What is hdr in a smartphone camera. Are there ways to avoid this? Additional benefits of manual processing

15/09 3400

Creating a high dynamic range photo is a fairly well-known feature found on a modern digital camera or smartphone. More experienced photographers understand what HDR is, but not everyone knows when to use this mode best. Photosearch will try to clarify how to make the most of HDR when shooting on your phone.

The human eye is capable of perceiving a much higher dynamic range on location than any photographic equipment. If you have sharp eyesight, you can make out small details in a dark building against a bright sky, notice the details of an airplane flying overhead in the sky, and so on. But when we try to capture this moment and photograph, for example, a building with a phone or camera, it becomes dark in the lens with poorly visible details.

In this case, skilled photographers would begin to eliminate the problem by exposure, however, even here we encounter difficulties - the building turned into an overexposed one, and the sky above it seemed to be blurry White spot. How to be? Take pictures in HDR mode.

Our task is to combine the best components of two or three photographs and create a single image with clearly defined small details, in our case - a building, and a beautiful natural sky. HDR technology perfectly copes with the task, the result is pleasing to the eye.

HDR on smartphones

Built-in high dynamic range functionality can be found in every modern iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. High Dynamic Range on a smartphone automatically aligns best performance three shots taken on a phone camera.

To get an excellent output image with clearly defined detail and color reproduction, you should do the following:

• take three shots with different exposure settings:

• combine a series of photos into one frame using HDR on your phone.

Shooting in Auto HDR on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

1. Open the Camera tab on your smartphone.
2. Turn on HDR mode.
3. Point the camera at the subject or subject to be photographed and take a picture.

The phone automatically saves two versions of the image in the "Photos" section at once: on one photo it has an HDR effect, on the second it does not. We would like to note that the smartphone, when the HDR auto mode is on, independently chooses which version of the image to set aside, if you want to turn off this setting, take a photo in the “HDR on” mode. on your mobile device.

HDR on a digital camera

Landscape or city photographers like to take pictures in the extended dynamic range mode. The only problem a photographer has is how to capture a scenic spot without over-lighting or darkening details. Again, various exposure settings do not help, turn on the HDR mode.

Using HDR technology, light, medium and dark tones from a series of photographs are combined in one image. By the way, you can achieve the same result with the help of computer programs, but if the functionality of your camera allows you to work with this mode, save your time on post-processing the footage.

A tripod is required for high dynamic range shooting. If it was not at hand at the time of the desire to photograph a spectacular frame, use any improvised and reliable supports that are suitable in height and shoot with focus bracketing. The main thing is to ensure that there is not the slightest shift of your camera. Shooting with a tripod provides a greater chance of getting a series of shots with perfect frame matching. It is important to note that often at some point in the shooting in the focus of the lens, you can notice bystanders, insects, birds or animals that spoil the perfect shooting. Don't worry, software processing using Ghost Reduction technology will help you.
You can also try to achieve HDR effect when shooting in RAW format in two subsequent steps:

• Make a virtual copy of the image, then work with light on the entire series of shots.
• On the resulting images, draw out the shadows and only after that glue them into a single image.

Competent glued shots with HDR effect look very impressive and attract the attention of viewers.

Cons of HDR:

• can't remove motion
• you can not get a bright and saturated image,
• slow motion,
• HDR shooting is not suitable for portrait photography, evening or night time, long exposure, reportage or street photography, dynamic scenery, winter scenery, cloudy, rainy or foggy weather.

The extended dynamic range technique is achieved by painstaking work and regularly examine the capabilities of your photographic equipment. Reading the instructions for the camera is just moving from zero to one. Regular practice, equipment testing, experimentation and taking a photography course are the first steps to success.

To understand what HDR is, just look at the photos taken in this technique. We see a contrasting image with good detail in both light and dark areas. For comparison, you can look at a photo of the same area without the use of HDR technology.

