Didn't like HDR but now I've been awakened and would like a bit of input please

[Ken Nielsen]

HDR was never to my liking as too much AI effect but now I've been awakened by accidentally touching the HDR button in Photoshop on this image... Wow, it fits! And heres my two questions: 1.) a message comes on screen saying I do not have my HDR display settings enabled in preferenes, I do not want to mess with how it already looks so what and where are these 'settings' and should I even touch them if I'm already happy? And 2.) I cannot use generative expand on this image in Photoshop, so I made a screen shot to get the expanded left side of the image I wanted and that worked. Why does generative Expand or Fill not work on this HDR image and how can I 'fix it' so that it works like a normal Photoshop image file?

TIA,  Ken

[davescm · Accepted solution]

Hi,
One of the best, and most informative, sites for information on using HDR, including making images to view on HDR and SDR screens, is this one by @gregbenz who sometimes posts here. It is worth a good read through. 

https://gregbenzphotography.com/hdr/

I suspect Generative AI, which although advancing quickly is still in relative infancy has yet to catch up in that area. It is still limited in terms of resolution in SDR.

Dave

[Ken Nielsen]

Thank you.

[gregbenz]

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but it sounds like you're trying to find ways to do more in 32-bit Photoshop? Most commands work now, but some things like gen fill do not. My Lumenzia plugin for Photoshop can help work around this (creates a 16-bit version of your HDR where you can do things like generative fill, Liquify, frequency separation, etc that are otherwise disabled in 32-bit mode). 

Unless I've missed something, "generative expand" is just a way to "out crop" inside LR / ACR. That will work in HDR mode (Photoshop has limitations in 32-bit mode, but HDR mode in LR / ACR does not). So if you can do what you need in the RAW editing environment, that may be the best solution (depends on the edit / what you're trying to do).

[Ken Nielsen]

Ah, so it converts to 32 bit and that is what is throwing me a curve. Thank you for explaining. I'm wondering about the message I get on screen and what settings in 'preferences' (there is no longer a 'preferences' on the Mac but is 'settings' which one of the long list of settings contains what I need to enable corrrect display?

[gregbenz · Accepted solution]

Go to prefs / tech previews and enable "precise color management for HDR display.

32-bit mode is how Photoshop is able to support HDR generally (Lumenzia offers a way to do HDR at a lower bit depth, but it isn't something you would generally otherwise be able to do outside of 32-bit mode in PS). So when you use LR / ACR to edit an image as HDR and open it in Photoshop, it opens in 32-bit mode (otherwise the pixels in the HDR range would clip to SDR white in 8/16-bit mode). 

[Ken Nielsen]

Thank you, I think I will be wanting to study this now that I see its potential.

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

The location of the setting is in the picture below. As you noticed, there are so many Preferences settings that it’s hard to remember where they are. To help with that, keep in mind that Adobe recently added a Search field to the top right corner of the Preferences dialog box. As long as you know at least part of the name of the setting you’re looking for, you can search for it in there.

It’s assumed that your Mac display is already set for HDR. To check, if using any Apple display with XDR in the name, in macOS System Settings (or Control Center) / Displays, make sure the selected reference mode Preset has XDR in the name. (This is not a color profile.) Other presets may not be set up for HDR, but the XDR presets are. For example, on my 14" MacBook Pro, if I want to edit HDR I need to choose the display Preset “Apple XDR Display (P3-1600 nits)”.

I agree with davescm that Greg Benz is one of the best HDR editing experts out there. I highly recommend the articles on his blog and the videos on his YouTube channel.

[gregbenz]

You can confirm your display is setup for HDR by checking my test #1 (https://gregbenzphotography.com/hdr/#tests) or seeing checking the histogram for an image in LR / ACR with HDR mode enabled. If either test shows you have HDR headroom, you should be all set.
(The only real exception to that would be if you have created a custom ICC profile, as that will cause HDR pixels to clip to SDR white - so be sure to leave the profile at the default for HDR mode until we have an ICC standard to support such profiles in HDR mode).

[Ken Nielsen]

Can't top the help here! Thanks to everyone for replies!