HDR Photo Camera is considered by many, including us, to be the go-to app for snapping high-dynamic range (HDR) photos. HDR photos are comprised of 3 or more images, each varying on exposure times, merged together to create a visually striking image. It’s quite the trend in photography these days and when done right, it looks great (when done poorly, it’s tacky).
Today, we have two bits of information to bring you, including the forthcoming version 3.5 of HDR Photo Camera, which should be on the Store in the next few hours. That update will bring many new requested features to really fill out the popular app.
The other is a project that involves strapping a Nokia Lumia 925 to a hexacopter for some amazing imagery captured, demonstrating the prowess of the 925’s PureView camera.
HDR Photo Camera v3.5 new features
HDR photo example
First up, version 3.5 of HDR Photo Camera has been published today. That update should be hitting the Windows Phone Store in the coming hours (we’re still seeing version 3.1 at the time of writing this article). What does version 3.5 bring to the table? He’s a peek:
- Manual capture mode - This is a single frame mode useful in capturing fast moving scenes, such as sport events. HDR tone mapping filters can be applied in post processing (within the app)
- Two new HDR filters (tone mapping)
- Improved storage manager, including a much requested features such as: select all photos and batch save to phone library. Besides that the storage manager is now much more stable, being optimized for large number of stored image sets.
- Exposure bracketing mode that allows to take the shots immediately one after the other and process them later
If you understand the HDR process, then the above should be self-explanatory and cause a stir. The ability to do a single-image HDR, whilst not “true” HDR, is still a useful trick for enhancing your photo. While it’s all dependent on how good the HDR tone mapping filters are implemented, it’s a great option to have for those fast moving moments.
Exposure bracketing, something which the Nokia Lumia 1020 received recently in the Pro Cam update, is also very useful as it removes the somewhat lengthy automatic post-processing that the app traditionally pursues after snapping an HDR set. That means you can take your three photos within a few seconds and run them through the HDR filters later, when you have some down time.
The improved storage manager will obviously make it easier to do on-device edits and to keep track of your creations.
Version 3.5 of HDR Photo Camera should be live in a few hours, if not now, for many of you. HDR Photo Camera runs for $2.99 with a free trial and can be found here in the Store. Windows Phone 8 only, 1MB [Update: the update version 3.5 is still pending approval, so look for it in a few days, sorry!]
Lumia 925 goes airborne, takes pretty photos
How does the Nokia Lumia 925’s camera do when strapped to a hexacopter? How do aerial HDR photos look of a town below? If you’re curious about answers to those questions, make sure you watch the two-minute short film by the developer of HDR Photo Camera and AerialMedia found on YouTube. It's quite drool worthy and worth sharing with others for a moment of humblebrag.
The result is a stunning demonstration of the Nokia’s optical-image stabilization (OIS) to keep the video steady and some fantastic images captured with HDR Photo Camera.
Overall, not a bad promotion for Windows Phone and one of the best HDR apps around.
For more on Windows Phone photography, make sure you bookmark our resource center: http://www.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-photography