When a person looks at any area, his vision adapts to the lighting and the details become clearly distinguishable. The view adjusts to different lighting quite quickly, so we can easily admire landscapes with complex lighting. In addition, the dynamic range that a person sees is quite large, which cannot be said about cameras.

If the camera adjusts the exposure for the highlights, they become normally visible with all the details, but the shadows become completely black and there is a loss of detail in these areas. If you adjust the exposure for dark areas, detail will be lost in overexposed areas.

HDR technology aims to eliminate this limitation.

How does it look like in practice?

1. The camera is mounted on a tripod. All shots must be taken from the same location without the slightest camera movement. To completely eliminate camera vibration, you need to shoot with a cable or a timer. You need to take a few shots.
2. Photos are taken with different exposures. The diaphragm should not change.
3. Next, the received frames are combined on a computer. You can use various programs, but one of the best is Photomatix Pro.

Practical lesson

Step 1 Explore the Camera Features

Manuals are pretty boring to read, but don't underestimate their importance. You need to learn all the functions of the camera in order to fully master all the tools and settings that the device offers. Particular attention should be paid to manual settings.

Step 2: Explore Exposure Bracketing

Bracketing is the creation of several frames with different settings of a parameter. Bracketing makes it as easy as possible to get three or more frames with different exposures. To take a series of shots, you only need to press the shutter button once. If there is no bracketing function, then you can take three pictures manually by entering exposure compensation in turn.

Step 3 Aperture Priority Mode

Since the aperture value must remain constant throughout the series of shots, this mode is best suited. You can also use the full manual mode, but this is not necessary.

Step 4 Metering Mode

If you are not very familiar with the possibilities of exposure metering, then it is best to use estimated (integral). Other modes can also come in handy when shooting HDR, but they show their usefulness much less often. It all depends on the particular scene.

Step 5 White Balance

White balance is most often used on automatic, but you should not always rely on automatic. Sometimes it pays to install exact value this parameter. It depends on the shooting scene, weather, environment, etc.

Step 6ISO

The ISO value should be set the same as in normal shooting, that is, as small as possible so that noise does not spoil the picture. But there is one caveat. HDR photos are especially sensitive to noise, so given parameter worth paying Special attention. In case of lack of light when shooting stationary objects, it is better to reduce the ISO as much as possible and increase the shutter speed.

Step 7: Tripod

A tripod is definitely needed for HDR shooting. It allows not only to firmly fix the camera in one place, but also to place it in places that are sometimes not the most convenient for shooting. The main choice is the type of tripod. In general, they do not differ much from each other in terms of general principle work, but there are differences in fastening, size, presence of levels, etc.

Step 8 Remote Shutter Release

Even on a tripod, the camera can shake when you press the shutter button, so it's best to use a self-timer or cable release.

Step 9 Lens

Most often, HDR is used when shooting a cityscape or natural landscape. So the best choice There will be a wide angle lens.

But HDR can be used in any style of photography, so other types of lenses should not be discounted.

Step 10 Manual Focus

Autofocus can fail, no matter how modern it is. He can simply focus the camera on a nearby object. In this case, the rest of the frame may become blurry. If your goal is to create a landscape shot with maximum detail, then you should switch to manual focus mode and set the value to infinity. Thus, everything that is in the field of view of the camera will be sharp.

Step 11 Leveling

A littered horizon is the most unpleasant error that can be easily corrected programmatically, but why take extra steps. After all, it is better to do everything right right away. Some tripods have built-in levels, but if you don't have one, you can buy one separately. bubble level which attaches to the hot shoe. You can somehow adapt the usual building level.

Basically, these are DVRs, radar detectors or COMBO devices. But today we are talking about devices that shoot video files, the thing is that many have the HDR function, supposedly it improves either shooting, photo, or final file. But what she really does and what process of work, no one knows. So let's figure it out...

To start the definition

HDR (or HDRI- high dynamic Range Imaging , literally translated, it turns out - Image of a high (extended) dynamic range) - these are improved technologies for working, or processing an image or video, mainly affecting brightness and contrast.

