How to Turn On the iPhone Camera's HDR

Mar 30, 2021

2 minutes

Ever notice that little HDR feature that appears for certain photographs on your iPhone? It's called High Dynamic Range. For the longest time, I didn't know what it was, just like with a "live" photo when I had to convert the live photo to a still photo. Check out our guide on HDR and when to use it. On most iPhones, the HDR feature is set to work automatically, with the iPhone itself determining when a shot needs the feature to be used.

You can, however, control the HDR on your iPhone manually. Here's how.

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Open the settings application in your iPhone.

Scroll down and select camera settings.

Deselect the Auto HDR feature.

Select HDR at the top of your iPhone camera screen.

Select "On" or "Off" to override the Auto HDR feature.

For more information on when it's appropriate to use HDR when taking photos, please see our guide on the iPhone's HDR feature.

If the HDR is functioning, you will see a small yellow box labeled "HDR." You're now ready to start taking some beautiful High Dynamic Range shots with your iPhone.