With High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, you can capture photos that look closer to what the human eye perceives in the real world. HDR photography involves capturing multiple photos at different brightness levels and blending them together into one photo. The resulting greater contrast and level of detail may not be possible to save in Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) image formats.
While HDR photography allows you to capture more details in light and shadow, HDR displays allow you to view these details more faithfully for added realism.
You can best view your HDR photo on a compatible device with more than 1,000 nits of brightness. These HDR-capable screens show more contrast, color depth, and brightness than standard displays. You can check your device specifications for compatibility.
Tip: You can view images captured with HDR photography techniques as Google Photos supports the Ultra HDR image format.
Display your photos in HDR
Important: If your featured memories are available in HDR, they’ll be displayed in HDR in the featured memories carousel at the top of your screen. Learn more about featured memories.
In the main photos grid, all photos and videos show as thumbnails in SDR. To display photos taken with HDR in full detail:
- On your computer, open photos.google.com.
- Click the photo you want.
Tip: Some photos will still display in SDR. Understand why some images don’t display in HDR.
Learn more about HDR photos
Understand why some images don’t display in HDR- Photos taken in SDR always display in SDR.
- If your device and screen don’t support HDR, these images will display in SDR.
Tip: If your photo looks different on web than other devices, try to turn on the HDR setting in your system display settings.
If you edit an HDR photo, the photo may stay in HDR when you save your edits.
Tips:
- Only some edits to HDR photos are supported. If an edit causes a photo to lose HDR settings, edited HDR photos are saved as SDR.
- HDR editing features may not be available on the web or desktop versions of this app. For seamless editing, use an HDR-compatible device.
If you select a mix of HDR and SDR photos or videos:
- The highlight video editor displays and uses your selections as SDR.
- The highlight video saves as SDR.
Tip: Some creations aren’t available in HDR. Learn more about creations.