Popular iPhone camera app Halide is debuting a major update today: Halide Mark III. It’s been years in the making, and it’ll be available as a “Public Preview,” letting users get their hands on new features while design is finalized. This update includes the next iteration of the app’s much-discussed Process Zero mode, adding HDR and ProRAW support to what is intended to be a hands-off, anti-computational image processing method. There’s a new black-and-white film simulation that also supports HDR, and more new “Looks” to come.
This is my semi-regular cue to remind you that HDR is not a dirty word. We tend to associate the term with an over-processed look when high-contrast scenes are translated to an SDR display. But true HDR displays, like the ones on most modern smartphones, can display a wider range of tones, and image formats that support HDR can take advantage of this capacity for brighter highlights. Contrast can exist alongside highlight detail, shadows can be shadows, and everybody gets a pony. Or something like that.
That’s the HDR Process Zero is adding support for, so if it sounds antithetical to the whole Process Zero experience, maybe give it a try. In a related move, you’ll be able to shoot ProRaw in Process Zero so you can toy with a version of your image that’s been through part of Apple’s processing pipeline and retains more flexibility for tweaks after capture. Which goes hand-in-hand with another new Process Zero feature: brightness and shadow adjustments, called Tone Fusion. Halide’s blog post is careful to point out that it doesn’t use AI, and is less heavy-handed than Apple’s default processing.
If you’re looking for something totally different, Halide now offers its own monochrome film simulation called Chroma Noir, which also supports HDR that gives the brightest highlights a little extra pop. Halide’s blog post reminds us that film itself is a high dynamic range medium, and if you’re still allergic to HDR, you can turn it off anyway.
The Mark III update is available now; subscribers can toggle it on within the current app. The final update will be available free of charge to all Halide II subscribers. Halide is $19.99 per year, or $59.99 if you make a one-time payment.
