<story><title>Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App</title><url>http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2014/10/hdr-low-light-and-high-dynamic-range.html?</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ioedward</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been messing around with the Google Camera app and the new Camera API provided by Android 5. It turns out that you can actually obtain a lot higher quality images by using the DNG (digital negative) of the photo, instead of using the JPEG. By &amp;quot;HDRing&amp;quot; images yourself, you can actually outperform Google Camera&amp;#x27;s HDR+ functionality.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s the JPEG, non HDR+ shot on a Nexus 5:
&lt;a href=&quot;http://i.imgur.com/So44muL.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;So44muL.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s a similar image shot with HDR+:
&lt;a href=&quot;http://i.imgur.com/QFS3ZYd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;QFS3ZYd.jpg&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;As you can see, the dynamic range is increased greatly; however there&amp;#x27;s strange black spots in the shadows.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s the same photo that I took in DNG format, edited in Lightroom:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i.imgur.com/VRFsnf5.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;VRFsnf5.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;And here&amp;#x27;s my HDR photo, combined 5 DNG exposures inside Photoshop HDR Pro&amp;#x27;s functionality:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i.imgur.com/RTT6ULz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;RTT6ULz.jpg&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>blurri</author><text>Yes, raw files have quite the dynamic range and the current generation of raw processors can really pull a lot of detail out of the shadows and highlights.&lt;p&gt;The strange black dots you find in the shadows are noise. Simple no data to produce any results.&lt;p&gt;The key part to in camera HDR is, &lt;i&gt;automatic&lt;/i&gt;. No manually fixing your camera to tripod, copying them onto computer and the loading into software capable of HDR and finally manually processing them.</text></comment>
<story><title>Low Light and High Dynamic Range photography in the Google Camera App</title><url>http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2014/10/hdr-low-light-and-high-dynamic-range.html?</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ioedward</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been messing around with the Google Camera app and the new Camera API provided by Android 5. It turns out that you can actually obtain a lot higher quality images by using the DNG (digital negative) of the photo, instead of using the JPEG. By &amp;quot;HDRing&amp;quot; images yourself, you can actually outperform Google Camera&amp;#x27;s HDR+ functionality.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s the JPEG, non HDR+ shot on a Nexus 5:
&lt;a href=&quot;http://i.imgur.com/So44muL.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;So44muL.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s a similar image shot with HDR+:
&lt;a href=&quot;http://i.imgur.com/QFS3ZYd.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;QFS3ZYd.jpg&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;As you can see, the dynamic range is increased greatly; however there&amp;#x27;s strange black spots in the shadows.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s the same photo that I took in DNG format, edited in Lightroom:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i.imgur.com/VRFsnf5.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;VRFsnf5.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;And here&amp;#x27;s my HDR photo, combined 5 DNG exposures inside Photoshop HDR Pro&amp;#x27;s functionality:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i.imgur.com/RTT6ULz.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;RTT6ULz.jpg&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>marak830</author><text>Wow thats quite interesting, i think ill try that this weekend, see if i can setup an automated solution too if i can get it working smoothly.</text></comment>