Friday, October 22, 2010

iPhone HDR Image

As you can see, I think the riding season is really over until April or May. Actually, the roads aren't bad at all though they are impossible for me to get to without a trailer. Ice is covering the driveway and the subdivision roads. The main roads get enough traffic to eliminate the snow and ice shortly after it stops falling.

Non-HDR Image
HDR Image
These picture are sort of an experiment as my phone claims to take HDR or high dynamic range pictures automatically. The camera phone will take three pictures, one at what it believes to be the correct exposure, one under exposed and one over exposed. The under exposed one is used to get more detail in the blown out areas and the over exposed one is used to add more detail to the really dark areas. Software somehow munges all this data together resulting an HDR image. The non-HDR image is the first one and the second one is the HDR image. I can see the additional detail in the shadows but I'm still trying to decide if it is any improvement. This may be a poor subject for testing but it is something for me to play around with now that the bike is parked in the back of the garage.

Last week was spent in Barrow resolving some issues after a power outage messed up part of the network. The firmware on one of the switches got corrupted. Plus I was trying to cleanly integrate video conferencing into my conference room setup. The weather there wasn't really great and my flight out was cancelled due to freezing rain. I don't really care for transitional weather. Just let it get cold...


  1. I think the non-HDR has more color depth. The sky is more blue and the clouds show up better. iPhones take such good photos for being a camera on a phone. That's pretty cool that it has an HDR option.

    Hope your weather gets adjusted soon. This weekend we're in for a lot of rain and some wind.

  2. Somewhat said that the riding season is over again. I still hope to ride at least a few days during winter, when the weather is fair here at the we(s)t coast, that is when and if my bike ever returns from the shop...

  3. Mike:

    The weather is still fluctuating above and below freezing still making a mess of the roads. I've taken a few more HDR test shots and I think it will be really useful this spring with snow shots.


    For me, the riding season is over but there are others more daring than I with studded tires or sidecars that run around through most of the winter. Yesterday, there was a Honda Ruckus tearing down the road somewhat oblivious to the snow and ice on he road. I was wondering if your bike was fixed yet...

    Thank you for stopping by.

  4. I hope you have a garage. It's hard to be cooped up all winter with no hobbies to keep busy. Maybe this year I'll start some needlework. Maybe not.

    Brady Steffl
    Behind Bars - Motorcycles and Life

  5. Hi Richard,

    I've been trying to figure out HDR too, in my case with not much success. I'm with Mike on this one. The colors are stronger in the non-HDR and it seems more interesting overall. I can't believe a phone now does HDR - sheesh! :)

  6. I'm with Bluekat...I can't believe a phone has built in HDR... Wow. :) Have fun playing around with it. Mine is still the messy way with three+ shots, that aren't always aligned. LOL. Have fun playing with it. Look forward to seeing some snow shots.