ACR 18 HDR export to AVIF ends up in SDR mode

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
October 29, 2025
1 reply
106 views

I've updated to Bridge 2026 with ACR 18 on MacOS Tahoe 26.0.1

I can adjust images to HDR just fine as in prior versions (Bridge 2025 and ACR 17), but now when exporting in HDR mode it saves the .avif file in SDR instead.

Tried the following:

1) Reverted back to Bridge 2025 and ACR 17. Same result.

2) Deleted ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw as per this discussion: https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-discussions/acr-fails-to-export-avif-hdr-files/td-p/14820248 ; this worked back in 2024 when this bug happened, but not now. Neither in Bridge 2026 nor Bridge 2025 ACR 18.

macOS

Correct answer David Franzen at Work

Hi,

>I can adjust images to HDR just fine as in prior versions (Bridge 2025 and ACR 17), but now when exporting in HDR mode it saves the .avif file in SDR instead.

Please share a screenshot of the Save Options dialog in Camera Raw as it was configured when saving the AVIF file.

Also, please let me know what lead you to believe the AVIF Camera Raw saved is not HDR. How did you verify it was or was not HDR?

If you are re-opening the saved AVIF in Camera Raw and looking at the default state of the HDR button, please check your Camera Raw preferences. On the Defaults screen, under HDR Defaults check "Enable HDR Editing by default for HDR photos."

S

silver-moonAuthor

Participating Frequently

In addition, tried:

3) Uninstalling Bridge 2025 and 2026 (not keeping preferences, settings etc) and then reinstalling Bridge 2026 (and upgrading ACR back to 18). Same problem.

David Franzen at WorkCorrect answer

Adobe Employee

Hi,

>I can adjust images to HDR just fine as in prior versions (Bridge 2025 and ACR 17), but now when exporting in HDR mode it saves the .avif file in SDR instead.

Please share a screenshot of the Save Options dialog in Camera Raw as it was configured when saving the AVIF file.

Also, please let me know what lead you to believe the AVIF Camera Raw saved is not HDR. How did you verify it was or was not HDR?

If you are re-opening the saved AVIF in Camera Raw and looking at the default state of the HDR button, please check your Camera Raw preferences. On the Defaults screen, under HDR Defaults check "Enable HDR Editing by default for HDR photos."

S

silver-moonAuthor

Participating Frequently

Did a lot more restores, tests and finally found the issue.

It didn't output in SDR mode after all (like the previous bug ). It did output in HDR mode, but "flat" so that it looked like SDR on my Apple Display.

It turns out that when editing in HDR it was mandatory to select HDR + 1 stop for my Apple Display, in order to output the .avif file in HDR according to what is seen in the editing viewport. If left in the default HDR + 4 stops the colours would be "flattened and stretched" in such a way that it would lose a lot of the whites and highlights on my Apple Display, which can only display in HDR+ 1.

This did not seem to happen before, as even .avif generated on HDR+4 would look the same as the current HDR+1. Whereas the current HDR+4 would look flat.

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