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Erik _ Bailey
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November 12, 2023
Beantwortet

How to apply the HDR curves to SDR image

  • November 12, 2023
  • 1 Antwort
  • 673 Ansichten

Hi all - I don't have an HDR display, but find that I like what the HDR button does to some of my images. Is it possible to "reverse-engineer" the settings such that I can have them in non-HDR mode? See below for an example - I really like how the HDR button makes the orange sky "pop" and basically just want to do that same thing on the original image. I know it's possible since I'm viewing this on my normal Macbook display (non-HDR), so if I can get those same curves on the original image (without having to try to replicate them manually) I'll be happy. Thoughts?

 

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    Beste Antwort von Jao vdL

    Your screen is actually able to display a bit of HDR range apparently. What version of display do you have and what are you selecting in the System Settings->Displays in the preset popup (I assume you run ventura or Sonoma looking at the screenshots)? In the bottom screenshot you can see the range it can display highlighted in the shaded area. The sky pops because you are now able to see this. This range CANNOT be displayed in a SDR image display. To get this same detail in the sky in the SDR version, you have to tone down the sky by about 0.5 to 1 stops. You do this by creating a sky mask and just dragging exposure on the mask down a bit. It will never look as good as the HDR display though. Problem of course is that most people do not have HDR capable displays and most browsers do not support HDR imagery (only one is Chrome on desktop OS) so you can't get this sort of rendering seen by many people.

    1 Antwort

    J
    Community Expert
    Jao vdLCommunity ExpertAntwort
    Community Expert
    November 12, 2023

    Your screen is actually able to display a bit of HDR range apparently. What version of display do you have and what are you selecting in the System Settings->Displays in the preset popup (I assume you run ventura or Sonoma looking at the screenshots)? In the bottom screenshot you can see the range it can display highlighted in the shaded area. The sky pops because you are now able to see this. This range CANNOT be displayed in a SDR image display. To get this same detail in the sky in the SDR version, you have to tone down the sky by about 0.5 to 1 stops. You do this by creating a sky mask and just dragging exposure on the mask down a bit. It will never look as good as the HDR display though. Problem of course is that most people do not have HDR capable displays and most browsers do not support HDR imagery (only one is Chrome on desktop OS) so you can't get this sort of rendering seen by many people.

    E
    Erik _ BaileyAutor
    Participating Frequently
    November 15, 2023

    Hi Jao - sorry for delay in reply! My laptop is a 2022 M2 Macbook Air 13" (Sonoma 14.0), but I also tested on my desktop 2021 M1 iMac (Sonoma 14.1) and the results look identical.

     

    That said, I think you are onto something. I hadn't realized when I took the screenshots, but the PNGs that I included in the original post do not exactly match what I see in LR onscreen - it is much punchier in LR. So I think you are correct that it is my displays (which I obviously didn't realize) and it looks like I'm not really able to do what I'm hoping to do.

     

    Using your information, I took another look at https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/hdr-output.html. When I click the highhlight warning icon, it shows the "beyond SDR" colors - I guess it's yellow for what I can see on my display and red for what I can't (which makes sense - the red parts do look clipped white). 

     

    On initial read of your response I didn't understand the "sky mask" part, because I hadn't previously used it. But the selection worked great, and I think I have a path forward now.

     

    I think the key here is awareness of the fact that I'm seeing a larger color gamut than I can export (kind of like a RAW image vs. the eventual JPEG). I can't get all the shades in the sky I want, so if I want that additional detail in the highlights, I'll need to pull down other areas to make room for it.

     

    Super, super helpful - I have a direction to play with now. While I may not be able to get exactly what I want, I think I can use the sky mask to tweak it further and get much closer. THANK YOU! 🙂

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