Google Photos tests new tool to convert any image into Ultra HDR. Make your photos stand out on ... More social media.getty Google Photos Adds New Ultra HDR Conversion Feature Google Photos is testing a new Ultra HDR tool that can dramatically improve the look of your pictures, regardless of how they were created. As revealed by Android Authority, this feature converts standard images to Ultra HDR format to take full advantage of the extra color and brightness available from the latest HDR displays. Here’s how it works and what you need to know. At a glance Turns standard photos into Ultra HDR for more vibrant images Enhances any photos, artwork or AI images — perfect for social media Potential quality loss — keep your originals! Many recent smartphones shoot pictures in Ultra HDR format, which captures more colors and a much greater range of brightness than standard pictures. This adds punch and realism to a range of photos, especially those containing bright highlights such as fire, sunsets or shiny metallic objects. April 23 Update below: More information on how to prepare for the update and check to see if you have it. This article was originally published on April 21 Google Photos Ultra HDR Tool — Why Does It Matter? Google’s handy Ultra HDR conversion tool will be particularly useful for photographers and social media users who want to maximize the impact of their pictures. Converting an image to Ultra HDR will result in a more compelling picture, with brighter highlights and greater realism. It’s especially effective when posting on social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook, where Ultra HDR images can stand out from the crowd. Check out @gregbenzphotography on Instagram for some great examples of the impact you can achieve with Ultra HDR images. Until now, it has been difficult to create Ultra HDR imagery from scratch without professional tools. However, with this tool, you can add significant impact to any image you create, including digital artwork or AI-generated images that don’t typically support the Ultra HDR format. Google Photos Ultra HDR Tool — How Does It Work? The new Ultra HDR control will appear in the “Adjust” section whenever you edit an image with Google Photos, nestled between the Contrast and Tone functions. A simple slider controls the depth of the effect. If you see “HDR Effect” here instead of “Ultra HDR”, then your account hasn’t yet been upgraded. Google appears to be testing the feature on a limited number of accounts first, before rolling it out to all users. These two controls appear to have the same function at first glance, but they are radically different: The existing HDR Effect control improves the look of your images by enhancing shadows and highlights, but you still end up with a standard, non-HDR image. The new Ultra HDR control goes a step further by adding an invisible layer to your photo, called a gain map, which contains the additional brightness information needed to take advantage of HDR-capable screens. You’ll be able to see the effects on a variety of devices, including modern iPhones, Google Pixels, and Samsung Galaxy S-series devices, as well as compatible Macs and Windows PCs. Ultra HDR-compatible devices use this information to display your picture in its full HDR glory, while others simply ignore the gain map and display the standard version of the image. Android app specialist Assemble Debug has provided a pair of “before” and “after” images here for comparison purposes. If your device is capable of displaying Ultra HDR photos, you should see a marked difference between the two images. The Ultra HDR version should show brighter highlights and a more true-to-life appearance. How To Use Google Photos Ultra HDR conversion: Step-by-step Open the Google Photos app Tap Edit on the photo you want to enhance Navigate to the Adjust section. Find the Ultra HDR slider and adjust it to your desired level. Google Photos Ultra HDR Tool — Understanding HDR Covnersion It’s not clear at this point precisely how Google is performing the conversion to Ultra HDR. It’s possible to take any photo and simply “expand” the brightness range to fill the dynamic range of an HDR screen. This will make the brightest parts of the image brighter, but won’t deliver the same quality as a photo initially shot in Ultra HDR mode. Capturing a photo as a standard jpeg file without Ultra HDR “throws away” all the highlight detail needed to make the accurate gain map needed for that HDR magic. Google may be using AI to automatically infer these highlight details, but more experimentation is needed to verify this.Original SDR image (left) contains no HDR data. The converted Ultra HDR version on the right ... More contains additional gain map information. The histogram shows new data extending into the HDR region. Original photo by Assemble Debug.PAUL MONCKTON Google Photos Ultra HDR Tool — Image Quality Concerns An unexpected result of the conversion to Ultra HDR is that the new images are much smaller than the originals. Sample images show a reduction in size from 11 MB to just 2.8 MB after conversion, despite the addition of the required gain map data. This reduction in file size implies that using the Ultra HDR tools could potentially result in a loss of quality. This reduction in file size is unexpected because converting to Ultra HDR format would typically leave the base image untouched when adding the gain map. Always keep a copy of the original image to avoid any potential irreversible loss. The new Google Photos Ultra HDR editing tool is currently available to a select group of users, but I hope it will roll out to everyone soon. Have you tried the new Ultra HDR editing tool? Let me know in the comments below. April 23 Update: How To Prepare For Google Photos’ Ultra HDR upgrade Several users still don’t have the new Ultra HDR editing control, suggesting that Google is taking its time rolling out this feature. If you’re eager to try it out, make sure you’ve updated your Google Photos app to at least version 7.24.0.747539053 (version 7.25 is already out at the time of writing). This will make sure you’re ready to receive the new feature when Google turns it on on your account. To check to see if the feature is enabled, open any photo in Google Photos, tap Edit and look in the Adjust menu as mentioned above. If you see “HDR effect” in the menu, you still have the old version. Try adding Ultra HDR to non-photographic images for extra impact. For example simple text on a colored background can be made to “pop out” from the background in ways that are impossible without Ultra HDR. If you can’t wait for the Google Photos update, you can convert your images to Ultra HDR, using Adobe Photoshop and Web Sharp Pro. Remember, only devices that support Ultra HDR images can display your pictures in full Ultra HDR quality. The same goes for any other apps you use outside of Google Photos — they will have to offer support for Ultra HDR or your photos will lose the embedded Ultra HDR information and display as regular pictures without the HDR effect. Follow @paul_monckton on Instagram.