Thanks to the advancements of computational photography, smartphone cameras have been getting better and better year after year.
One area where mobile cameras used to struggle but have now improved upon is capturing detail in scenes with high contrast.
Smartphone cameras used to be notorious for producing images with low dynamic range. The dark areas of a photo would be too dark to make out any detail, and the bright areas would be overexposed.
That all changed when HDR was introduced on smartphone cameras. Now if you look at the mobile camera specifications of a lot of smartphones, they include HDR.
Let’s dive in and look at what HDR is and what it can do for your images.
What is HDR?
HDR stands for high dynamic range, which, in photography, refers to the balance between the bright and dark areas of your photo. It can be used to either create an accurate representation of a scene as the human eye would see it or to create visually striking arty images.
With smartphone cameras, it is very difficult to take a photo that has both bright and dark areas in the scene perfectly exposed. The highlights are usually overexposed and clipped to white, and the shadows tend to be too dark to show any detail.
For example, if you had a subject positioned in a shaded area with a bright background behind them, brightening the exposure for the subject under the shade would blow out the background and make it overexposed.
On the other hand, setting the ideal exposure for the background would result in the subject being underexposed.
A high dynamic range image is one that retains the details of the image in the dark areas (shadows) while not completely whitening the bright areas (highlights).
Source: geeksontour.com
HDR is a part of the computational photography that modern smartphone cameras use to improve the quality of mobile images. It uses software to eliminate the issue of washed-out highlights and overly crushed shadows in an image.
An HDR photograph is essentially one with a very high dynamic range between the highlights and shadows. However, that kind of balance between the bright and dark areas of a photo can’t be achieved in one image.
How do you capture an HDR photo?
A high dynamic range photograph is actually made up of a combination of at least two or more images that are taken at different exposures (overexposed, underexposed, and/or normal exposure).
There are two ways to get an HDR photo with your smartphone camera: in-camera or manually.
In-camera HDR
In-camera HDR is where the camera does most if not all the work for you. Setting your mobile camera to Auto-HDR will make it create a high dynamic range image itself.
The camera will typically take two, three, or more photos at different exposures very quickly one after the other.
The camera’s image processor will then combine the images to create one photo with detail in the highlights and shadows.
Smartphone cameras that have the HDR feature oftentimes have the option to have the HDR switched On, Off, or set to Auto-HDR. Having HDR set to ‘On’ tells the camera to capture a high dynamic range image every time a photo is taken.
Enabling Auto-HDR on your mobile camera enables the camera to automatically decide when to take an HDR photo and when not to. The camera analyses the scene, and if it appears to have high contrast, it will automatically take an HDR photo to alleviate the lack of detail in the highlights and shadows.
Some devices and camera apps allow you to capture and save an HDR image as well as a normal version without HDR added. If your handset allows this, it may be worth checking out, especially if you’re unsure of when to use HDR and when not to. This can usually be disabled in the settings menu.
Manual HDR
This method is more complicated than the one above and is usually done by people who don’t have HDR on their devices. Firstly, creating an HDR image manually requires you to take as many pictures as you need at different exposures ranging from underexposed to overexposed.
And because you won’t be as quick as the camera at taking pictures one after the other, you’d need to pick a scene that has no movement to avoid ghosting. For this reason, it’s important that you use a tripod.
Once the images are captured, you’ll need to import them into a processing software. You’ll then blend the images together to create one high dynamic range image.
As I mentioned earlier, creating HDR images manually is a bit tricky. So, you need to be extra cautious when doing it to avoid your images coming out blurry or cartoonish.
What’s the difference between HDR and Auto-HDR?
Perhaps you may have compared a couple of smartphone camera specs and noticed that some cameras are said to have HDR while others have Auto-HDR. There is no major difference in how they work. They process the image the same way.
It’s just like how there’s flash and auto-flash on a camera. When auto flash is enabled, the camera analyses the scene and decides whether it should fire off the flash or not.
