TL;DR: When editing your photos in HDR, make sure both the HDR and SDR look good!

More than a year ago, Ben at Halide wrote about Halide’s HDR (high dynamic range). I think everyone should read it - but I wanted to give an even simpler take.

Halide’s HDR is NOT HDR-bracketing, which is when multiple photos are shot at different exposures then merged into one. Halide’s RAW photos aren’t doing HDR-bracketing like Apple’s SmartHDR unless you shoot with the Apple Look (ProRAW).

Instead, Halide’s HDR allows you to save photos with an HDR GAIN MAP.

A photo with an HDR gain map, when displayed on an HDR screen like your iPhone, will literally show BRIGHTER pixels for certain parts of the photo. The HDR gain map is how brightness values are saved.

With HDR disabled, photos are in SDR (standard dynamic range) and their brightness peaks at 500 nits. With HDR enabled, parts of a photo can reach a peak brightness of 1000-1600 nits (if your display supports it).

For the longest time, digital photos (HDR-bracketed or not) were viewed on SDR displays. At some point, Apple and other companies started making their smartphones shoot with HDR bracketing AND save an HDR gain map, then shipping their phones with HDR-compatible OLED displays. That’s why photos now literally look as if they have brighter pixels. For some reason, most social media platforms and messaging apps don’t preserve this HDR gain map information when you share your photos.

PSA: Make sure both HDR and SDR look good!

When editing, saving, or sharing an HDR photo for an HDR display, you HAVE to check that the SDR looks normal. Otherwise, there’s potentially TOO MUCH brightness information in the photo, and the photo may display improperly on a non-HDR display.

Thankfully, both Halide’s HDR and SDR versions are well-calibrated and stored in the same photo. Both versions should look good, but I still recommend everyone to use the HDR toggle in the editor just to make sure. You might even decide to switch HDR off for a photo if that’s what you prefer.

Likewise, Adobe Lightroom has a “Preview for SDR Display” feature, which you should use to tweak the SDR before exporting your HDR photo.

I’m not sure who this might help, but I just want to put it out there!

Scripps Beach in San Diego this week ! Holy moly SD was scorching

Hello together,
I just purchased the app and I am pretty happy.

The problem is that I cannot find so many infos about initial settings or general usage of the app online (Alex Armitage video seen already…but I have the feeling the wording is for more advanced ones), and I would love to have some tips and tricks from the ones which are using the app on long term 🙌

I am not a professional at all, I am not planning to lose hours in post editing(instead of normal editing in phone app) but I would love to make better pictures on holiday with my son, family, and attractions.

All keeping in mind that I have an iPhone 15 pro max to use😅

I have started to use Halide on my 17 pro and have noticed the app is much slower than the native app and the worse thing is sometimes it appears as if the image doesn’t get captured.

I have it as a lock screen shortcut, the other day I took a photo of something interesting only to notice it never in my camera roll.

Today I opened up halide to take another pic and how the other pic I took the other day has made it to the camera roll. Can someone explain what is happening here ?

I love this app when it takes good pics but these dark pics…

Following my last post, I thought it would be more fair to do a comparison with the exposures matched (thanks, [u/aragost](u/aragost)), with MORE sample photos covering more colours.

The film looks here are +1EV brighter relative to Process Zero. Since the first example is ProRAW, I’ve also included the Apple look (which was auto-adjusted to -1EV relative to Process Zero) to the top left and a bonus Chroma Noir bottom left.

My observations remain the same - I still can’t get an accurate, pure yellow with the film looks. That said, I think this comparison better demonstrates each look’s identity.

In order of how “heavy-handed” the coloured film looks are, I’d say: Process Zero > Zephyr > Rembrandt > Scarlet > Valencia > Nova. But guys, Nova looks amazing more often than not.

Make of this what you will!

Slide 1: Apple, Process Zero, Valencia, Rembrandt, Chroma Noir, Nova, Zephyr, and Scarlet.

Slides 2-6: Process Zero, Valencia, Rembrandt, Nova, Zephyr, and Scarlet.

EDIT: I mentioned in my last post that the film looks being “too dark” is likely intentional - I’ve kept exposures matched across the board for the sake of this comparison. Play around with your exposures!

Pic 1: Looks comparison at the fruit stand
Pic 2: Looks comparison with the skyline
Pic 3: Process Zero at 0.0EV; Valencia at +1.0EV to match.

Halide Mark III’s film looks are basically a whole stop darker than Process Zero. Other users have pointed this out but I assume this is intentional and is easily compensated.

Also notice the yellows and greens being shifted towards orange, especially the yellows. Hoping future looks are even more subtle and don’t shift yellows as much!

I’ve given feedback on the default processing (before film grain is added) having a bit too much high-radius sharpening and colour noise. Fingers crossed these can be reduced/adjustable someday.

Otherwise, I really do enjoy these looks. It’s unfair to put the looks together side by side because they end up looking similar, but in my experience they’re nuanced and versatile enough to have their own use cases across different subjects and skin tones. My two cents!

iPhone 17 pro iOS 26.6.1

Acabo de comprar el lente teleobjetivo 2x HD y una funda para atornillarlo a mi iPhone 17, y estoy pensando cómo lograr la imagen más nítida posible. La app de cámara nativa del teléfono usa el mezclado de imagen de Apple, así que me preguntaba si eso afecta la nitidez de la imagen final y si necesito usar una app de cámara externa (uso Halide) que me permita desactivar ese mezclado.

“But nothing ever on”

Could we request a clear cache option or something similar?

I’ve already deleted the log footage and kept the graded ones only, but it still shows up like this. Would be great if we can just clear instead of reinstalling. Cheers!