How do I export "HDR" photos?

Question

Level 1

16 points

How do I export "HDR" photos?

I imported a group of iPhone photos onto my iMac and put them in a Photos album (I'm using the latest version of the new Photos program). I exported a group of photos but the one photo, marked with "HDR" in the corner, did not export like the rest of the images. I tried to export this HDR photo by itself and I got a little flag on the corner of my computer saying "export complete." But the photo still wasn't there. I quit and restarted Photos and tried again, same thing. I was able to edit and print this "HDR" photo, I just can't export it.

Two questions:

1. What is the "HDR" designation on the photo?

2. How do I export an HDR photo?

Thanks,

Carl

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10), 16GB memory, 2TB HD, 256GB Flash

Posted on Aug 13, 2015 4:10 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,621 points

Aug 14, 2015 3:06 AM in response to carlshome

Carl, I tried with several HDR photos to export them at a smaller size and it worked. For example:

Is there perhaps a problem with the folder you are trying to export to?

Or it may not be possible to process that particular HDR photo. Can you edit the exported original HDR photo, that you exported with "File>Export>Export Unmodified Original Photo"? Try to open it in Preview and then to export with "File > Export" a new JPEG with a higher compression from Preview. Can Preview process the original?

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,621 points

Aug 13, 2015 4:34 PM in response to carlshome

The HDR label on the photo is indicating that the photo has been taken in high dynamic range mode. The iPhone will take three photos with a different exposure time and blend them into one photo with more details in the highlights and shadows.

See this for more detail: High-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI) - Wikipedia

Usually the HDR images will show more structure in the cloudy sky and in the shadows, but the results are not always better than the normal mode versions of the same photo. If you are having moving objects in the scene, the HDR image can have a bad motion blur, because the object moved between the three separate photos. I set my iPhone to always keep the normal version of the photos as well, so I can compare the HDR version and the normal version and can keep the better of the two.

I was able to edit and print this "HDR" photo, I just can't export it.

The HDR photos are transferred as normal JPEGS to the Mac, so you should be able to export them like any other of your iPhone photos.

Did you tray to export the original or the edited version? What exactly happens, when you select one of the HDR photos and use "File > Export > Export Unmodified Original Photo". Do you get an error message?

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Answer 3

carlshome Author

Level 1

16 points

Aug 13, 2015 5:28 PM in response to léonie

leonie,

First, thanks for the explanation of what HDR is.

As you requested I used, "File>Export>Export Unmodified Original Photo" and it worked. But the file is 2.6MB in size. My goal was to export a much smaller photo.

Your reply suggests that maybe the fact that I tried to export an EDITED HDR photo was the issue. So I went back and reverted to original (i.e. removed the edits). I tried again to export this HDR photo in a smaller size. A flag appears at the top of my screen saying "Export Successful" but the smaller photo does not appear, the same as before.

Is this a bug?

Carl

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Answer 4

carlshome Author

Level 1

16 points

Aug 16, 2015 12:30 PM in response to léonie

leonie,

I spent some time trying different scenarios to export this HDR image. What I discovered is that it WILL export at any size only when I select "Use File Name" under File Naming during the export process. If I try to use "Use Title", "Sequential", or "Album Name with Number" I still get a flag on my screen saying it completed the export, but the file does not appear.

Bottom line, I got it to work. But there appears to be a limitation on how and HDR file can be named in the export process.

Thanks for all your help.

Carl

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