Sep

HDR for Your iPhone Regardless of its Model: by Pamela Flora

Lucky iPhone 4 users get automatic HDR (high dynamic range) photography simulation on their phones, built right in. But what if you’re stuck with your old 3G or 3GS? One thing you could do is to jailbreak your phone and install the new HDR feature (unofficially) on your older-model iPhone.

If you don’t want to jailbreak your iPhone, however, the only HDR solution for your 3G or 3GS is to use an app. There are a number of HDR simulators for the iPhone – HDR for Free, HDR Camera +, HDRcam, and others – but there are two that have grabbed the attention of iPhone users who snap a lot of pictures on their phones.

The first is Pro HDR, a $1.99 app that, well, simulates HDR photography on your phone. The second is TrueHDR, another $1.99 app which was recently updated to keep up with the photography Joneses. The Unofficial Apple Weblog recently ran a head-to-head comparison of both Pro HDR and TrueHDR, as well as the built-in HDR capabilities of the iPhone 4.

In that comparison and one they ran before the TrueHDR update, both apps fared well, though the built-in HDR capability on the iPhone 4 enjoyed faster processing times, owing to the feature’s access to Apple’s hardware, something that neither Pro HDR or TrueHDR enjoys.

Both TUAW comparisons are well worth the read if you’re interested in HDR photography for your iPhone, or even if you simply want to lighten the darks and lower the lights for more balanced exposures in your iPhone pictures.
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Pamela Flora is an amateur photographer, avid iPhone user, and a freelance writer. She likes dogs, doesn’t drink coffee, and is obsessive about Words with Friends.