It was a pleasant surprise when Apple added a HDR mode to their own camera app on the iPhone 4, but it’s not real HDR. If you really want to take a good high dynamic range shot using your iPhone’s camera, you’ll need the $2.49 Pro HDR.
To get real HDR shots, you need to take two photos – one overexposed and one underexposed – and then stitch the good parts of each one together. Pro HDR does just that by taking two successive photos, and then automatically combining the good bits.
But where Pro HDR steps up is the ability to finetune the image. You can manually adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and tint on your HDR photo until it truly takes advantage of the properly exposed parts of both photos. The image updates live as you adjust the controls as well.
The app also has the ability to add geolocation, email full-res images and add HDR to images in your photo library. If you ever take photos using your iPhone, this app is a must-have.
[ProHDR]
[iAppalooza]
Simon Reidy
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 5:29 PMLove this app. Providing you keep the phone rock steady, the results you can achieve are amazing.
poedgirl
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 6:37 PM“To get real HDR shots, you need to take two photos – one overexposed and one underexposed – and then stitch the good parts of each one together.”
That’s exactly what the built in camera app does in 4.2…
Brian
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 6:54 PM“To get real HDR shots, you need to take two photos – one overexposed and one underexposed – and then stitch the good parts of each one together.”
Please note that this is exactly what Apple’s implementation does.
Seamus Byrne
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 7:03 PMBut it then makes all the assumptions about what it should look like on your behalf, and ends up doing a very bad job of it compared to the likes of Pro HDR.
Aimless
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 7:40 PMYes, it adjusts the image automatically and the result is not as good custom adjusted result in Pro HDR. But the quality is still better than most phones out there if not the best still. And most iPhone users just take the picture without bothering to edit it on the phone anyway. That’s exactly what Apple’s HDR implementation intend to do: better quality photo taken with just one click.
Terry
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 10:54 PMHDR works best if there is no movement of the camera between shots. Personally, I’ve found mounting my iPhone on a real tripod works great. The only true tripod mount for all iPhones, and other devices without a tripod screw hole, is the cool d’Trod mount. Perfect for HDR, time lapse, stop motion animation, and steady video shooting, dash cams, etc., d’Trod is the most indispensable phone cam accessory I have!
It can be found at http://dTROD.com