Based on this thread, I tried Halide on my iPhone 16, One test shot over to dt, and ICK! Deleted the app. It did cause me to dig out my old Canon Rebel XT and give it a serious once over yesterday…the old images from that were so much better. It may be time to get modern…
Understand the reaction, TSANDER. To me, these Halide Raw files look like tone mapping and local contrast have already been applied, just like in a JPEG/HEIC image, but without HDR and noise reduction.
I’m going to stick with it for a while to see if I can find a satisfactory process flow in DT, undoing or modifying some of these adjustments.
I’m heading out tomorrow on vacation, and I’m bringing my old Rebel XT for some comparison photos.
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I’ve been trying out Adobe’s Lightroom for iOS. Under “Light” there is a switch to “enable editing in HDR.”
When I turn on this switch with a Halide Raw photo, the image and histogram look like full HDR. So it seems that with dynamic range scaling, these Raw files do contain information that can give photos that “HDR look.”” Bright/overexposed regions become very bright in the display.
My earlier comment about needing to be more careful about exposure may have been made a bit hastily. 
In the stock Photos app, there is no option to turn on HDR for these same Raw images.
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That sounds like what is explained in the article I linked earlier.
Hi Nis,
Yes, it’s very similar. But these were Raw images from the Halide app in “process zero” mode. AFAIK these are not supposed to contain HDR content.
So perhaps HDR refers to how an image is scaled and displayed. 
That is a bit odd, since it’s specifically the computational exposure stacking that allows for HDR in the first place.
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That’s what I thought, too. I’m sure exposure stacking leads to “better data” in the HDR range.
Here are a couple of histograms from the same image as seen in LR for iOS. The image was captured in Halide “process zero” as a raw image.
The first is with LR’s slider set to “edit in HDR” and the second has that slider off. I wish I could show how these look, bits of sky in the scene are very bright in HDR Mode.
Edit: Apple has an “HDR Gain Map,” an 8-bit luminance map, that can be embedded in images. There is also capability for a broader color map than sRGB. I’m no expert, but I think these “Process Zero Raw” files contain such data, even without exposure stacking.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/applying-apple-hdr-effect-to-your-photos
Hi @Donatzsky,
I’ve taken a look at an article you referenced elsewhere:
JPEG XL Thank you.
Most of it entails things I don’t quite understand. On p. 69, toward the end, there is a short section on DNG containers for photography. Recently, support for JPEG XL as the payload has been added to the DNG standard, and this is what is used with the iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24. The article mentions that JPEG XL has a wide color gamut and dynamic range, suitable for post-processing.
When I open an iPhone DNG (ProRes) in DT, with the file extension changed to .jxl, the image in the darkroom is very detailed and there is some margin for editing. But I confess I’m not very good at it yet. The image is already processed, so all of the base steps in the process pipeline are done - it’s a matter of toning down and adjusting color/sharpness in a different direction if desired.
Still, I am wondering if the image I’m editing is a preview or the payload. I suspect the latter.
I’ve gone back to using an old DSLR, and generally (after processing) I prefer these to photos from my iPhone 16. I suppose that is no surprise to anyone here.
Cheers
I don’t think that the Process Zero Raw contain HDR information.
You can add any photo to Light Room and enable that switch and the histogram gets pushed into the HDR range.
What I don’t know however is why your example extends so far to the right.
Even HEIF photos from the stock camera app don’t go that far.
It’s been awhile, but if I recall that image has some very bright highlights.
I’m the first to admit that I do not fully understand Apple Raw files and HDR Conventions.
I’ve since focused on collecting and processing images from a dedicated digital camera.
After fighting it for a while, I gave up, and just use HEIC on my phone. Apple DNG’s can be converted using Adobe DNG converter, but the result is an extremely underexposed base file, that has to be pushed to the max exposure values in DT. From there, it usually can be made to look good/great - but the hassle of doing so is just too much of a barrier.
Right click the exposure slider, type a value, press enter. It can be a value past what the slider says it allows.
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Nice, did not know!
Right-click on sliders is a handy tip; not only for explaining the range, but for fine-tuning your setting when the slider is too-sensitive for your purpose. 
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Nice again, I did not know this as well! Will use! Kind regards, Jetze
Holding Ctrl while moving the slider will make the slider less sensitive. Holding shift will makwnit more sensitive.
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That I did know 
, use it mainly for masking to set feathering and blurring and in exposure too. My knowledge is still quite fragmented…
With the apple raw files, I convert them using the Adobe dng converter before bringing them into darktable.
I often use two instances of the exposure module. The first one to expose the highlights properly. And then a masked one for the shadows. Sometimes even three if the image is really dark.