iPhone cameras are really great. They allow us to capture life's every moment as they happen, and even requite us the chance to exist "professional" photographers with powerful tools. All iPhones accept the capability to capture HDR images.

If you've never heard of loftier dynamic range (HDR), just know that HDR images feature greater detail in the bright and dark areas of a picture, and then null looks under or overexposed.

Let's dive deeper into how y'all can take stunning HDR photos with simply your iPhone.

What Is HDR on the iPhone?

When you shoot in HDR on your iPhone, you actually accept a combination of 3 shots that end up stitched together to create a single HDR image.

These shots are all taken within milliseconds of each other. Thus, it'due south not the best for moving or activeness shots. For all-time results, y'all should utilize a tripod, but HDR photos all the same come out well if y'all've got a steady hand.

How to Enable HDR Capture on iPhone

There are ii ways to capture HDR images on your iPhone. If you want your device to automatically determine when it uses HDR:

  1. Become to Settings > Camera > Automobile HDR, and make sure the toggle is on (greenish).
  2. You can also enable the Continue Normal Photo pick if you want to go on the regular, non-HDR image every bit well. This lets you selection and choose what you want to share or edit. Go on in heed that this does take upward more space, and then information technology's not a practiced choice if you're constantly running depression on storage.

For those who want to use HDR on a example-by-case basis, make sure the above setting is off. And then just follow these steps equally needed:

  1. Launch the Camera app.
  2. Tap on the HDR option along the acme of the camera, between the Wink and Live Photos settings.
  3. Select Auto, On, or Off. If y'all turn on HDR, the text becomes xanthous to indicate that it'southward enabled.
iOS Enable HDR Manually

When to Apply HDR for iPhone Photography

The best employ cases for HDR photography are landscapes, objects in direct sunlight, and depression-calorie-free or backlit scenes.

Landscapes are probable the biggest reason for using HDR. They make amazing photos like cute mountains ready against a blue heaven look fifty-fifty better.

When y'all take a photograph of a landscape, such equally the ones in a higher place, you'll notice that there's ofttimes a lot of dissimilarity between sky and land. Usually, y'all'll finish upwardly focusing on one or the other, which causes the other part of the image to exist under or overexposed. (Call up nighttime canyons against a bright blue sky, or vivid canyons with a white, washed-out sky).

Every bit you use HDR to capture those beautiful landscapes, you lot can go on the sky item intact without making the land parts expect likewise nighttime, and vice-versa.

Portraits in sunlight are another keen use for HDR. While good lighting is a key attribute in photography, having too much low-cal can exist a problem. When you lot have a lot of harsh light, such every bit sunlight on someone'due south face up, for instance, it can cause harsh shadows, glare, or other unflattering traits that no one wants in their photos. HDR helps even everything out.

Low light and backlit scenes are some other frequent use-instance for HDR. When you're trying to take a photo of something that has a lot of backlight, the remainder of the paradigm ends up looking a fleck likewise dark

HDR comes to the rescue by brightening up the foreground without washing out those well-lit parts of the scene, then everything looks good.

When Not to Use HDR for iPhone Photography

While HDR is great for certain moments, there are times when y'all shouldn't use it besides.

As mentioned earlier, HDR photos on the iPhone are three photos taken inside milliseconds of each other that finish up stitched together. This means if your subject moves (or may move), you're increasing the likelihood of getting a blurry image.

Photography, especially iPhone or mobile photography, is an fine art form. Sometimes you purposely want high-dissimilarity images, such every bit shadows or silhouettes, to express or convey emotion. For these types of images, you should disable HDR.

When photographing vivid colors, you don't need HDR either. Even though HDR is great at bringing out colors in image that are besides light or too night, if the subject field is already bright and colorful, HDR may just launder those vivid hues out.

How to View HDR Photos on iPhone

iPhone View HDR

Unfortunately, while the iPhone creates albums for pretty much every other style (Portrait style, selfies, panoramas, screenshots, videos, etc.), it does not create an anthology for HDR images. This is a fiddling annoying, but information technology's non also difficult to see your HDR photos when needed.

To view HDR photos, you'll take to get into your normal Camera Roll. It's easy to spot HDR images if you take the Keep Normal Photo setting on, as they'll wait like a lot of duplicate images.

If that's the instance, the HDR image is always the second copy, and it has HDR in the top-left corner. If that setting is off, then yous'll only come across one copy of that HDR paradigm.

The All-time HDR Apps for iPhone

While the iPhone's native camera has a built-in HDR mode, information technology's not the most powerful option if you want to commit to HDR.

Hydra

For those who desire to take gorgeous HDR photographs while pushing the limits of the iPhone'south photography technology, Hydra is the app for the task.

Hydra's main characteristic is its unique HDR capture style. When enabled, Hydra captures much more low-cal than the standard iPhone camera past taking 60 frames and merging them all into one loftier-quality paradigm. Upward to 20 photos capture once you tap the shutter push, so Hydra is able to handle fifty-fifty the most difficult low-light situations y'all throw at it.

And for those who adopt to capture video, Hydra'due south Video-HDR manner uses single-tone mapping along with device-specific sensor modes to create amazing videos.

To top it all off, fifty-fifty if your device is capable of only eight megapixels, Hydra's Loftier Res mode lets you produce images of upwards to 32 megapixels in quality, so no detail's lost.

Download: Hydra ($5)

Pro HDR X

When you desire top-notch quality in your HDR photos, you lot can't get incorrect with Pro HDR X.

As you use Pro HDR X, the app utilizes 3 full-resolution exposures to generate your HDR prototype, which means maximum dynamic range with minimal noise. The app analyzes everything in real time and provides 10 boosted stops of dynamic range, giving you plenty of options to choose from.

While you tin can capture new images with Pro HDR X, it too includes advanced photo library editing for single-image editing or merging HDRs together. In that location's even support for both the forepart and rear-facing cameras, live updating sliders, filters, text captions, and much more. This is your all-in-one iPhone studio for all HDR and photograph editing needs.

Download: Pro HDR X ($2)

Get out and Take Bully HDR iPhone Photos

HDR is only one of the many modes that your iPhone is capable of shooting in, merely it's i of the near useful. It'due south also enabled automatically with the newest iPhone models, and so you don't fifty-fifty have to turn information technology on manually earlier snapping away.

For even amend shots, don't forget to check out our iPhone photographic camera tips for more professional-looking photos.

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About The Author

Christine Romero-Chan (33 Articles Published)

Christine is a graduate from California State University Long Beach with a degree in Journalism. She has been roofing applied science for many years and has a strong passion for gaming.

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