iOS 4.1 HDR Photo overview and comparison photos.

[samcraig]

Wow! Some of you really need to get a grip! This is on a freakin PHONE, it WILL improve pictures for the majority of the people using it on their PHONE...... remember that part I said about it being a PHONE?

Some of you will bitch about ANYTHING, ffs get a life.

Actually - it's not bitching. It's discussing HDR - both in definition and in practicality. The whole "get a life" response is pathetic since you have nothing to add to the conversation. You just wanted to chime in with your snotty response. Congratulations. I hope you feel better

That being said - yes - it's "just a phone" - at the same time - when HDR hits critical mass with the public because of the iPhone - it's a little disconcerting that the notion of HDR could be skewed. Playing into Apple's marketing - "it just works" will be how people use HDR without understanding the what and how it's supposed to work. And they'll use the term HDR when not appropriately or in a bad context.

But this is nothing new. Often more technical things get dumbed down. For example - Apple wants you to believe that they will stream HD content to your TV via iTunes or Apple TV. It's HD only by resolution. It's not REALLY HD because the bitrate simply isn't there. But people will insist they are watching something "just as good as Blu-Ray" because they see the HD label.

It's both normal and understandable that people will want to clarify and explain to those that might not know the difference what the actual difference is.

 

[orbis]

seeing the results so far makes me thing it's a good tool for a phone, in harsh conditions.


It's no pro hdr, but it's good for a phone

 

[DroidRules]

Actually - it's not bitching. It's discussing HDR - both in definition and in practicality. The whole "get a life" response is pathetic since you have nothing to add to the conversation. You just wanted to chime in with your snotty response. Congratulations. I hope you feel better

That being said - yes - it's "just a phone" - at the same time - when HDR hits critical mass with the public because of the iPhone - it's a little disconcerting that the notion of HDR could be skewed. Playing into Apple's marketing - "it just works" will be how people use HDR without understanding the what and how it's supposed to work. And they'll use the term HDR when not appropriately or in a bad context.

But this is nothing new. Often more technical things get dumbed down. For example - Apple wants you to believe that they will stream HD content to your TV via iTunes or Apple TV. It's HD only by resolution. It's not REALLY HD because the bitrate simply isn't there. But people will insist they are watching something "just as good as Blu-Ray" because they see the HD label.

It's both normal and understandable that people will want to clarify and explain to those that might not know the difference what the actual difference is.

Yeah I said it and I'll say it again, get a life. When people start comparing and bringing in pictures from a dslr to compare to ones on the iPhone, yeah get a life. And seeing as you're complaining about my post complaining, I say to you..... Well you know.

 

[magicjosh]

It's no pro hdr, but it's good for a phone [/QUOTE]

Agreed. The native function isn't nearly as good as Pro HDR,, but since the 4.1 update my Pro HDR App appears to be totally broken. Anyone else?

 

[bibbz]

Here are some HDR's compared to the originals i took today after i updated to the iOS 4.1 GM. The only editing i did was resizing and combining into one image rather 2.


This is the one i'm most proud of. The very bright spot is where the sun was at, not much HDR can do there.

 

[samcraig]

Yeah I said it and I'll say it again, get a life. When people start comparing and bringing in pictures from a dslr to compare to ones on the iPhone, yeah get a life. And seeing as you're complaining about my post complaining, I say to you..... Well you know.

you obviously missed the point of the conversation. perhaps it flew by you as you were thinking up your witty post.

 

[Amino Man]

And THAT is exactly why HDR has a bad reputation.

I'm sorry to disappoint you. However, I did not over-tone-map that photo. If you must know, it's a photo that was taken with a fisheye lens, then undistorted to create the ultra wide angle view. It was also taken in multiple exposures and tone-mapped.

I try not to tone map my photos so much that there's halo's everywhere.

Again, I'm sorry you didn't like it though. Maybe I'll upload another one that is of better taste.

 

[Amino Man]

Here's a couple more I shot. The first one is a vertical panorama HDR and the second one is just a regular HDR. Again, I didn't make them look unrealistic.

 

[ItsJustafnPhone]

Here are some HDR's compared to the originals i took today after i updated to the iOS 4.1 GM. The only editing i did was resizing and combining into one image rather 2.


This is the one i'm most proud of. The very bright spot is where the sun was at, not much HDR can do there.

finally, not a "omg best example in the world ever"

but a good example of what HDR was intended to fix ( not make surreal looking)

 

[Lostanddamned]

finally, not a "omg best example in the world ever"

but a good example of what HDR was intended to fix ( not make surreal looking)

I guess mine doesn't count then

 

[Hemmo]

I hope that apples HDR has tone mapping slider ,i tested yesterday hdr pro app and it keeps over tonemapping pics and it drives me crazy..

 

[warrmr]

I hope that apples HDR has tone mapping slider ,i tested yesterday hdr pro app and it keeps over tonemapping pics and it drives me crazy..

There are no settings as far as I can see. Its either HDR on or HDR off.

 

[samcraig]

I guess mine doesn't count then

nor mine apparently.