Same thing with Auto-HDR. The camera analyses the scene and decides whether to apply HDR or not.
And while on the topic of HDR specs, different smartphone manufacturers may call their version of HDR by different names, such as HDR+ or SmartHDR, etc. The name may be different and the performance improved, but the basics of how it works are all the same.
Why use HDR?
HDR can be a useful tool when used to avoid losing detail in a high contrast scene. This is especially so when it comes to photographing landscapes.
Using HDR can be beneficial when the sky is too bright and the landscape is underexposed.
Enabling HDR is also good for taking portrait shots where the background is brighter than the subject in the foreground.
Another good thing about HDR is that it can make images pop. The colours become richer and the images have more luminance. Also, HDR can mean less noise in your photos under the right conditions.
Issues with HDR
HDR does not take too well to movement. Because HDR works by combining multiple photos taken successively to create one image, any movement will result in a ghosting effect.
For this reason, capturing high dynamic range images is best reserved for non-moving subjects. Also, it’s a good idea to stabilize your phone using a tripod or something similar to minimize any chance of a shaky shot.
And because there’s not enough light, HDR does not perform so well at night or in poor lighting. The image might come out looking dull and blurry, unless, as I already said before, you support your phone.
If you’re taking photos in low light conditions, there are ways to brighten up your photos. Using night mode is one of them.
When not to use HDR on your camera
Sometimes, for artistic purposes, you want to capture an image with high contrast. To do this, you’d need to disable HDR on your camera. Otherwise, the camera will give you an image that has a high dynamic range and not the stark contrast you want.
A good example of this is when capturing silhouettes. Having HDR enabled would take away the silhouette effect and ruin it by trying to add detail to the dark area.
HDR can also ruin an image if the scene already has vivid and vibrant colours. Sure, enabling HDR on your mobile camera can bring life to an otherwise bland image, but using it when it’s not necessary may result in images with unnatural colours.
How do you enable HDR on a phone
Unfortunately, not all phones support HDR imaging. However, more often than not, you’ll find an HDR mode on a lot of devices, even some entry-level smartphones. The HDR quality of some of these cheaper phones is questionable, though.
Where you can find HDR on your camera depends on the phone and camera app you use. On some devices, HDR can be enabled in the settings of the app, while on some it is a shooting mode on its own. On certain phones, to use HDR, you need to switch to Manual mode.
It’s very difficult to say, in this article, where exactly you can find HDR on a smartphone camera because of the sheer number of devices and apps that all work differently. Some companies even call HDR by different names.
The best thing to do is to Google your device and the app you use, and find out how to enable HDR.
Help! My HDR shots are blurry
The two main causes for blurry HDR photos are a moving subject and/or a shaky camera. Remember, HDR images are made up of multiple photos blended together.
So, if the contents of all the photos are not the same, the images will not align properly. This will cause ghosting or blurriness.
If you’re going to take HDR photos, it’s important that you hold your phone steady or put it on a tripod or similar camera support system. This will minimize the chance of camera shake and give you better results.
As for issues of moving subjects, you need to pick something stationary when doing HDR photography. At the moment, HDR on mobile phones works best when capturing scenes with no movement.
Conclusion
While HDR may not be the solution for every photo situation, it does make up for some of the shortcomings of mobile cameras due to their size. This helps to improve the quality of images they produce.
Different phone companies handle HDR differently. Make sure you play around with the HDR on your device so that you can get a proper feel of how it affects your photos.
My advice is that you don’t rely on HDR processing to take good photos. Yes, it does help but the rest is up to you. Know and understand how your mobile works, and use that knowledge to get the most amazing photos out of your camera.
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Otherwise, for some quick tips on how to capture great photos with your phone, check out these 15 Tips on How To Take Amazing Photos With Your Phone. The better you get at mobile photography, the likelier your chances of making some extra money online with your mobile photos.