The Definition of “SDR in an HDR Container”

For Cullen Kelly, HDR is just a container for LDR aesthetics. In a livestream, Kelly explicitly instructs his followers to ignore HDR’s potential:

“Many of you guys have probably seen Steve Yedlin’s HDR demo… that talks such good common sense about HDR… Fundamentally for me, I don’t want HDR versus SDR to determine where my highlights sit. I want ME to determine where my highlights sit. So at a default, when I’m flipping from SDR to HDR, THAT shouldn’t change my rendering… So that’s why at the baseline, your HDR peak luminance, your image is going to look very, very similar to your SDR. In fact, it’ll look identical if you’re calibrated to 120 nits like my displays are.”

In essence, his HDR grade is designed to be visually indistinguishable from his SDR grade. This is the literal definition of HDR as a container. 

Contempt for Highlights

In Kelly’s world, highlights serve no narrative purpose. If they exist at all, it’s only to fulfill a technical mandate. He contemptuously dismisses them as superficial ornaments, using language that is either staggeringly naive or deliberately offensive:

“And then you can choose, Hey, we’ve got the HDR, we can do it. Let’s really stretch out those highlights and go a little more sparkly and twinkly or no, let’s maintain the creative intent captured in the SDR grade and not change a thing about it.”

Kelly creates a false binary: you can either choose the “twinkly” path or the path of “maintain[ing] the creative intent captured in the SDR grade,” framing highlights as a deviation from the “true” creative intent [1]. 

Highlights as a Narrative Language

This conceptual poverty stands in sharp contrast to filmmakers who understand that highlights are a narrative tool, not an ornament. 

• In the Korean political drama Queenmaker (Netflix, 2023), S1:E3 (11:35), when Hwang Do-hee meets the chairwoman of the Eunsung Group, a large-scale illuminated replica of the conglomerate’s Duty-Free Shop looms in the room. Its glow gives it an almost otherworldly, menacing presence.

• In the coming-of-age drama Weak Hero, S2:E4 (01:27), when Yeun Si-eun meets Na Baek-jin in his dim office, the stark light of a single overhead fluorescent lamp contributes to the oppressive atmosphere. A gleam in both characters’ eyes signals fierce determination, while the highlights of Na Baek-jin’s distinctive jacket draw attention to a key element of his intimidating persona.

• In the biographical film Gangubai Kathiawadi (Netflix, 2022), Gangubai’s white saree (08:56) symbolizes purity and her transformation from a naive country girl to a powerful figure in Mumbai’s underworld. As she comforts a new arrival at the brothel being forced into the trade, sunlight striking the fabric appears to elevate her to a mythical stature. 

This understanding isn’t limited to live-action. For the tempest scene that opens the animated short Bad Travelling (Netflix, Love, Death + Robots, S3:E2, 2022), David Fincher asked the team at Blur Studio to push the intensity of the lightning flashes—to “break some OLED screens!”—demonstrating an understanding of how contrast and luminance can be harnessed for powerful storytelling. This same insight informs every minute of the film. 

It’s curious how someone who sees themselves as part of an artistic tradition can reject highlights. It goes without saying that for anyone who rejects ‘shadow fetishization’, ‘limitation dogma’, or the pseudoscience that we’re ‘hardwired for LDR’—for anyone who embraces highlights as a creative tool—Kelly’s advice is totally worthless. 

1. In his discourse, Kelly repeatedly uses this same dismissive formula: “So whether you want a brighter image with more twinkly highlights or whether you want to convey darkness…” “Cullen Kelly: HDR Provides Greater Creative Freedom”, Colorist Society YouTube channel (Mar. 2025)