 

[nalk7]

multiple picture proof

So i got proof that the iphone does indeed take multpiple pictures rather than just tone mapping as some people have suggested I took this shot by accident this morning, and this is what I got:
normal

HDR

Photos are off the phone, no alteration whatsoever.

 

[iStrat]

Yeah. I've noticed some ghost-like blur anomalies with the 4.1 HDR. I'll have to test it some more to see how big of an issue it is and how much movement is required to make it happen.

 

[andybno1]

I've been messin round with HDR an have found it's not that good. I tend to get washed out or over exposed lookin pics. I have also found if I take a pic with white paper in I get vertical lines

 

[err404]

I've been messin round with HDR an have found it's not that good. I tend to get washed out or over exposed lookin pics. I have also found if I take a pic with white paper in I get vertical lines

They would look "washed out" or lacking in contrast almost by definition. You may want to leave it off unless you are photographing something with a lot of bright and dark areas. The goal is to reduce the blown-out bright and crushed black areas. This results in more of the image appearing at "proper" exposure but also could make it "pop" less.

BTW - The HDR processed tone-mapped result isn't a realistic exposure. For example, while the sky may be far brighter then a face in your image, a tone-mapped image could actually make the sky appear darker. This hyper-real look may better approximate the way your brain perceives a scene, but it's less technically not correct.

 

[Reefbone]

So not that 4.1 is out how about some more examples? This thread seems woefully short on them.

 

[chrono1081]

Here is an HDR shot comparison I did on my desk just now. Works well actually....Good HDR is not knowing its HDR.

 

[spblat]

So not that 4.1 is out how about some more examples? This thread seems woefully short on them.

Mixed results from the last few days. You can see that HDR doesn't let you shoot into direct sunlight with impunity or ignore light and shadow altogether. I'm including original and HDR versions of all three shots. All taken using the built in camera app in iOS 4.1.

Note the poor alignment on that last one; I got bumped while I was shooting. Considering how fast the HDR process works it seems it's not spending too much effort lining up the two exposures. For that reason I'm not quite ready to delete my copy of the "Pro HDR" app.

 

[marksman]

So i got proof that the iphone does indeed take multpiple pictures rather than just tone mapping as some people have suggested I took this shot by accident this morning, and this is what I got:
normal

HDR

Photos are off the phone, no alteration whatsoever.

It is funny how many wanna-be photo expects (qualifications they paid too much for a DSLR camera!), kept saying it was not taking three pictures.

Even despite the fact when describing how it worked on the iPhone that is EXACTLY what Jobs said it did, take three pictures.

Well at least we know for sure who is NOT a photography expert here as they have exposed (haha get it) themselves.

 

[chrono1081]

I'm noticing already a lot of people don't understand there is a time and place for HDR. You can't use it on properly exposed shots or it will "look" for things to adjust.

HDR is for high contrast scenes like the one I shot and is a few posts above this one.

Cameras can't come close to the contrast of what the human eye can see.

In the example I shot, even though when I look at that same angle I can see the dock, the lamp, the glass and the grass out the window, the phone can only see the dock and the lamp. The glass is almost completely blown out and forget about the window. The blacks have been bumped up too.

In the HDR pic, the glass is now visible, the blacks are back to exactly where they are supposed to be but the window is still blown. No biggie though since if this were to be a professional shot (which it isn't) lighting would have been used to bring everything to the same level.

Also to everyone trying to HDR with the sun...its not going to work. Even on an SLR you have to use many neutral grads to try and get the sun in the shot.

 

[spblat]

Here is an HDR shot comparison I did on my desk just now. Works well actually....Good HDR is not knowing its HDR.

Excellent example. And that's a nifty ipod dock/card reader combo you got there. Do you like it? What is it?

 

[xwoodbutch]

Anyone who knows anything about photography understands HDR. Stupid people who have no clue what it does or how to use it should stay away from the feature. It's clear from all the idiotic posts here that few people understand how to use this function. Don't rely on YouTube videos and Gizmodo articles to explain something that even they don't understand or want to understand. Professional photographers have had several excellent HDR applications to choose from, and even Photoshop has a built-in (albeit somewhat retarded) HDR function.

HDR is used when you cannot capture the scene's full dynamic range in one shot. Since digital photography has far less dynamic range than film, you can't properly capture bright sky details while still properly exposing the foreground. Or what if you have bright sky in one part of your photo and shadows in another where you want to see some detail? HDR will take three shots - a middle "normal" exposure, one optimized for highlights and another for shadow detail. The three are then combined using Apple's HDR algorithm to "blend" the three photos together and get a good exposure with detail in bright and shadow areas.

My question is this. Why is Apple putting effort into incorporating a feature that maybe 5-10% of its customers will take the time to understand? Wouldn't it have been a better idea to add much needed features to other areas of iOS, features that people have been wanting for quite some time? Features like being able to selectively delete individual calls from your call log, forwarding of visual voicemails to anyone via email, being able to delete emails in bulk or "mark all as read", adding a priority flag to emails, allowing animated GIFs to animate when viewed in your photo roll, etc.

There should have been a lot of other priorities ahead of HDR.

EXACTLY!! +1

 

[Reefbone]

See ? And all this time I though this thread was to show examples of HDR shots and not expound on what you think should have been added instead.