Hydra 2 > AI Camera
Get your iPhone to perform more like a DSLR Free (IAPs), £9.99 Pro Pack FROM creaceed.com NEEDS iOS 14.3 or later The HDR mode lets you manually combine multiple exposures
The iPhone Camera app is designed to automatically capture true colours and tonal detail in a scene. However, you may want the freedom to take manual control of certain functions to produce more creative-looking results – like classic DSLR photography.
With the Hydra 2 app, you can switch to Manual mode and swipe to adjust shutter speed – a slow shutter speed enables you to add dynamic motion blur to moving subjects, while a fast shutter speed can freeze action in sharp detail – making it perfect for sports. To help set the exposure for bright or dark areas, you can summon a classic zebra pattern that overlays diagonal lines on over- or underexposed sections.
In Apple’s Camera app, you can tap on a subject to choose a focus point. Hydra 2 enables you to focus in graduated increments, though sadly it lacks the useful focus peaking feature found in camera apps such as FiLMiC Firstlight. (Focus peaking overlays green outlines on the sharpest areas so you can guarantee a specific subject is in sharp focus.)
Multiple exposures
DSLR photographers can snap three bracketed exposures that capture a scene’s shadow, midtone, and highlight details. They can then use an app such as Photoshop to merge the three exposures together in an eye-catching composite shot that features striking colours and lots of tonal detail.
Hydra 2’s HDR mode lets you manually combine multiple exposures to produce creative-looking HDR shots. The app’s built-in Photo Editor enables you to perform tone-mapping so the brightest highlights and darkest shadows feature more detail. You can also add typical HDR artefacts, such as light halos around contrasting subjects. You can use the Photo Editor to tweak the colours and tones of shots captured in any shooting mode. Note that if you edit in-app just after you take a pic, you can enjoy working with a highquality 32-bit shot, which produces better quality results. If you save the shot and edit it later you’ll only have an 8-bit image to work with. You have the option of turning off the in-app Photo Editor so it doesn’t slow you down on a busy shoot.
Hydra 2 offers an AI-powered Hi-Res mode that enables you to capture images of up to 110MP (which would create a large 63x84in print). However, when viewed at 100% we found the larger shot suffered from jagged aliasing compared with the smooth lines in the smaller version.
All in all, we enjoyed using Hydra 2’s manual controls to adjust a photo’s look. Shooting manually also helped us to take more considered shots. We were particularly impressed by how the in-app Photo Editor enabled us to creatively process images captured in HDR mode. George Cairns