To put it in ordinary human language, these technologies improve the “picture” both when shooting a video or photo, and when playing source files. If you "roughly" describe the improvements in this technology, then - the dark becomes even darker, and the light even lighter, the image transmission accuracy also increases, and in some cases the contrast and brightness.

As the developers of this feature assure, they increased the perception of colors from images and videos up to 75-80%, although conventional technologies the acceptance rate is much lower.

SDR andHDR

In the early days of television and video equipment, there was one of the standards for the dynamic range of brightness and color, it was determined by one of the standards of television at that time. NU could not transmit more "color radiation" tube TVs, just as standard video cameras and video recorders at that time could not record it - to put it very rudely - "technologies were lame", therefore the entire wide range of brightness and color was compressed to very standard colors transmitted our old televisions and television towers.

In simple terms, we can say that out of a wide palette of colors and brightness, we perceived only about 20 - 30% (and possibly even lower)! Therefore, the first films were not as realistic as they are now.

This function is called simply - SDR — standard dynamic range - that is, the standard display mode for brightness and color. This is a kind of carburetor in the age of injection technology.

But now a new, and essentially revolutionary mode has appeared - HDR, as I wrote above, this function greatly increases the transmission of brightness and color by our TVs, and also improves the recording of our video gadgets (DVRs, phones) or cameras.

As I wrote above HDR - can give us a much more realistic picture, where the perception of brightness and color increases up to 75-80%.

How does it work?

The process is quite simple, the camera takes several pictures with a different color range, as well as with different brightness. Usually there can be from 3 to 5 such shots, but you don’t see this, because everything is done automatically and very quickly. Later, from these pictures, one is compiled, with improved characteristics - brightness and color reproduction. After that, it is displayed on your display or TV.

Camcorders - DVRs have already automatically learned how to improve the video image, which, again, should be played on HDR devices.

Actually, in order to get maximum efficiency, you must have not only equipment that records video or photos in HDR, but also equipment on which it will be played on TVs, displays or gadget screens.

It is worth noting that DVRs are now developing very strongly, video is no longer being shot with HD resolution (1280x720), but often with FULL HD (1920x1080), but SUPER HD (2304x1296) or 4K (4096x2160) are not rare. Of course, with such resolutions, the detailing increases, but if it is dark or slushy outside, then the resolution will not help here. We need a feature that will improve the picture.

This is exactly the task that HDR has, if in bright weather, it does not work so noticeably, then in slush and dark time days it is simply necessary.

The image of all kinds of objects is improved - first of all, license plates, pedestrians, road markings, signs and other things. It is especially important to see license plates, because at night they can be illuminated by car headlights. It should be noted that in case of disputable situations (accidents), every little thing is simply necessary, therefore the HDR function is NEEDED EXACTLY IN DVRs!

TV and telephone

In these devices, the HDR function is used to improve the picture when watching videos or improve the display. For example, a TV improves the quality of the picture and color reproduction, but the phone uses this function both for the display image (that is, watching a video, photo, browser and just a screen), and for shooting a video or photo on the built-in camera.

True, HDR is not available to all gadgets, but only to flagship ones, on cheap gadgets, the price of the model will rise too much.

That's it, everything is simple, now a small video to consolidate the material.

That's all, I think it was useful. Sincerely yours AUTOBLOGGER

Modern technologies have become so firmly established in our lives that sometimes it is not easy to understand all their diversity. For example, when choosing a TV, you have to pay attention to many parameters, some of which may puzzle an unprepared buyer. In this article, we will talk about HDR technology, which has become extremely relevant in the last year and a half.

In practice, its implementation until the beginning of 2016 was the prerogative of individual TV models, and there was catastrophically little relevant content. Thankfully, things started to change over the course of the year as more and more manufacturers are equipping their TVs with HDR support. Game console manufacturers have also implemented support for the technology in updated models. Sony went one step further and included HDR support in the original PlayStation 4 with an update. software.

