According to acclaimed cinematographer Ed Lachman, whose biopic Maria is streaming on Netflix in the USA (but thankfully not in Vietnam), HDR has no aesthetic value worth pursuing. We can’t help but think that Ansel Adams, whose zone system was the inspiration for Lachman’s EL Zone, would have welcomed HDR with open arms. Unfortunately for those of us who consider HDR to be transformative, Lachman isn’t exaggerating when he says cinematographers don’t like HDR.
Nick Newman: […] [W]ith Netflix there’s different grades that are done for Dolby Vision and HDR. I’m curious what some of your experiences are working on HDR grades of 8 and 16 millimeter footage, and any sort of post-processing––trying to maintain their character and texture.
Ed Lachman: So interesting, about that question. The truth of the matter is: I’ve never shot for HDR. So I don’t want to change it in that post position. That’s partly what my job is: to create the latitude of the film stock, you know, for the look that I’m going for. When I honestly go into “an HDR mode”––or whatever you want to call the HDR print––I make it look like what I did. I don’t use all the nits, or whatever you call it. I bring it back to the way I’ve done it in the shooting. Now, because I’ve never had an HDR monitor on set, when I shoot for HDR, then I have to shoot with it on set; I can’t do it after the fact. Because that’s what I’m playing with. That’s what I play with––with the EL Zone system, my exposure system for digital, or with the way I expose my negative. I’m the one on the set or on the location making those choices about… to me it’s almost like the framing thing. Like, “Wow, you shoot 8K and so then you can reframe everything.” Well, that’s what I’m doing on the set. I don’t need to reframe after the fact.
Nick Newman: It really seems a lot of these “advancements” in image-capture and presentation are two steps forward, one step back.
Ed Lachman: Marketing. It’s all marketing. It’s all a way to sell something. [Laughs] It isn’t necessarily what cinematographers want.
The Daejeon Chronicles 
Interesting. Netflix is streaming Maria in the USA in Dolby Vision and Atmos. Like someone said it: you can delay technology, but you can not stop it. But the best part is that there are choices.