We’ll go over what HDR means, why and when to use HDR photography, as well as how to use HDR on your iPhone. HDR mode on your iPhone camera makes a big difference in the right situations, such as when taking a photo of land and sky. So let’s get to it; here’s everything you need to know about what HDR is and how to use it on your iPhone.
What Is HDR on iPhone, What is HDR & What Does it Mean, As stated, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. But what does High Dynamic Range photography mean, It has to do with the differences in vision between the human eye and a camera. Dynamic Range in photography is the range from the lightest light and the darkest dark that can be seen in a photo. Our eyes can see a much larger dynamic range than a camera— and that’s where HDR comes in to make up the difference.
Sign up to iPhone Life's Tip of the Day Newsletter and we'll send you a tip each day to save time and get the most out of your iPhone or iPad. For example, say you’re taking a picture of a lighthouse against a blue sky. You can focus and properly expose the lighthouse or you can focus on the sky. One or the other will appear accurately but not both.
It will either appear as though the sky is washed out (overexposed) or the lighthouse is but a dark shadow. HDR combines multiple exposures so that both the sky and lighthouse are properly exposed, meaning that both are properly lit and the contrast levels of the photo are balanced. Okay, What is HDR on iPhone Then, HDR on your iPhone is the combination of three shots, taken within milliseconds of each other, and stitched together into one photo. Your iPhone takes three photos in order to capture each part of the landscape in perfect exposure.
As we stated above, it’s hard to achieve perfect exposure of both land and sky. So the iPhone creates a High Dynamic Range (HDR) by combining the properly exposed parts of each of the three images, then combines them into one that looks seamless. HDR mode on the iPhone works best when the photo is taken with your phone stationed on a tripod.
However, the images above were taken without one. So that’s not to say you can’t take HDR photos if you don’t have a tripod. But it is important to have a steady hand when taking an HDR photo if you aren’t using a tripod. This is because HDR doesn’t capture movement well.
Since HDR on iPhone combines three different shots into one, too much movement might cause the multiple photos not to align perfectly into one. For the same reason, taking photos of moving objects doesn’t work well either. You can use HDR to experiment and get odd shots with double exposures, but for the intended purpose of HDR, movement is a detriment to the shot.
HDR is best used to balance high-contrast scenes. Landscapes. The sky and the land have a lot of contrast between them. HDR is capable of capturing the light of the sky and the dark of the land in one shot that doesn’t make either the land too dark or the sky overexposed. Objects in Direct Sunlight. Sunlight casts shadows creating a wider range of contrast in a photo. Using HDR brings balance to all the elements, both light and shadow.
Scenes with Backlighting. The same principle as above applies to the reverse situation. If you have a scene that’s bright in the background, HDR will lighten the foreground without making it look overexposed and washed out. First, decide whether or not you want your iPhone to save just the HDR photo or both the HDR photo and the normal photo. The pro of saving both is that you can review each and choose which you like the best.
0 Comments