The number one resource for information about HDR technology, workflows, tutorials, news and opinion.
Standards for HDR have been established by various industry organizations for displays but as yet, no similar initiative has been undertaken in the camera industry, though manufacturers almost without exception make exaggerated claims for the dynamic range of their cameras. It is said that photochemical film is capable of 13+ stops, though this varies greatly... Continue Reading →
You might well wonder how one mortal could possibly wear so many hats, but Michael Zink is Vice President, Emerging Technologies at WarnerMedia, President & Chairman @ UHD Alliance, Education Vice President @ SMPTE, and Co-Chair, UHDTV Committee, Motion Imaging Technology Council (MITC) of the American Society of Cinematographers. In other words, he's someone worth... Continue Reading →
A while back, we wrote: "Michael Zink and Michael Smith received the Journal Certificate of Merit for their paper "On the Calculation and Usage of HDR Static Content Metadata,” published in the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal in August 2021. After analyzing over 200 titles from Warner Brothers' catalogue, they proposed a method for calculating the... Continue Reading →
When Portrait Displays acquired Patterns, they announced: “Patterns™ by Portrait Displays is the first and only macOS test pattern generator to support High Dynamic Range (HDR) on the market. The application uses the latest Metal APIs to support both SDR and HDR color spaces, including (but not limited to) sRGB, BT.709, Adobe RGB (1998), DCI-P3,... Continue Reading →
We just compared the 16" MacBook Pro (2021) to the LG CX with this test video by Florian Friedrich and it was quite an eye-opener! The difference in color volume is similar to comparing Samsung's QLED to the LG C1 OLED in the header picture and the one below (Sony BVM-HX310 mastering monitor, center). Why... Continue Reading →
Since removing the input and output DRTs from all the RCM project settings in our Monster guide (Dolby Vision says to set them to 'none'), we were sort of at a loss as to what to do, since we learned from Cullen Kelly how critical it is to keep 18% gray where it belongs -... Continue Reading →
"In film photography, highlight roll off refers to the gradual transition from the highlights (the brightest parts of the image) to the shadows (the darkest parts of the image). This transition is not abrupt, but rather it occurs gradually, giving the image a smooth and natural-looking tonal range." - Quora "On film, if you were... Continue Reading →
Although a chromaticity diagram is useful for 2D representations, the color gamut of a display actually needs to be evaluated using a 3D color space that includes the lightness axis. Gamut rings representing a 3D color gamut solid using a 2D diagram are a solution to this problem and have been adopted as an international... Continue Reading →
“I discovered, to my amazement, that IRE stands for the International Radio Engineers,” Lachman says. “They developed the system in 1895, before film even had sound. So as strange as it seems, we’re basing our exposure on radio signal voltage, not photographic exposure of light.” Why are we basing our exposures on sound waves? In... Continue Reading →
Typical luminance levels of the titles in our videos. The titles of HDR videos on YouTube are often far too bright for comfortable viewing.
Subjective tests reported by the BBC investigated viewer tolerance to sudden changes in overall brightness for HDR television, using the mean pixel display luminance as a measure of brightness as described in [2]. This measure has been shown to correlate well with subjective ratings of the overall brightness, but there may occasionally be a scene... Continue Reading →
Discussions surrounding the brightness levels of HDR often talk about brightness as if there were some fixed, immutable number beyond which the picture becomes unwatchable (for many, that number is 48 nits!), whereas studies conducted by Dolby and the DCI both showed conclusively that viewers overwhelmingly prefer brighter picture levels than are currently available in... Continue Reading →
Assimilate Play Pro Studio, compatible with both macOS and Windows, is now able to convert ProRes RAW footage from any camera or recorder to CinemaDNG. Not only that, but you can use coupon code PPS50OFF to get 50% until the end of the month. That works out to $150.00 for a permanent license. Meanwhile, RAW... Continue Reading →
In this post, we look at how to deal with overly bright highlights. Whatever speed limit you decide on for your project, pay close attention to how rolling off highlights affects the texture, detail and vividness of the image. Download the original clips here. https://youtu.be/BuyX4s-rsUE The strongest highlights are 638 nits and the laptop display... Continue Reading →
There has never been a push for or a requirement by any of the major Hollywood studios or leading streaming content providers that HDR shows hit a peak luminance of 1,000 nits. In the case of digital projection or direct view displays, there’s never been a requirement that movies hit system peak brightness either. “It... Continue Reading →
Clipped highlights that can be rolled off in SDR are unsightly in HDR. HDR is more prone to unsightly banding artifacts. Streaming bitrates must be higher to avoid blocking artifacts. Noise becomes much more of a nuisance in the shadows. Overstauration can make your picture look like cheap camcorder footage. The higher local contrast of... Continue Reading →
During Eric Weidt’s presentation (FilmLight’s Colour On Stage), where he discussed his collaboration with David Fincher on Mindhunter, the colorist talked about how the overhead neon tubes in the shot of a couple shopping at a grocer’s were overpowering, which is why he ended up decreasing the intensity, but that the extended brightness of HDR... Continue Reading →
All Quiet On the Western Front (Netflix) had a couple of powerful scenes on the battlefield at night, the small fires burning on the distant horizon, flares in the sky (VFX) and the glint of soldiers’ helmets in the blackness created a very strong impression. As did the brightness of daylight as a few surviving... Continue Reading →
One of the most popular posts on our blog is about HDR reference white, which has been standardized as 203 nits. But in reality, there is no such thing as reference white, any more than there is a fixed value for 18% gray or fair skin. Diffuse white can be 145 nits indoors or as... Continue Reading →
During a live stream, Cullen Kelly said that 1,000-nit specular highlights are unpleasant to look at and that windows should be closer to middle gray. Do you agree? Can intense specular highlights serve an expressive purpose? "HDR is fairly new, and as typically happens with new technologies, we have impartial parties really, really pushing for... Continue Reading →
The Daejeon Chronicles 