Proper HDR tone mapping in View mode

Question

Right now, if my display isn’t 1000 nits or whatever, HDR highlights above the available headroom are simply clipped, which makes the image look ugly.

I can understand why this might be useful in Edit mode for a more “accurate” view, but in View mode I think the image should be tone-mapped to fit the display.

Interestingly, Lightroom for web already works this way: when viewing pictures, the highlights are properly compressed (at least on Chrome), while Edit mode looks the same as the native apps and remains clipped.

It would be nice to be able to properly view HDR photos on displays that don’t have a bazillion nits of brightness, including EDR iPads and MacBooks (and other displays) at high brightness, where the available HDR headroom can be quite small.

Claire H. · Answer

Hi @stepus53, Thanks for the detailed feedback! You're right that View mode currently passes the full HDR signal through without tone mapping, so highlights beyond your display's headroom are clipped. Here are a few things you can do today to improve the experience:1. Use the SDR preview controls in the High Dynamic Range section (Lightroom Desktop) or at the bottom of the Basic panel (Lightroom Classic), look for the "Preview for SDR Display" option. This compresses the HDR range to fit a standard display, giving you a better-looking preview.2. Make sure GPU acceleration is enabled. Go to Preferences → Performance and confirm "Use Graphics Processor" is on. HDR content won't render correctly without it.3. Use Lightroom Web as a workaround. As you noticed, Lightroom Web in Chrome already has tone-maps for viewing. That's a solid option for reviewing and sharing your HDR photos until the native apps offer similar behavior in View mode.For the broader request for automatic tone mapping in View mode in the native apps, I'd encourage you to post it as a feature idea in the Feature Request section so other users can vote on it and the product team can track demand. Hope that helps! ^CH

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