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Better HDR pics?

NovemberWhiskey

NovemberWhiskey

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Is it just me or do the HDR pics look better? Seems richer and higher quality.

I am thinking either placebo or the white background in photos is enhancing the perceived colors.

HDR pics also seem to snap faster.

Camera does crash a lot and respring my phone though...
 
on ios 6 pics were just pimped with an HDR filter. i think now with ios 7 the phone really takes 2 images and creates a real HDR like ProHDR
 
zhandri said:
ofc 🙂 the shutter always only went off once in iOS6 those were never real HDR pics. for a real HDR pic you will see the screen go from dark to bright because the phone takes 2 photos
Click to expand...
That is what we call an animation.

A software developer designs the animation however he wants. What they conjure up for you to see on the screen, is whatever they want, and it isn't necessarily connected to the real world.

E.g. the filters. The color filters are software. The camera isn't really capturing those shades, it's capturing normal colors, the color shifts are done in software for your eyes.
 
zhandri said:
ofc 🙂 the shutter always only went off once in iOS6 those were never real HDR pics. for a real HDR pic you will see the screen go from dark to bright because the phone takes 2 photos
Click to expand...

The on screen animated shutter only goes off once, which doesn't indicate what the camera itself is doing.

Every HDR photo I've taken, you can see the ghosting of the image because I haven't got a steady hand.

EDIT: Damn, too slow.
 
The HDR does look pretty good on iOS 7 Beta 1 when exposing for the underexposed part of the image. A little edit with snapseed and it comes out pretty nice.

 
I often take pictures when it's dark, and HDR mode used to be pretty good at brightening up the dark areas of a photo (like, people).

Since upgrading to iOS 7, all my HDR shots are one indiscernible dark mess; at best, they look exactly the same as the non-HDR shots. Is this simply the downside of HDR getting better at daylight shots? Am I really the only one with this problem? 😕

I'll get my hands on another iPhone 5 running iOS 6 tomorrow and take some HDR photos for comparison...
 
The quality of HDR was actually worse in iOS 7 beta than iOS 6.

In old iOS 6 it would overlay images however you always had a level of ghosting. The colours and definition were and improvment over a standard image. Skies did stand out more with no sacrifice in detail.

In iOS 7 betas it seems HDR only took one picture due to no signs of overlapping or ghosting and simply increased the brightness as I would find constantly sky detail.
 
Nevaborn said:
The quality of HDR was actually worse in iOS 7 beta than iOS 6.

In old iOS 6 it would overlay images however you always had a level of ghosting. The colours and definition were and improvment over a standard image. Skies did stand out more with no sacrifice in detail.

In iOS 7 betas it seems HDR only took one picture due to no signs of overlapping or ghosting and simply increased the brightness as I would find constantly sky detail.
Click to expand...

I personally think the HDR in iOS 6 is better than the current iteration.
 
jlnr said:
I often take pictures when it's dark, and HDR mode used to be pretty good at brightening up the dark areas of a photo (like, people).

Since upgrading to iOS 7, all my HDR shots are one indiscernible dark mess; at best, they look exactly the same as the non-HDR shots. Is this simply the downside of HDR getting better at daylight shots? Am I really the only one with this problem? 😕

I'll get my hands on another iPhone 5 running iOS 6 tomorrow and take some HDR photos for comparison...
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if it did this in iOS 6, but I have noticed that in iOS 7 if you turn on your flash the HDR feature is turned off. You can't have flash and the HDR on at the same time. I have a iPhone 4S running iOS 6 at home....I can test it after work.
 
I've found that HDR pics turn out MUCH better when you tap to expose on the dark part of the scene. Otherwise, it just looks the same as a non HDR image.
 
zhandri said:
on ios 6 pics were just pimped with an HDR filter. i think now with ios 7 the phone really takes 2 images and creates a real HDR like ProHDR
Click to expand...

Nope, unfortunately. It's still the old quasi-HDR only able to increase the dynamic range of photos by about 1-1.5 EV's. ProHDR (or any other, decent HDR stitcher) can easily extend it by even 8 EV's - as I've also pointed out in the Exposure Compensation and Bracketing Bible.

But, at least, this has its upsides too. For example, ProHDR - and all other "true" stitchers that make three true, full shots one after each other - is much-much more sensitive to stitching problems.

I myself, therefore, prefer using the built-in HDR of the Camera app but, again, it's in no way as good as decent third-party stitchers, assuming you can use a tripod with the latter.

EDIT: in the comment below, I've posted a direct comparison of the dynamic (EV) range each approach allows for.


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Parise said:
Don't get why this isn't a bigger issue. IMO the HDR in iOS 7 is absolutely horrible.
Click to expand...

It's exactly the same as in iOS 6.
 
Last edited:
rattler said:
I've found that HDR pics turn out MUCH better when you tap to expose on the dark part of the scene. Otherwise, it just looks the same as a non HDR image.
Click to expand...

Just keep in mind it'll still seriously over-expose the bright areas, should be there more than 5-6 EV difference between the dark and bright areas.

Let me show some examples I've initially made for my iOS HDR Bible.

The following shot is the HDR result of exposing for the outer area (that is, the opposite of what you're recommended):

HE.jpeg


Full-res and -quality original: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/9365925353/in/set-72157634791582799
Non-HDR original: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/9365924031/in/set-72157634791582799

This (HDR result) shows exposing the inner area:

LE.jpeg


Original: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/9365924279/in/set-72157634791582799
Non-HDR original: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/9365924993/in/set-72157634791582799

All in all, if there are truly drastic differences in light levels (like in the above scene), try finding a middle point. It, of course, won't work with drastic light differences as the sensor of even the iPhone 5s' is pretty small and has pretty bad dynamic range. (Unfortunately, not even Apple can beat the laws of physics, no matter how they advertise their stuff.) In those situations, try using real HDR apps like below.

This is an in-iPhone 5 stitching done with Top Camera, one of the best HDR apps:

TC.jpeg


Original: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/9365924661/in/set-72157634791582799

Note that you don't need to use an app that not only shoots 3+, in addition to normal, under/overexposed images, but also stitches them on the iPhone. You can just shoot the photo series and stitch on a desktop to hve sometimes significantly better results. In my Exposure Compensation and Bracketing Bible, I've explained this all, particularly in the chapter "3. Bracketing with pre-setting the brightest and the darkest areas".
 
marf1million said:
That is a horrible result to be honest. In that situation you'd be better off just exposing for the outside and putting the flash on to expose the inside. It won't look great but it'll look better than that mess.
Click to expand...

Those kinds of "artificial" results are typical for on-iPhone stitching - all the other HDR apps produce very similar results.

This is why on-iPhone stitching can be disadvantageous at times and desktop stitching should be preferred.

Nevertheless, they (on-iPhone stitchers) still have a significant advantage over the built-in semi-HDR mode of the Camera client: they have vastly better dynamic range, even on the expense of "artificial" look and, of course, the far more proneness to stitching artifacts.
 
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The best HDR apps available are HDR3, TrueHDR, and then followed by pro HDR. Values TrueHDR which will only combined to move photos, the HDR3 will actually take three photos and blend together and it actually blends flawlessly. Some photos however will show some vignetting when blending, but for the most part average scenes will blend flawlessly but you have to hold your phone very steady because it does take three photographs. In my opinion those are the best two apps available.

T
 
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