Instagram has been supporting HDR (high dynamic range) video uploading and viewing on iPhone 12 and newer models for a while now. Meta, in collaboration with Samsung, introduced a new "Super HDR" feature for the Galaxy S24 series (review), which allowed users to upload and view native HDR photos. The same feature has been silently added to eligible iPhones. According to a report by Greg Benz Photography, unlike the Android counterpart, you don't need the latest iPhone to upload and view HDR photos. If you have an iPhone 12 or newer model, you can upload or view HDR photos on Instagram. An HDR photo is nothing but a photo with a higher dynamic range. When a photo is captured with 12 or more stops of dynamic range, it is usually considered an HDR photo. When compared to a regular photo, an HDR photo will look brighter and more vivid, and when you view it on a smartphone, an HDR photo will look a lot more vibrant than the rest of the UI. Modern iPhones can capture an HDR image in both JPEG and HEIC formats. Similarly, you can also view these pictures in HDR if you have a MacBook with an M1 or newer processor. Do note that making any sort of changes to an image captured on an iPhone will turn it into an SDR (standard dynamic range) image, and applying any sort of filter to the image will also turn it into an SDR image. The image has to be captured from the phone's camera app. We tested this feature on an iPhone 15 and it worked as expected.
