A bite-sized reference table on HDR and the standards. When discussing SDR and HDR, it helps to ground the conversation in what the ITU-R and SMPTE specifications actually say.
Steve Yedlin Mythbuster Table
Steve Yedlin Enlightens Us All
“Next distinguished cinematographer Steve Yedlin ASC enlightened us all on the subject of HDR. Among the key takeaways were that the whole notion that the SDR version has to look totally different than the HDR version is wrong. Depending what the scene is, there may be no difference between SDR and HDR. Being able to... Continue Reading →
Kelly’s HDR Flip-Flop
Prior to coming in contact with HDR-loathing Steve Yedlin, Cullen Kelly used to be a leading vocal proponent of HDR imaging. Since aligning with Yedlin, he’s done an about-face. Before Yedlin HDR represented a seismic shift in how we approach imaging. It was a new language: “the move to HDR is as significant as any... Continue Reading →
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Update 2.0 10K-Nit Radiation Static
https://youtu.be/rC2me1MwmgQ The radiation static in S.T.AL.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl ignores the in-game HDR white point setting (in this case, 1,000), reaching as high as 10,000 nits. 10,000-nit peak highlights of STALKER 2 Update 2.0 In-game settings: Contrast is increased to 43% from 40%. All other display settings are at default. HUD transparency reduced to... Continue Reading →
Correcting the Record: Doug Guerra’s HDR Workflow Mayhem
“The series is worth a watch if you want to know more about HDR workflows.” —Matthew Allard, ACS Doug Guerra, a prolific video producer for B&H Photo, hosted a two-part series introducing HDR workflows that contains countless serious errors. Misunderstanding PQ CLAIM "HDR10 uses a standard known as ST 2084 or Rec. 2100. They are... Continue Reading →
The Limitation Dogma and the Alternative
Cullen Kelly’s rejection of HDR and belief that limitation is a virtue extend to his view of art history itself: “Go find me a painting where you can discern more than five to six stops of dynamic range… that’s generally not the way we absorb a painting… that’s actually part of what makes those paintings... Continue Reading →
Handy Fact-Checker
I’ve checked Douglas Guerra’s HDR workflow and found it wanting.
Charles Poynton Mythbuster
I've fact-checked Charles Poynton's recent claims about HDR. The evidence-from industry standards, colorists, and scientific studies-tells a different story. Here's a phone-sized mythbuster perfect for sharing. The article can be found here. https://daejeonchronicles.com/2026/09/06/charles-poynton-hdr-is-sdr/
Charles Poynton: “HDR Is SDR”
I’ve documented time and again how Charles Poynton is willing to embellish the truth to push his narrative, and this time is no different. During an episode of the Color Mentor podcast [1], Charles Poynton insists that cinema audiences can’t handle BT.2020 colors; that there’s an industry trend of "bigger, brighter, and more colorful" driven... Continue Reading →
Charles Poynton: BT.2020 Historical Revisionism
Charles Poynton has repeatedly stated that Dr. Kenichiro Masaoka - the developer of BT.2020 - intended the wide color gamut standard solely as a container, not as a mastering color space. The evidence shows otherwise. Masaoka’s correspondence, published papers and presentations show that BT.2020 was engineered as a forward-looking mastering color space, contingent on emerging... Continue Reading →
PQ ST 2084 Is Not Log
In Debunking “HDR”, Steve Yedlin says, “it doesn't matter what the curve shape is as long as you know what the curve shape is.” Yet he has no idea what PQ is, who developed it, or why. He mislabels PQ as logarithmic: “And by the way the shape of this curve this logarithmic curve used... Continue Reading →
PQ ≠ HDR10 ≠ BT.2100
Yesterday I looked at the SDR section of Practical HDR and Wide Color Techniques in Gran Turismo SPORT [1] and pointed out several instances where color gamut, OETFs/EOTFs, and standards were conflated. The HDR section of the presentation exhibits a similar pattern, this time treating HDR formats, transfer functions, and complete television-system recommendations as though... Continue Reading →
Dead Island 2 Recommended HDR Settings
https://youtu.be/UGMp4Yol5gI “The next setting what we have is the Brightness setting, responsible for the overall brightness in the game. The standard factory setting is 25 and I found this actually a very good value to start with. I wouldn't increase or decrease this value too much because either you get Black Level crush or you... Continue Reading →
Shocker: 88% of the Most Impactful HDR Console Games Require Little or No Adjustment
https://youtu.be/lHfNKoTFAzU?si=knqbowbTgIlOmB9m That’s right! Provided (a) you’ve got a calibrated 1000-nit HDR display, (b) you’ve spent all of 30 seconds performing console-level HDR calibration and (c) you game in a controlled viewing environment, dialing in the picture of the very best HDR games could not be simpler. Half of the games listed are virtually plug-and-play. Findings... Continue Reading →
HDR Is Simultaneous, Not Segregated
Timothy Lottes's attempt to rebrand black-level improvements as "contrast feel" while reducing HDR to a one-dimensional "peak white feel" reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology and its perceptual basis. He splits HDR into two sides, when in reality, HDR is defined as the expansion of both ends of the spectrum simultaneously. Contrast vs. Black... Continue Reading →
Timothy Lottes: A 1,200-Nit Gaming Monitor Has “No Perceptual Impact”
Timothy Lottes claims that the HDR Mode of the ASUS PG27AQWP-W gaming monitor “has effectively no perceptual impact” owing to a peak luminance limited to a few percent window [1]. Lottes provides no perceptual rationale to support his claim. FACTS: Real HDR highlights are tiny. LG Display found that 90% of peak highlights in real... Continue Reading →
You Can’t Invert Starry Night (ACES 2.0)
ACES 2.0’s goal of “invertibility” to make HDR match SDR is philosophically flawed. It leads to compromised image quality and enables a workflow where creatives avoid engaging with HDR. Invertibility In 2024, the ACES Project Co-chair announced a breakthrough—ACES 2.0 was finally “invertible”: “the number one item that we collected during our 'listening tour' was... Continue Reading →
ACES 2.0 “We are in for some further years of bad HDR!”
Comparison: ACES 2.0 vs Resolve Color Management
When Delivering Dolby Vision Profile 8.4, Don’t Make These Rookie Mistakes
Scott McIntyre, a BMD Resolve Certified Trainer, CSC Associate Member, Colorist Society International Alliance Member and Dolby Vision Certified Professional, shared a video that claims to show how to use Resolve Color Management to send an HDR file to Vimeo with Dolby Vision Dynamic Metadata using H265 and Profile 8.4. It is best ignored and... Continue Reading →
Protecting Highlights: The Philosophy Behind Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s Approach to “Sinners”
There's a moment in the conversation between Dolby Creator Talks producer Michael Coleman and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw that caught me completely off guard. Coleman describes watching a scene in "Sinners" where Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) enters a general store and he was overcome with gratitude: "Thank God we can see out in the street—like,... Continue Reading →
