H.D.R. on Droid

[r1nstang]

This one was taken with a point and shoot (NOT my droid) and I made it using only 1 image (cheated). I thought it came out pretty well.

did you just make copies of the same pic. lighten the contrast on one and brighten on the other?

 

[gardobus]

Yeah, i took one pic and I think I went with 5 images all together. So in PS I lowered the exposure by like 1.5 and 3 and then raised it by 1.5 and 3 and saved them all separately. Then I HDRd them. Sometimes it works great, sometimes it comes out a little meh.

Some people have also recommended adjusting the curves for each image rather than using Photoshops +- exposure settings. I haven't tried that though.

 

[jcardona1]

^ yeah that's not really HDR. taking multiple copies of an image, adjusting the exposure and overlaying them is not the same as actually taking several pics of the scene. you dont pic up all the shadow and highlight detail as if you were actually taking the pic.

if your point-n-shoot has exposure compensation, you could do it that way. just take 3 pics and merger them using Photomatix, the best HDR program ive used. i dont like the results i get from photoshop.

but in your case, your probably better off using one picture only do some Tone Mapping in photoshop. youll get results similar to true HDR. this is merely going into the Curves tool and messing with the pointers and sliders, but it takes a bit more work. its very easy to blow the image and make it look to fake.

my nikon d90 has an auto-bracketing feature. where i hit the button once and it automatically takes 3 pictures at 2 exposure stops apart, 0, -2, and +2. thats how i took that pic above

 

[gardobus]

Yeah I know its not really HDR, thats why I said I cheated lol

My camera doesn't have bracketing and I don't have a tripod so that completely rules out the legit 3-picture way because I can never get the camera to stay still.

The next camera I get will hopefully be nicer and have bracketing, but I doubt it will be a DSLR, I don't have the skill to fully utilize one, although I wish I did. I love taking pictures and playing with them in photoshop and whatnot, I just suck at it LOL

Oh and I also agree on Photomatrix, it works wonders sometimes.

 

[r1nstang]

I actually found an app the other day that simulates HDR. its called Camera 360. Havent really tested it out much

 

[Jer]

HDR photos ARE possible with an app and the Droid. I used Camera 360 to take the following shots in HDR mode and with the option to save the original here's what the results were. Up first are the standard shots that a Droid would take followed by the 'HDR' version the software creates. Keep in mind there is no high dollar camera, no PC, no Photoshop and nothing else involved. Just push the button like you would take a picture and this is what you get... no wait either. I realize it's not professional quality but for people like me who don't care to be professional they're still some striking photographs.

Regular

'HDR'

Regular

'HDR'

Regular

'HDR'

Regular

'HDR'

I'm sure the experts can pick these apart but I don't even care. I know you can do way, way, WAY better with professional equipment and endless amounts of time to learn how to use it and create professional shots but this is literally walking out back to let the dogs out with my Droid and snapping a couple shots w/basic auto settings. No knowledge or skill involved. Compared to how the photos would have turned out I would say this is a pretty cool step up and thought I would share. I'm not affiliated with Camera 360 in anyway and am a little upset with how they stripped their free trial version of most all options in an effort to force people to buy the full version so the last thing I want to do is advertise for them but it's probably worth paying for the pro and I just may instead of using an old apk and ignoring the 'update' message I get in the market all the time.

 

[jcardona1]

pretty cool stuff!! but it's not accruate to call it HDR. its merely tone mapping and adjusting the Curves of photo. a real HDR / high dynamic range photo involves taking multple exposures and overlaying them on top of each other, capturing the ENTIRE dyanmic range of a scene.

the results you have could easily be achieved with any editing software

 

[Jer]

I'm sure the experts can pick these apart but I don't even care.

pretty cool stuff!! but it's not accruate to call it HDR. its merely tone mapping and adjusting the Curves of photo. a real HDR / high dynamic range photo involves taking multple exposures and overlaying them on top of each other, capturing the ENTIRE dyanmic range of a scene.

the results you have could easily be achieved with any editing software

Told you. Didn't even take 10min. :icon_ banana:

 

[jcardona1]

I'm sure the experts can pick these apart but I don't even care.

pretty cool stuff!! but it's not accruate to call it HDR. its merely tone mapping and adjusting the Curves of photo. a real HDR / high dynamic range photo involves taking multple exposures and overlaying them on top of each other, capturing the ENTIRE dyanmic range of a scene.

the results you have could easily be achieved with any editing software

Told you. Didn't even take 10min. :icon_ banana:

lol i'm not an expert, im just saying you could get the same results with PicSay. this just saves you the trouble of doing it yourself i guess. it's really just an overcooked image

 

[jcardona1]

so you cant do this on the free version of Camera 360?

 

[Jer]

I'm sure the experts can pick these apart but I don't even care.

pretty cool stuff!! but it's not accruate to call it HDR. its merely tone mapping and adjusting the Curves of photo. a real HDR / high dynamic range photo involves taking multple exposures and overlaying them on top of each other, capturing the ENTIRE dyanmic range of a scene.

the results you have could easily be achieved with any editing software

Told you. Didn't even take 10min. :icon_ banana:

lol i'm not an expert, im just saying you could get the same results with PicSay. this just saves you the trouble of doing it yourself i guess. it's really just an overcooked image

I'm not saying there isn't bunches of ways to do this but this is the ONLY way to take a picture and have it automagically do it for you w/o pushing a single button. I think it's cool as **** for those like me who like the look of HDR but don't want to waste time/money doing the real thing and just want something that looks 'cool' which this certainly does.

so you cant do this on the free version of Camera 360?

I don't think you can now. There was an old apk that had it and then recently the dev decided to send an update that stripped it of most all features to force people to pay for the pro version. You can install it and see if it's still one of the features available but I don't know for sure. I do know that if you search the web you can find the apk file before the update that allows you to do it in the free version.

 

[jcardona1]

yeah i agree, for a cell phone it's a cool little feature to have. especially since i cant this phones camera seriously, might as well have fun with it!

 

[jahat]

Real HDR for Android is here

Real HDR (that is - take several exposure bracketed photos, fuse them into an HDR image) is released on Android Market:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.almalence.hdr