Most importantly, suitable content has appeared and continues to appear that can open up on HDR-enabled devices.

So is all this HDR buzz worth the buyers' investment in compatible hardware?

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What does it look like?

Let's try to understand and start by explaining the essence of technology.

Any TV is characterized by indicators of contrast and color accuracy. Contrast affects how bright and dark colors will be able to demonstrate the device while maintaining their visibility to the viewer. Color accuracy, in turn, means how close to real colors will be displayed on the screen.

Curiously, most potential buyers, given a choice between a higher resolution TV and a lower resolution but higher contrast TV, will choose the latter. It is the saturation and variety of colors that are in priority when choosing. Thus, the brightness of the picture is still preferable to resolutions above 4K. Buyers choose with their eyes.

What is the point?

HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology, or extended dynamic range, makes the choice described above even more obvious: it makes light colors even lighter, and dark ones darker. HDR increases the color range and maximum contrast, resulting in a deeper and richer image. Standard colors - red, blue and green - receive additional shades and their combinations, which directly affects the image quality.

Hand in hand with HDR comes WCG (Wide Color Gamut) technology. The latter further expands the available range of colors. Spectators who have never encountered these technologies before will be pleasantly surprised by how much the number of shades of the same seemingly familiar colors is increasing.

It is important to understand that the HDR technology introduced in modern TVs and the devices connected to them, is seriously different from what has been present in the cameras of our smartphones for some time.

For example, HDR television technology increases the contrast and palette of available colors to make the image on the screen more realistic, to show it in natural colors. HDR technology in cameras, in turn, is used to combine multiple shots into one to get the best image that combines the most lucky elements all shots taken. Thus, the difference between the two HDRs is fundamental.

How is it implemented?

HDR technology consists of two integral parts: display and content.

In fact, the TV is the simplest part of the two. It is required to be able to highlight certain areas of the screen more brightly than its conventional counterpart, which does not have HDR support, does.

Things are much more complicated in the case of content that must be HDR-enabled in order to display high dynamic range on screen. Most films, many TV shows made in the last decade have HDR support. Also, it can be added without any artificial inclusions in the original picture. The fact is that the main obstacle in the way of HDR content to your TV is only data transmission.

Video created using high dynamic range is compressed to be streamed to your TV, computer or other device. As a result, the user sees best case the picture that its display is trying to reproduce using the technologies and systems built into it to improve image quality.

This way, only content from certain sources will be displayed in true HDR, because your TV will receive additional metadata that will tell it exactly how to display each particular scene. Of course, this implies the support of the technology by the playback device.

In addition, there are certain requirements for the equipment. Not only your TV, but also the player or set-top box must have an HDMI connector of at least version 2.0. Most equipment released from 2015 to the present supports the HDMI 2.0 standard, which can be software upgraded to HDMI 2.0a. latest version standard is needed to transfer the same metadata mentioned above.

At the same time, manufacturers have already decided to assign UHD Premium certification to TVs that support 4K resolution and HDR technology. It is worth paying attention to its presence when buying. It's also worth noting that the 4K Blu-ray format also comes with HDR support by default.

Summarize

Of course, HDR technology in TVs is not yet as vital as it is presented by manufacturers, but it is now the main driving force in the industry. The race for resolutions above 4K has faded into the background, giving way to an extended dynamic range.

And while the best result will be achieved by combining the two advanced standards, at this stage it is preferable to choose a TV with HDR support, unless you are ready to pay extra for having a higher resolution than 4K. The quality of the picture when using the right content will pleasantly surprise you in any case. You can't fool your eyes: brighter and saturated colors, as well as their diversity, will be preferable to having an ultra-high resolution matrix.

Thus, when buying a new TV at the end of 2016, it is advisable to take care of at least the presence of HDR support, and a resolution above 4K is still a pleasant, but still an addition that affects the final cost of the purchase too much, but does not bring the same emotions.

