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And what about printing? Is an edited HDR photo viewed on an HDR monitor going to look remotely the same when printed?
By @1Roy1
Not unless you can find paper that lights up in the dark. A high quality print on high grade paper has a dynamic range of up to 300:1 at best. Already SDR monitors have a higher dynamic range than a print can ever have.
In fact, this is the part that I find undercommunicated. This is the first time in digital imaging history that screen and print go their separate ways and are no longer interchangeable. You now need two separate images, with totally different processing, for screen viewing and printing. That has never happened before.
...for now LC only displays the HDR image properly on your HDR monitor in develop mode, not libary mode nor in develop full screen mode. I consider this a huge bug, they may consider it a feature. Presumably it'll get fixed eventually.
...but how can those of us with HDR screens enjoy our photos outside of LC develop mode? And what about printing? Is an edited HDR photo viewed on an HDR monitor going to look remotely the same when printed?
By @1Roy1
It can't be called a 'bug' because it isn't, it is a 'feature' but rather not for practical usage I think.
How can we enjoy our HDR photos outside of Lightroom Develop mode? With great difficulty!🤔
Until we can get HDR printing paper - which is not going to happen - it won't look the same at all!
Therefore if one wants to print then HDR is a waste of time.
I think the development of this will be put on the back burner - the vast majority of users still use SDR monitors, as you can get the same look from monitor to paper.
Also remember that when developing images on an HDR screen, and then publishing it on the net, to get the same look, everyone has to view the image on an HDR monitor. We're not there yet! And then all HDR monitors are not the same!
but how can those of us with HDR screens enjoy our photos outside of LC develop mode? And what about printing? Is an edited HDR photo viewed on an HDR monitor going to look remotely the same when printed?
By @1Roy1
Right now the answer comes down to these things:
If you have an HDR screen and a compatible web browser, Lightroom Photos on the web does support HDR, so you can sync a Lightroom Classic collection that contains HDR images to Lightroom Photos in the cloud, and when that is viewed in a compatible web browser on an HDR display anyone can see the photos on the web in HDR.
If you want to share them on the web outside Lightroom Photos, the Export command has been upgraded to allow HDR-compatible formats such as JPEG XL and AVIF. Of course this means the app or web browser at the receiving end needs to be current enough to know how to handle those and display HDR. And, there is an option to use a JPEG with a gain map to help translate HDR to SDR.
If you edit in HDR and you know you are going to need an SDR version to share, or you plan to print, then you want to study and use the SDR Rendition Settings in the HDR controls. The SDR Rendition Settings let you store a second set of adjustments that determine how the HDR edit looks on SDR. This way, you don’t have to just pray that the HDR image might look OK in SDR, you can control how it will look in SDR.
I think if someone wants to make serious photo prints from an HDR edit, the answer is the same as it has always been: Don’t print straight from the native Develop module, make a virtual proof copy and tune it while Develop is set to soft proof through the ICC profile that represents the exact printing conditions.
…but it won't look as good as it does in the LC develop mode. Unless I'm doing something wrong, this is a massive limitation.
By @Norly35635492uqul
Yeah, but…in some ways, that has always been with us and is nothing new. Most non-Develop presesntations have always been inferior. Even within just traditional SDR, an exported JPEG copy doesn’t contains all of the quality in Develop, and an exhibition print can’t contain all the tones and colors of the raw file in Develop.
That’s why I said above that HDR editing isn’t all that different from how we have had to adjust our expectations when just going from SDR to print. Having to adjust our expectations from HDR to SDR or HDR to print is just another historical variation of the same thing we have always had to keep in mind — most end user delivery media already don‘t look as good as Develop, even before considering HDR.
And, it is very early days for this kind of HDR. But even then, we’re already getting to the point where HDR-equipped TVs and smartphones are selling in greater numbers than SDR (HDR computer monitors are available, but lagging behind in adoption compared to TVs and smartphones). The remaining gaps to be filled are in mobile app and web browser support. As those gaps get filled, we will need to worry about this less and less. Even today, if you know someone with an HDR display and they use the popular Chrome or Edge web browser, you can share an HDR edited image through a collection synced to Lightroom Photos, send them the web page link, and they will be able to see it in full HDR in Chrome or Edge.
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