This deceptively titled advert featuring Asus spokesperson Darren Mostyn might lead the viewer to expect to witness some dazzling HDR grading in DaVinci Resolve by an experienced colorist, but we see nothing of the sort. Not only that, but they couldn't even be bothered to shoot the ad in HDR. Watching this video reminds us... Continue Reading →
Picked Up the New Laptop!
One week ago, not a single shop had any 16" M1 Max MacBook Pros in stock and we were told that it would take anywhere from eight to ten weeks to get one; but by some miracle it arrived in just seven days. Using Migration Assistant, Time Machine and a slow portable hard drive, transferring... Continue Reading →
Why HDR Shows Are Too Dark, Part II
One year ago, almost to the day, we published a video entitled Why Are HDR Shows So Dark?, which turned out to be one of our most successful rants on YouTube. We've since identified no fewer than a half dozen different contributing factors, including: most shows continue to be lit in an SDR environment using... Continue Reading →
No Metrics to Describe HDR WCG Displays
As today's consumer displays can attain brightness levels up to fifteen times higher than legacy SDR screens, the traditional 2D color gamut diagram no longer suffices to characterize the behavior of displays, necessitating a third axis to describe luminance. Nevertheless, although color volume plays a far more important role in color reproduction in HDR than... Continue Reading →
HDR Notebooks to Flood Market
Following the praise lavished on Apple's new MacBook Pro lineup featuring Liquid Retina XDR mini-LED displays, industry watchers are now betting on rivals sitting up, taking notice and following suit, increasingly incorporating either OLED or mini-LED displays in their own notebooks. This can only be a good thing, as the 270m notebook market lags deplorably... Continue Reading →
Colorist: MacBook Pro XDR Display Is Cheap Walmart Trash
In a forum thread about the new MacBook Pros, BMD contributor and colorist Marc Wielage compares Apple's marvelous new Liquid Retina XDR miniLED display to dime-store garbage, saying, without a hint of irony: "I can add to this discussion by saying I got the new MacBook Pro M1 Max about 3 days ago and it's been great so... Continue Reading →
Stupid Fast Exposure Adjustment!
We've written extensively in these pages about how to use false color and how it makes nailing exposure idiot proof, but for some reason it never occurred to us to make a video illustrating just how stupid fast it is. So today, we redress that oversight. https://youtu.be/tTZnp4CVLXo
Our Response to a Colorist Insisting HDR YouTube Videos Can’t Be Graded on a Mac
All we’ve got to say is how grateful we are for the handful of intrepid YouTubers working with less than Grade 1B reference monitors, because it seems the only ones who can justify purchasing $30,000 displays are post production houses working on multimillion dollar shows that are lit in an SDR environment and monitored in... Continue Reading →
Mind Saturation & Noise Reduction
Saturation While the extended color volume of HDR results in perceptibly more vibrant colors able to retain saturation and brightness without compromise, it pays to be cautious with saturation. Glowing skin and radioactive foliage are indications that saturation is cranked up too high. To assess saturation, use the vectorscope. In order to see the highlight... Continue Reading →
Download ProRes RAW HQ Sample Footage
Download 4.2K 23.976 ProRes RAW HQ. https://youtu.be/kcdZGA7LW44
MacBook Pro and iPad Pro to Feature Double-Stack OLED in 2025?
In what could turn out to be seriously exciting news for HDR video creators, Apple is said to be exploring OLED or microLED panels for its MacBook Pros - possibly as soon as 2025! The two-stack tandem structure of the rumored OLED panels would consume less energy, allow ProMotion similar to the iPhone 13 and... Continue Reading →
Nikon Z9 ProRes RAW Internal: Yawn
We’ll let you in on a little secret: being able to record RAW internally is all well and good, aside from the fact that XQD and CFexpress Type B cards cost a king's ransom compared to SSD and the Nikon LCD is all but useless for HDR - making an Atomos recorder a vastly superior... Continue Reading →
Mac M1 Owners: Do Not Update to Resolve Studio 17.4!!
A Blackmagic forum member writes: "I use a Mac M1 with HDMI directly connected to LG CX. Using the same settings, 17.3.2 can easily watch HDR. After upgrading to 17.4, the exact same color management settings and other settings were tried, but HDR could not be activated. After downgrading to 17.3.2, without making any changes, it directly shows HDR...... Continue Reading →
Display HDR in DaVinci Resolve Viewer
This post explains how to use the HDR capabilities of an Apple MacBook or iMac built-in display when using DaVinci Resolve and also applies to external HDR capable displays such as the Apple Pro Display XDR, allowing you to preview HDR content directly via the Resolve viewer. The feature is only available on macOS 10.14.6 and above and... Continue Reading →
FSI to Release 5,000 Nit Mastering Monitor This Fall
FSI will be releasing the XM312U this fall - a 5,000 nit mastering monitor with 2,300 individually controlled LED backlight zones and priced at $22,000. It appears that we'll be reaching the dizzying 10,000 nit peak brightness of PQ HDR sooner than most people think. Keep in mind though, that with PQ HDR, anything above 100-200... Continue Reading →
Vimeo Now Supports Dolby Vision!
As reported in DPReview, "Vimeo and Dolby announced that Vimeo is the first to market to allow users to host, share and play iPhone videos shot in Dolby Vision within the Apple ecosystem. Vimeo writes, 'Starting today, millions of Apple device users can now use Vimeo to unlock the same professional-quality video technology embraced by... Continue Reading →
HDR vs. SDR Contrast Ratios
Rory Gordon, Senior Colorist at ArsenalFX Color, during a presentation at a 2019 SMPTE conference entitled "Beyond Better Pixels: How HDR Perceptually and Emotionally Effects [sic] Storytelling", used data gathered from her work as a colorist on over 35 episodes of HDR content to explore the psychological and emotional impact high dynamic range has on... Continue Reading →
Ditching the Video Look
Stuff we're doing differently now from the past: during shooting, avoiding yellow in false color entirely except for specular highlights (aside from the infrequent occasions when we want to purposely blow out highlights); in post, being meticulous about adjusting white balance prior to color correction, even if it's just a few degrees; adjusting yellow, blue,... Continue Reading →
The Daejeon Chronicles 