Have you ever looked at HDR photos, wishing you could produce the same fantastic images? But there’s no way you could make those kind of pictures with your iPhone’s camera, and you know that because the HDR functionality built into the Camera app just isn’t that great. What if there was a way to take truly mind blowing HDR images with your iPhone, just by using a different app?
Well there is, and one of them is iCameraHDR. This app takes your iPhone’s built-in camera and kicks it up to 11, producing some pretty stunning pictures in the process. Let’s delve into what the app does after the break.
Wait, What’s HDR?
HDR is an abbreviation used among photographers. It stands for High Dynamic Range, and means that photos have been post-processed using a special technique which allows both the bright and the dark spots of an image to come out perfectly (usually you can have only the one or the other).
In order to create a good HDR image, photographers usually take multiple pictures of the same thing but the using multiple exposure levels: some images are underexposed (dark because of little exposure) and some are overexposed (bright because of long exposure). When those shots are combined, you’ll get an image that is perfectly lit and depending on the strengths of the effect, you can create otherworldly looking photos.
How iCamera HDR Does It
How can this little iPhone camera handle such a complex situation? It has to be admitted right away that of course the image quality will always be inferior to what comes out of a DSLR, but if the iPhone’s camera is all you’ve got, then you are still able to take some amazing shots.
iCamera HDR does what you otherwise would have to accomplish through an extra application on your Mac or PC. It takes two shots of a scene — one overexposed and one underexposed — and renders them into one image. You can even create an HDR image from just one photo; iCamera HDR just calculates what it needs.
Welcome screen & shooting options in iCamera HDR
The app also gives you a multitude of options to manipulate the strength of the HDR effect and the appearance of the final image. We’ll take a look at those options and go through them one by one.
Taking photos for the HDR
Once you fire up iCamera HDR, you’ll be presented with two options: take a new set of photos or load existing ones. If you go for the latter, you’ll be re-directed to the camera roll where you can select either one or two images to create your HDR image.
If you opt for taking new photographs, a capture dialogue opens. You have multiple options to select from in the bottom area of the screen:
Select single or multiple image HDR & Stabilization options
You can just start taking photos with the default settings, but you could also set how still your iPhone needs to be for the shutter to release (no idea what good this will do you without a tripod), or if you want to take a manual, automatic or single image HDR. As with the standard Apple Camera app, you are also able to select a focus point by simply tapping on the iPhone screen. The focus will adjust and so will the brightness of the entire image.
Choose focus point and metering sport for image brightness
Once you hit the release button, iCamera HDR will start to take images. Make sure to hold the iPhone as still as you can since the photos will overlay each other and the prominent features need to match up to avoid a blur.
Save your images before you start the post-processing. Sometimes iCamera HDR crashes during image manipulation and your photos will be lost (if you haven’t activated the “Save Originals” in the settings).
Creating the HDR
iCamera HDR takes a couple of seconds to load your images — it needs to align them properly so that they match perfectly. This process may take up to 15 seconds, so be patient. Once it’s finished, you will see a preview of your HDR image and many options to manipulate it even further. With a tap on the image you can see it full screen (though not full size).
Aligning two shots
There are far too many settings to go through each of them individually. It’s simply impressive just how much you can do with an iPhone app — the options range from changing the brightness, saturation and contrast to adjusting the sharpness, tint, black and white levels and even applying special effects.
Huge selection of image manipulation options
Depending on your choices, you could give an image a tint that makes it look like it has been taking in the warm evening sun instead of the bright glare of midday. You can boost colors or even reduce their saturation, creating artistic photos worth printing. The only limit is your imagination.
iCamera HDR Example 1 (taken late afternoon)
iCamera HDR Example 2 (taken midday)
iCamera HDR Example 3 (taken at sunset)
In contrast to many other HDR apps (see my comparison below), iCamera produces a very nice final image. While of course sharpening and not-optimal lighting conditions may produce some grain, the image is still reasonably sharp.
Image quality at 100% (slightly grainy, but sharp)
Once you’re done, you have multiple options of sharing your images. Saving to your camera roll or sending it to Twitter, Facebook or Flickr to show to your friends.
Verdict
iCamera HDR has its quirks, but on the HDR-app market it shines with its many option panels and high quality final images. And as a user of many different HDR apps, I’ve tried out quite a few different options, and this is the best of them all.
What are your experiences with HDR apps? Let us know in the comments.