How to use Auto HDR on your iPhone 5s on iOS 7.1

BY Jason

Published 16 Mar 2014

iOS 7.1 adds a new Auto HDR mode to the Camera app on the iPhone 5s. Here’s how you can use this new setting.

HDR, or High-dynamic-range, helps you shoot better photos when the scene has both bright and dark elements. Earlier you had to manually enable or disable this depending on your scene, but with the Auto HDR, your iPhone can automatically decide whether or not to use HDR for a photograph based on the lighting. Note that this feature is available only on the iPhone 5s.

Here’s how you use Auto HDR

  • Open the Camera app. If Auto HDR is on (it is enabled by default), you should see a yellow HDR Auto label at the top. If you don’t see that, tap on HDR at the top, and select Auto HDR

HDR-auto 1

  • Once you have Auto HDR on, you’ll no longer have to worry about enabling or disabling it manually.
  • Whenever your iPhone determines it has to use HDR in the next photo, you’ll see a yellow HDR label at the bottom:

ios-7-1-auto-hdr 12

  • When you click a photo with HDR enabled, your photo is saved with an HDR label like before. If you have “Keep Normal Photo” enabled in Settings > Photos & Camera, you’ll also see the non-HDR photo saved in your Camera Roll.

Let us know if you find the new Auto HDR mode in iOS 7.1 useful.

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