iphone xs max shadow of mordor backgrounds

#Iphone xs max shadow of mordor backgrounds series

Nonetheless, as I said, Smart HDR is the default, not the requirement. I also think it’s easier to decipher what’s natural light versus synthesized light when looking at natural landscapes. But we are pushing this technology to the edge when placing it in front of a high-contrast natural landscape. The second image was taken with the Lightroom Mobile app, and the final shows the result of the RAW Lightroom image after developing in the same app. From left to right: The first image was taken with the native iPhone camera app with Smart HDR. But again, for the most part, Smart HDR is right on the money without any image processing or filtering.įigure 4. The thing that’s usually tricky with HDR images in nature, and especially HDR images that are blended automatically, is that there is a very fine line between what looks natural and what looks synthesized. To put it another way, Smart HDR is computationally, continuously and dramatically broadening the dynamic range of what the iPhone sees and captures.įor the most part, I think this works amazingly well. With Smart HDR, the iPhone is continuously shooting a four-frame buffer and blending them instantly to bring out shadow detail while preserving detail in your highlights. Smart HDR mode is the default mode for the new iPhone, and whenever the Camera app is on and working, Smart HDR is also working in the background. But what the iPhone XS has introduced is something called Smart HDR. HDR (High Dynamic Range) imagery is another form of computational photography that most phones have the capability to do to some degree today. Needless to say, you can handhold this kind of shot and avoid the tripod, but I suggest holding the phone as still as you can. Expect a 15 percent crop while composing. Thus, to do it effectively, the iPhone does need to crop into your image slightly. Handholding and creating long exposures is a non-optical computational effect.

The before image shows the keyframe prior to adding the long exposure effect. Here is a before and after image set of a handheld long exposure taken at Mono Lake, California. Here is some of what I’ve found, along with a few tips in case you, too, get the chance to get out and play with this fun new tool.įigure 3. I was given the green light to move forward, so I left my Nikon behind and went to Yosemite and the Eastern Sierras to get some field experience. I felt compelled to talk about what I saw and to take this new tool into the field and experience it as a camera instead of just a thing in my pocket. That’s stunning to me for a dang phone.Īfter seeing the results, and without hesitation, I called the editor of Outdoor Photographer and pitched the idea for this article. So I say I was “shocked” at the results because many of the images I printed from the new iPhone were on par in terms of quality with prints that could have been taken by a nice SLR. Still, I have done a fair share of nature photography with phone cameras and printing from phone files. I don’t know the device market intimately. Now, I’m not much of a “gear head” in the sense I can’t go on about the differences between the Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy phones versus the iPhone. The reason I was impressed was because I had never seen detail and tonality come from a device of this type before…not even close. In fact, quite the opposite-I’ve seen better and seen it often. To be clear, the camera that took these files that impressed me so wasn’t showing me quality in detail and tonality that I’ve never seen before. Some were 31×36 inches and others an even larger 36×42 inches.

#Iphone xs max shadow of mordor backgrounds series

Recently, I printed a series of images that were fairly large in size. Because of that, I see a lot of files from a lot of different cameras come across my computer screen and through my printers. In addition to being a photographer, I own and run a fine-art print lab out of my gallery in Monterey, California. Shot with the new iPhone XS Max using the Lightroom Mobile app. A late-afternoon image of Yosemite Valley.