, when I am using my Facebook Messenger App, sometimes these black lines appear horizontally across the screen on low brightness. However, sometimes they dont. I dont want to call them black lines, but maybe I should say they are ghostly tv lines that are barely noticeable. Ideas?
Could someone explain the defective screen issue?, mine looks great...
The phone works great most of the time and is totally useable, the only issue is that sometimes it does these weird things as I have explained. Tomorrow is the 14 day mark, so I am having a hard time deciding if I should switch for another one just in case, or assume all of this is normal and hope the phone lasts me 2 years.
DuffmasterFresh said:
The phone works great most of the time and is totally useable, the only issue is that sometimes it does these weird things as I have explained. Tomorrow is the 14 day mark, so I am having a hard time deciding if I should switch for another one just in case, or assume all of this is normal and hope the phone lasts me 2 years.
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Could possibly be a GPU issue. Have you had any problems playing heavy duty 3d games?
Sent from my GT-N7100
No problems playing the Iron Man 3 game, everything seems fine.
It seems like any time the keyboard is pulled up, the screen shifts color to something more yellow. all of the keys go from a nice grey to a off grey yellow tint color. During this transition, I can literally see the screen transition as weird lines appear for a fraction of a second, like switching channels on an old TV. I tried recording this on my DSLR 1080P camera but it could not pick up the color change visibly. I might try again. It does this on Google Chrome, Facebook Messenger, Snap Chat even. sometimes it color shifts even when the keyboard is not involved. I have the auto adjustments on the screen off and the color set to Standard Mode.
The ATT store said I am a day out of my 14 day limit and there is nothing they can do. They said I have to talk to warranty and see if they will be nice enough to send me a new one. I dont want a refurb, last time that happened, I went through 4 of them. I talked to ATT support and they said they would extend my 14 days another 3 days but the ATT store said I was out of luck for an exchange for a new phone.
So no one elses screen color shifts to yellow when the keyboard pops up? Mine does this now all the time, mainly in low light. It might do it in all light situations but in sunlight I prolly just can't see it. It's incredibly annoying because the screen itself wacks out every time it does it.

Flash darkens photos?

