HDR photography is becoming more and more popular, allowing inferior cameras to mock images taken with a pro-level DSLR. Essentially, high-end cameras are better at preserving details in shadows and highlights than phone cameras and point & shoots.
The concept behind the process is that one photo is taken, exposing for the highlights. Then another frame is taken exposing for the shadows. Then the two images are meshed together to produce an image that has detail in the highlights and shadows.
The downside of course is that the images are not captured simultaneously, so any movement that occurred between the two exposures will add some funkiness to the final result.
The best approach is to mount the iPhone (or camera) to a tripod. Note, I said ‘best,’ not ‘practical.’
Below is the end result I achieved using Bracket Mode for iPhone. The app takes two pictures at different exposures but there’s a good 1-1.5 seconds that passes by between frames. The photos are saved to your camera roll then you can combine them in another app, such as Pro HDR, to yield the final photo.
The best thing about Bracket Mode is that it uses two completely opposite exposures, truly exposing for the highlights and shadows – many other HDR apps out there takes two images where there’s just the tiniest difference between the two exposures.
