How to get a good HDR photo

[ronpfid]

Hey Folks,

Just wanted to share my accidental find on this.
Until now, I didn't bother using the HDR function on my phone as it over exposed every photo with it. The metering in the HDR mode tries to make sure there are no dark areas and in so doing blows out the bright areas ruining the whole idea of an HDR. Yesterday, I did something by accident and got a really nice HDR shot, (I was actually trying to take some shots to send to HTC and ask them about the problem with over exposure when it happened). But, I tried it many times after and it works great so wanted to share with you guys this tip.

1) When you first bring up your camera app and get the scene on the screen you want, before picking HDR mode, leave it in normal mode and touch the screen in an area that makes the sky or brighter area look right. When the sky looks right, touch and hold that same area till the screen says 'auto exposure locked',
2) Now switch to HDR mode and take the shot.

Here are some sample shots to show.
1st shot is just a photo in normal mode
2nd is an HDR letting the HDR function set exposure and how it's over exposed
3rd is an HDR using the method above. This is how the phone should produce and HDR.

Hope this helps others!

 

[anon(7894520)]

these are great thanks for sharing! very useful technique indeed.


it goes to show what a great camera the htc one has and that in their short attention span, many people critise because they don't know how to use it.

 

[perrochingon]

Sweet tip!

 

[BigDinCA]

Hey Folks,

Just wanted to share my accidental find on this....

THIS is what you need to send to HTC.

 

[ronpfid]

THIS is what you need to send to HTC.

Send them my tip on how to do this so maybe they will fix the HDR to let us choose exposure?

 

[Ninjatogo]

This is absolutely fantastic. However, it won't work for those closeup shots where you need/want to focus on something other than the brightest point in the shot. They should give us a separate focus and exposure control, e.g. tap to focus on area and drag onscreen ring/square on another area to lock exposure. Hopefully they improve the camera app for the Sense 6 update.

 

[ronpfid]

Send them my tip on how to do this so maybe they will fix the HDR to let us choose exposure?

I did a chat with a rep and showed them this thread, she said she will pass it on, hopefully they will fix it

- - - Updated - - -

This is absolutely fantastic. However, it won't work for those closeup shots where you need/want to focus on something other than the brightest point in the shot. They should give us a separate focus and exposure control, e.g. tap to focus on area and drag onscreen ring/square on another area to lock exposure. Hopefully they improve the camera app for the Sense 6 update.

Thanks!
Yes, true, but at least for scenic shots it works great, took a few more today and they came out just right on, nice to be able to use the HDR function finally