Anyone else observing that when they take a pic with the flash on in "medium" light conditions, the photo comes out actually darker than if the flash wasn't even used?
I swear the timing of the flash is bad on my S5. When I tap the button to shoot the photo, the flash turns on and the image on the screen looks bright and good. But then I think the photo is actually taken a split second later after the flash has turned off, and the photo that gets taken is dark as hell. I think I've tried all the combination of settings in the default S5 camera app, and nothing helps.
Brent212 said:
Anyone else observing that when they take a pic with the flash on in "medium" light conditions, the photo comes out actually darker than if the flash wasn't even used?
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I haven't seen this with my S5. Unfortunately you didn't elaborate on your camera settings, camera version or other crucial details.
At a guess, and it is only speculation since we don't have your details, you are expecting the flash to act like a fill flash. When the auto mode (which is probably what you are using) probably uses the flash in a conventional manner i.e. a fixed shutter speed (or limited shutter speed range). There are good reasons for that, but the net effect if the subject is outside of the flash range is that little of the flash is reflected back and the (presumably) higher shutter speed lets less total light in resulting in a darker picture.
You can test that thesis by taking some pictures of a subject that is very close to the camera. If the problem goes away with close subjects that implies that the problem is an artifact of using flash for a subject that is too distant for the flash to work with. No flash can work at an unlimited distance which is why people using a flash in a stadium when they are 75 meters from a subject is silly. In this case, flash mode simply isn't appropriate to the situation you are using it in and you'd be farther ahead to use a slower shutter speed, without flash.
It's highly unlikely that a bug would see the shutter opening after the flash.
.
It happens with literally *every* combination of the settings in the camera app (with flash set to "on"). Auto mode, beauty face mode... actually, are there any other modes that I'd use to take a picture of something 3 feet away in a darkish room? I have panorama, "shot & more", virtual tour... those wouldn't be right, correct? So both beauty face and auto, with all the combination of settings... hdr on/off, stabilization on/off, iso at auto and all four "manual" options, all three metering modes... nothing makes a difference.
The problem is the same all the times -- it's not just that the non "subject" areas are dark -- the whole image is dark, just like if you turned off the light in a room and snapped a pic at the moment when the light was still on at 50% brightness as it's turning off. It's super annoying just because of how damn good the image looks on the screen when the photo is being taken... it even seems to "snap" the shot at the right time... the shutter sound goes off and the little border animation happens when the pic is nice and bright. Then I open the actual image and it's garbage.
I was hoping someone might know of some setting in a config file somewhere for a delay between when the flash is triggered and when the camera attempts to capture the image, and that maybe mine got changed somehow to a larger than optimal value.
My wife has an s5, I'll have to test with hers and see if it suffers from the same problem.
Long story short: the camera is using a fast exposure time to keep the subject from being "blown out", i.e. overexposed, when the flash is used. That means that the foreground is going to be sharper but anything in the background will be lost in darkness if the ambient lighting is low. When you leave the flash off, the camera will use a longer exposure time (or shutter speed, if you will) to allow enough light, which also lets more of the background be seen in the picture.
Another thing to consider is that if your screen is set for auto brightness control, you will not have the same brightness when viewing the gallery pictures that you will when looking at the camera view. The camera view is full brightness at all times, but if you're viewing the pictures that you took in the gallery, screen brightness will drop down according to ambient lighting. Photos definitely look dark if you're looking at the gallery by lamp light.
Marlin29 said:
Long story short: the camera is using a fast exposure time to keep the subject from being "blown out", i.e. overexposed, when the flash is used. That means that the foreground is going to be sharper but anything in the background will be lost in darkness if the ambient lighting is low. When you leave the flash off, the camera will use a longer exposure time (or shutter speed, if you will) to allow enough light, which also lets more of the background be seen in the picture.
Another thing to consider is that if your screen is set for auto brightness control, you will not have the same brightness when viewing the gallery pictures that you will when looking at the camera view. The camera view is full brightness at all times, but if you're viewing the pictures that you took in the gallery, screen brightness will drop down according to ambient lighting. Photos definitely look dark if you're looking at the gallery by lamp light.
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That's interesting stuff, but doesn't really apply to the problem I described (at least the first part... the screen brightness setting stuff is potentially related, but isn't in my case). The exposure time is fine, it's just **when** the exposure starts that is the problem... a little too late, IMO. Really wish there was a way to adjust when it takes the photo in relation to when the flash is fired.
The foreground objects aren't lit up at all. No difference between foreground and background. Sometimes, I'm taking a picture of a t-shirt laying on a flat surface from 2 feet away. Without a flash it looks pretty good, but it's a little dark so I decide to try the flash to see if it'll lighten it up a bit. Instead, it makes it look like I turned out half the lights in the room.... way darker than no flash.
Same here, three friends of mine too.
I'm having the same problem s5 neo
I just figured out how to correct the pics from coming out dark. Go into camera-settings-exposure value-slide to the right to 2.5 or more.My pics come out fine now. Indoor light normal daylight.( with flash off.) I will know more in other settings (places ,situations )if it needs to be tweaked again.
no problems here
my settings are AUTO MODE
flash AUTO
no effets at all
and still i get good shots in night
Power/current draw issue?
Mine was doing this, and I noticed the first flash (ranging) was fine, but the second flash (to illuminate the image when taken) was much weaker. Whilst plugged into charge, repeated low light experiment, and the low light flash illuminated image was fine!! Maybe battery on its way out?

[Q]there possibility to FORCE the SUN LIGHT mode?(very bright on Sun light mode)

is there possibility to FORCE the SUN LIGHT mode?( when the phone gets very bright on sun light....)
you know when you hold the note 4 with direct sun light on it, it gets extremely bright and you can see the screen very good...
i want to have the possibility to make it that bright when i want and not just on sun light (cause when i'm not in direct sun light it also hard to see)
i tried looking in setting but nothing there... i can put it on high bright but never like that brightens in sun light
any idea what i can do?? maybe some tweak or app?
thanks
p.s. if root needed for that - is there any root for note 4?! and any guide how to root it...? thanks
any body knows.....??
Can't you just set the brightness to MAX?
its not the same as it get extremely bright.. that why i'm asking
As I know auto bright should do trick , more than that may damage screen as I know.
nothing else i can do to force this ??
I'm really curious if anyone has found a way. It drives me insane how useful the feature is on a sunny day but if a shadow of any sort including my own head or hand goes over the sensor the screen dims. In fact with Auto brightness enabled it actually goes dimmer than it would with Auto turned Off.
back in the day when i had the note 2 there was a guy who made an app for that. It needed root to work though and you have to apply it every time you reboot the device.
The app was called: a brighter note
maybe he cares todo the same for the note 4 if you ask him
I also need this. it is not BRIGHTER it alters the colors of the screen (they appear paler more washed out) but this results in it beeing EXCEEDINGLY more visible in bright sunlight.
I use my note 4 as a 4k camear with my 60mm moment lens mounted to my SLR so I can shoot pictures and video at the same time. alas it ALWAYS switches away from this optimal mode unless I aim the sensor DIRECTLY into the sun itself. any deviation and it switches back rendering the screen nearly "black" relatively speaking. useless
but that high contrast brightness mode is a DREAM. quite usable ! I want to force that to stay on. also can I do it for a Note 3?

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