Smartphone photography technology has advanced at an incredible pace over the past few years. I can assume that many of you have already completely forgotten about traditional digital cameras, preferring the camera in your smartphone.

This transformation of preferences has been made possible by the introduction of more advanced hardware and software to control the smartphone camera. The functionality of cameras installed in smartphones has become more modern and complex. Now the smartphone user has much more opportunities to get high-quality pictures.

I propose to consider today one of the most important technologies, which affected the quality of shooting on mobile devices. Active HDR mode in a smartphone with operating system Android. What does this abbreviation mean, how to use it?

How HDR mode works in a smartphone

The abbreviation HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and translates as Extended Dynamic Range. In relation to photographic technologies, this term indicates the ability of a photographic device to correctly convey the ratio of the brightness of the object being photographed. When you shoot with HDR enabled, the color and brightness of the subject being shot is automatically adjusted by the software. The positive effect is achieved by instantly capturing three alternating individual exposures. After that, the camera combines the final frame from the received exposures. An analysis of the light and dark areas of the three exposures allows us to make an assumption of how the ideal picture should look like. As a result, HDR produces clearer and brighter images.

Benefits of using the HDR feature on your phone

In theory, HDR technology should take better pictures. Combining the best parts of the frame from three separate exposures into one image is bound to result in more accurate shots, at least in terms of color and brightness. Agree, on paper it sounds impressive. You must understand that “should” and reality can be very different. Indeed, in practice, HDR can create stunning images, but for this you need to meet some conditions. And he can do everything exactly the opposite.

When to Use HDR Mode

Of course, I can't tell you exactly when to use HDR and when not. Photography is a creative activity, akin to the fine arts. Nice photos and paintings are created as a result of a series of experiments and mistakes. So I give you my advice, use this mode whenever you want. And look at the result. I liked it, so under similar conditions and circumstances, HDR shooting should be used! Since the HDR mode in the smartphone works “on the machine”, you can overdo it with the results. This is a very powerful tool. But there is such a concept - all good things should be in moderation. Below I will give you some tips on how to get the most out of using HDR mode in your smartphone when different conditions shooting.

landscapes. The high ground-sky contrast tends to make objects on the ground appear too dark. HDR can help here by brightening the ground without reducing the detail of objects in the sky.

Sunny day. Bright sunlight can cause a lot of problems for a photographer. Blurred facial contours, strong contrasting shadows and faded color accompany shooting under bright sunlight. The HDR mode has the potential to improve exposure in such conditions.

When HDR mode should not be used on a smartphone

Motion. When you shoot in HDR mode, I advise you to remember that it takes a little longer than usual. Let me remind you that the lens is used three times - to obtain a sequence of three frames with different exposures. If even the slightest movement occurs between exposures, this will negatively affect the final result, and you will get blurry outlines of the objects that have been moved.

If you want to get high contrast pictures. Some shots look much better with high object contrast. When you shoot on your smartphone in HDR mode, the camera automatically corrects the dark areas of the frame by brightening them. In addition, some light areas of the image may be dimmed for a more realistic picture. Depending on the situation and your shooting plan, HDR can only worsen the result.

If the colors are already saturated and bright. Sometimes you may notice that the colors in your pictures are unnatural. This may be due to the use of HDR. As you remember, one of the benefits of using the HDR feature on your phone is to bring the colors to life in your pictures. But this does not mean that it is necessary to use this mode. When the colors in the picture are already realistic, as they usually are in good lighting conditions, HDR can over-enhance them and you will end up with unnatural colors, and the whole picture will take on a “cartoonish” look. Color tone and blurry outlines.

But still HDR can be called very powerful and useful tool, which increases the potential of mobile photography. I note that the HDR mode in a smartphone can have a different effect for specific models. So it's best to experiment with HDR to find the best situations to use it. It should be noted here that many Android smartphones make life even easier for the user - they take a series of two shots - one with HDR enabled, and the second without it. Shoot and choose for yourself when you want to use the HDR feature on your phone. Interesting, do you use HDR?