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Historical Revisionism in Color Science: Unpacking Steve Yedlin’s Conflation of BT.709 and BT.1886
In his presentation Debunking “HDR”, cinematographer Steve Yedlin shows a slide of BT.1886 to argue that it inherently matches human visual perception. To support his claim, Yedlin points to the distribution of code values: “This has been the theme the whole time, is that the human visual system is relative more than absolute. So it's... Continue Reading →
Photochemical Film Workflow Consistency Myths, Part II
“There used to be this in-place system… it was this kind of system that worked and made an artful color rendering… and it did so repeatedly and reliably… [that] locked system… basically went in the trash can and we now have a completely unlocked system [1].” —Steve Yedlin, ASC, describing the transition from film to... Continue Reading →
Keep ‘Em Separated
Keep color encoding and color space separate I’ve been writing about this for a while now. Rod Bogart, Principal Color Scientist at Epic Games, says it much better than I ever could. Color space ≠ color encoding “When we say linear RGB, it's telling us two important properties of the color value that we have,... Continue Reading →
The Curious Case of the “Consumer” Canon C70
“With the advent of dual gain technology, where a high and low ISO are combined in one exposure, things started to change. We saw this technology early on in state of the art cinema cameras like the ARRI Alexa lineup, and they can be found on top of our “best of charts”. More recently this... Continue Reading →
Gamma ≠ Gamut ≠ EOTF
A few distinct concepts may have become conflated in these slides from the presentation Practical HDR and Wide Color Techniques in Gran Turismo SPORT [1], particularly color gamut, OETFs and EOTFs, and the standards used in different applications. Although the presentation correctly introduces OETF and EOTF as separate stages of the imaging pipeline, the subsequent... Continue Reading →
The Gaming HDR Analysts Are Wrong
https://youtu.be/rv9P5grAxAE HDR Waveform: Real-time luminance levels of Dead Island 2 Advice That Ignores the Reality of Display Limitations Gaming HDR analysts advise setting the in-game White Point slider of Dead Island 2 to 1150, claiming it’s needed to unlock 1,000-nit highlights. They also recommend setting Brightness to 25, unironically stating that it represents “a balanced... 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 →
How to Kill a Game
Excessive bloom and volumetric fog are the bane of good visual design. Exhibit A GAJA Atef, Game Designer | LinkedIn The execution is a crime scene. The bloom just butchers it for me—it’s over-cranked, making the geometry look deformed. Wood is rough but the PBR looks unnaturally smooth. Real wood doesn’t glow like that. Adding... Continue Reading →
The Foundation of Sky’s Technical Specification (Or Why 100 Nits Is Not HDR)
“The only line that can be drawn objectively is SDR’s 100 nits. Anything above that in principle is HDR.” Yoeri Geutskens, “We Need to Talk About HDR”. FlatpanelsHD (Oct. 2020) “It is perfectly acceptable to deliver scenes or projects at 100 nits or less in an HDR delivery.” Kevin Shaw, CSI, LinkedIn comment (Nov. 2025)... Continue Reading →
Sky’s Got A Clause For That
Sky UK's Technical Specification for Delivery of Content represents a rigorous, policy-driven approach to HDR that directly addresses the epidemic of “HDR in name only." The specification is unique in tying technical delivery requirements to creative intent and perceptual impact—a bond other streamers’ specs omit. A strict policy on paper doesn’t guarantee perfect compliance in... Continue Reading →
Sony Ambassador Alister Chapman’s HDR Claims Debunked, Part II
Sony European Imaging Ambassador Alister Chapman uses his platform to promote categorically false claims about HDR. We break them down using the international standards, colorist testimonials, research data, and studio policies. Industry standards, studios and professionals reject the simplistic “HDR = Brighter + More Colorful” claim. The “Brighter, More Colorful” Fallacy QUOTE: “When the first... Continue Reading →
Sony Ambassador Alister Chapman’s HDR Claims Debunked, Part I
Sony European Imaging Ambassador Alister Chapman uses his platform to promote categorically false claims about HDR. We dismantle them one-by-one using the standards themselves. The Data Efficiency Argument QUOTE: “PQ is very wasteful of data as it's designed around theoretical 10,000 Nit displays whereas BT1886 is designed for displays that actually exist.” — Alister Chapman... Continue Reading →
What If We Were To Accept Yedlin’s Framing?
While our previous analyses rejected Yedlin’s non-standard terminology, we’ll now show that even if we were to accept Yedlin’s framing of BT.1886 as a complete color space comprising Rec.709 color primaries, D65 white point and transfer function, his claims are still untenable. As Yedlin's presentation explicitly anchors its claims to the official ITU and SMPTE... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
BT.1886 Color Space Conflation
The Standard: ITU-R BT.1886 defines only a reference Electro-Optical Transfer Function (EOTF). No white point. No color primaries. The Claim: Despite this, color scientist Charles Poynton states: "BT.1886 already has primaries, D65, and [an] EOTF," making it a full "DISPLAY colorspace." Charles Poynton, PhD | LinkedIn comment The definition: As defined by ISO 22028-1, a... Continue Reading →
CineD Asks Question Answered A Decade Ago
CineD's piece, "Has RAW Video Finally Gone Mainstream?,” is baffling: did they just wake up from a coma? RED introduced the RED ONE, which recorded their proprietary REDCODE RAW format, back in 2007. Canon's been offering raw in their cinema camera lineup for nearly a decade. Blackmagic defined affordable raw cinema cameras starting in... 2012!... Continue Reading →
Open Challenge: Clarifying Color Spec Terminology
🏆 OPEN CHALLENGE: Clarifying Color Spec Terminology (A good-faith effort to align our industry with standards) From “Don't repeat these mistakes about color spaces and HDR: insights from the demo "Debunking HDR" by Steve Yedlin (Part 2),” by Daniel Bañuelos Cuéllar. I’m offering 2 hours of 1:1 consultation (HDR workflows, color science, or post strategy)... Continue Reading →
Why We Can’t Stay Silent
Estamos cansados—tired of the gaslighting. But silence lets misinformation win. This breakdown helps you recognize manipulation tactics corrupting our industry. Naming them is professional accountability, not personal attack. Tactic: Scapegoating Tools “Ideally, standard naming should make communication simpler. But I get how challenging it is to maintain clarity while evolving the standards themselves. What I... Continue Reading →
Shaw’s Gamut Rings Rage
https://youtu.be/juC2l_X1rSQ?si=VmtqB2t69PTdvRD- “Using a chromaticity plot to describe color capability is a relic of cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays and no longer valid. The Gamut Ring plot is the new standard and should always be used, especially for laser displays.” - Euan Smith Shaw’s Volatile History Steve Shaw’s dismissal of gamut rings as ‘hyped bollox marketing’ and... Continue Reading →
The Daejeon Chronicles 