First off, what is HDR, anyway? You’ve likely seen the concept all over the Web this year. It’s all the rage now that Adobe and Apple have made this once difficult-to-master photography trick as easy as pointing, shooting and… waiting—the software does everything else for you.
HDR (high dynamic range) imaging allows photographers access to a greater range of light levels between the darkest and lightest areas of an image. If you’ve ever taken a picture of a sunset over the mountains and bodies of water, you might notice that the area where the sun appears is very bright and washed-out, while the mountains and streams are very dark. HDR techniques can fix this and make the rock and water much more visible, while toning down the sun. When done right, and HDR’d image looks a lot more like what you can see with the naked eye.
On Wednesday, Apple released their highly anticipated 4.1 software update for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4. The upgrade offers various features for all iPhone users, but you must either jailbreak your phone or own the latest iPhone 4 in order to take advantage of the new HDR photography option.
But, never fear. If you’re like me and own a 3G or 3GS, and you want to shoot HDR, there’s an app for that. In fact, there are several.
The one I’ve used for this piece is called “Pro HDR.” It works for iPhone 3GS or newer, and can be purchased for $1.99 via the App Store. It’s not perfect, but for two dollars worth of smartphone software, it does the trick pretty well.
Below are three pictures depicting my MacBook Pro and part of my dining room. The first is overexposed, so that you can see the dining room. The second is underexposed, and while the dining room is very dark, you can easily make out what I have up on my screen. (Click any image for a larger version):
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Using Pro HDR, I was able to combine the images and use the best parts of each, all right on my iPhone.
If I wanted to, I could also use Pro HDR to further edit the end result by manually adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation and other image elements.
All in all, I would recommend Pro HDR to casual users who want to improve the look for their “mobile uploads” folders on Facebook. If you’re looking to take particularly stunning photos, I’d suggest investing in a real camera that can’t make phone calls.
Rima Chaddha Mycynek is a writer, reporter, editor, photographer, videographer, former talk show host, and all-around journalism nerd. She currently teaches multimedia journalism at Boston University. [
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18 users responded in this post
This is cool! Thanks for the share! I am sure there are a lot of pre-iPhone-4 users out there due to the antenna issues. I myself won’t update until all of the bugs are fixed. This will be useful until then!
Iphone is fired… more overpriced substandard hardware from apple… whoopieeeeee!
Dave: Thanks!
Sloan: Aww, come now. The iPhone does some amazing stuff. The better Droids aren’t much cheaper (though the older/not-so-great Droids are) and BBerry/Windows phones/Whatever Nokia is trying to do right now all lag behind the iPhone and the Droid in terms of versatility, interface, etc.
Windows mobile blows. Symian phone have their advantages and disadvantages. Galaxy S is the same price and worlds better. I use a Google nexus one and it may not have the screen or camera iPhone 4 does, but its interface and customization potential buries all iPhones hands down. And plus the apps don’t have to be Google approved.
Did I mention my nexus one was $200 cheaper?
Now that depends. If you’re eligible for upgrades, the iPhone is a lot less. My 1G finally died in Vegas this past May, before the 4 came out, and I’m not an early adopter (read: “beta tester”) anyway. So, I bought a nice, new 3GS for relatively cheap. It’s a great phone and stands up to newer models from other brands.
I really want my husband to ditch his Sprint paperweight and get on a family plan with me. Selfishly, I want him to get the Samsung Droid for AT&T because I love it. Unselfishly, I want him to get it because he wants to try programming Droid apps.
If he wants to write Droid he should get one of the new unlocked nexus ones. Nexus one is the Google dev phone. Its the programmer’s standard with the latest software. The new screens are as good as the amoled on the galaxy S. Att is terrible, I wouldn’t encourage anyone to deal with them.
The 3gs is the best bang for the Buck in the iPhone market for sure. I still maintain that the newer (and some of the older) androids are better. Nexus one wins in my book because it is one of the only android phones with the latest OS version. That makes more of a difference than you can imagine.
If Steve or anyone you know wants phone tech advice I have certainly done the research and love to rattle on about it. Send them my way.
I’m not giving up my iPhone. Hence, AT&T.
Thanks for the advice about the Nexus! Steve wants to make something that will be sure to run well on a locked phone, but even if he himself uses an unlocked phone, I’m sure he’ll figure out the nuances when he gets into it. Related: The “no sideloading” rule that so many phone-makers have is kind of irritating.
Google doesn’t do that, that’s a carrier based thing. No sideloading is Att. Att galaxy S model doesn’t allow sideload, but T-Mobile does for example. The way the programs are written is an OS version thing rather than a locked vs unlocked thing.
That, I didn’t know! I thought it was more a manufacturer thing than a carrier thing. I know that AT&T tends to be strict, but this is a bit much.
Yeah Att nerfs droids so they can keep their iPhone sales up. The misconception you had is exactly their goal.
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