How to create HDR videos in Premiere?

Report · Mar 21, 2017

Hi everyone. I want to know how do I make/export a video with the HDR "standard"? I'm getting a sony a6500 which can shoot in SLog which I heard is necessary for HDR video. However, I've also read about needing 10 bit and ProRes. Do I need those 2 features in my camera to be able to shoot in HDR, or is shooting in SLog enough (because in that case I would need to buy an Atomos recorder)? Sorry but I'm not an expert in video editing, but I do want to start making videos in HDR from now on since HDR TVs are becoming popular and even youtube supports HDR videos. Basically, I just want to know how to turn my camera's slog video into HDR compatible in premiere.

Thanks in advance

Report · Apr 07, 2019

Neal, I voted up all the HDR features I could find. There is not lots of voting for these so I'm not sure this will influence Adobe much. I see it more as strategic; if Pr falls behind they will start to lose market share as HDR becomes more widely used.

There were lots of votes for both ProRes Raw and BMRAW. I added my votes there, but expect Adobe already knows the high demand for these formats.

Report · Apr 08, 2019

Grass Valley EDIUS just announced at NAB they will be supporting ProRes RAW. So this will give Windows users access to ProRes Raw. Several studio level software providers also announced support of ProRes Raw at NAB. This could mean Apple is starting to license more liberally, and hopefully Premiere Pro isn't far behind. I know professionals that won't go to ProRes Raw because Premiere Pro doesn't support it.

Report · Apr 20, 2019

I'll post some comments about my experience with HDR. This will be two posts; this one with general comments, comments about HDR formats, and cameras and camera shooting formats for HDR; and a second post about editing HDR with Premiere Pro.

My HDR experience so far has been some local aviation video, some seascapes in Hawaii, and recently a very nice travel log of Fiordland National Park in New Zealand. Until recently this been with a Sony FS5, shooting ProRes RAW with an Atomos Inferno recorder. As mentioned in earlier posts, editing has been with FCPX (still the only way to handle ProRes Raw), and I edit without a HDR monitor. I produce to show directly on HDR TVs, not for YouTube or Vimeo. More recently I've been shooting HDR with a Mavic 2 Pro drone, and with a Sony A7III. This has given me quite a bit of experience learning what works for HDR and what doesn't, but I'm still learning, and learn more with every job. Recently I'm working to understand how to produce HDR with Premiere Pro.

There are four HDR formats; Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG.

Dolby Vision is what studios use. If you have HDR Blu-Ray disks, or watch Netflix HDR productions it was done with Dolby Vision.

HDR10 is what the rest of us use. Premiere Pro, FCPX, and DaVinci Resolve use HDR10.

HDR10+ is an enhanced version of HDR10 with subtle improvements to push it closer to Dolby Vision. It may be adopted by some studios.

HLG is a crossover format. It can be used to produce either Rec.709 (Standard TV) or Rec.2020 (HDR TV) or both. It is a more interesting format than one might initially suspect.

Bits, stops, and dynamic range. And nits.

Bits and stops are the same. 8 bits is 0 to 255 (the Rec.709 world we work with). 10 bits is 0 to 1023. 12 bits is 0 to 4095, etc. Dynamic range is how much of this can a camera actually record, and how much can a display actually display. Current HDR TVs typically display 0 to 1000 nits (a nit is the light flux of one candela per square meter). So current HDR TVs are 10 bits or 10 stops. 4000 nit TVs are coming, but that might be the practical limit of how bright a display we will want to watch. The popular LG OLED TVs are just 700 nits, but make it up at the low end with very detailed shadows; when producing for LG use 1000 nits, it will adjust this down to 700 internally. Video to a HDR TV is 10 bits, and HEVC 10 bit is a common format.

Modern camera sensors typically have a wide dynamic range. The limits are saturation at the top end and noise at the bottom end. The dynamic range limit is usually determined by the output format. Clearly the common 8 bit formats with a range of 0 to 255 are not very useful for HDR. The usual way to deal with this is to use a log format, which can record the dynamic range of the sensor. Obviously the more bits the log format uses the better, but even 8 bit log does an amazing job filling in the 10 bit Rec.2020 images with modern editors and TVs. (I alway thought 8 bit HLG was a dumb idea until I tried it; it can actually give very good results.) HDR is as much about the much wider 10 bit color space as it is about the dynamic range. I suspect video recorded in 8 bits will not be up to par with 10 bit for subtle color grading, but I don't have any experience with this.

The cameras I use.

The Sony FS5 has RAW output via SDI. This is fed to the Atomos Inferno that records ProRes RAW. ProRes RAW is a wide dynamic range log 12 bit format. Log gives the dynamic range, and 12 bits allows a very wide processing latitude when editing. This was especially useful working in Fiordland with the bright skies and the deep shadows of the fiords. The FS5 can also record 8 bit HLG directly to SD cards, which turns out to be a useful format.

The Mavic 2 Pro can record either 10 bit log or 10 bit HLG. The camera has lower dynamic range than the larger sensor cameras, and exposure needs to be controlled carefully for HDR. Nevertheless it can give outstanding HDR. I generally shoot with the log format for HDR.

The Sony A7III may be the present king of dynamic range. But it is 8 bits. It can record in log formats or HLG. I prefer HLG since this format spreads the sensor data out perfectly over the 2020 profile. If you expose right you are already there with good HDR, with very little editing. I pray for a 10 or 12 bit version of this camera.

I'll discuss editing in a next post.

Report · Apr 20, 2019

This post is about editing HDR with Premiere Pro. As I've mentioned most of my HDR experience is with FCPX, since I usually shoot ProRes RAW and only FCPX supports this format. However over the years most of my experience is with Pr, and I expect Adobe will eventually support this format. I'll compare and contrast FCPX and Pr as I go along. The workflows assume there is no HDR monitor, and only the Pr video display.

Note that the workflow for log video is different than for HLG video.

I'll start with log video. The workflow is as follows:

1. Import the clips, trim them, and drop them on the timeline.

2. In the Lumetri Color window, at the top select 'High Dynamic Range'. This brings up the controls for HDR.

3. In the Lumetri Scopes window, at the bottom right select 'HDR' . (This is normally set to 8 bit.)

4. Right click the Lumetri Scopes window, and select 'Colorspace', '2020'

5. The Waveform RGB scope now has the left hand scale, a log scale, of 0 to 10K. This represents 0 to 10,000 nits.

6. For each clip adjust the nit intensity with the 'exposure' slider. Keep the maximum intensity under 1000 nits.

7. The video display, which is Rec.709 now shows as very over exposed and saturated. This is where experience and understanding the waveform scope comes in. The slider 'HDR Specular' is used to re-distribute the intensities over the 2020 (HDR) scale. Typically you will want to lift this some, more or less depending on the effect you are looking for. Adjust 'Shadows', keeping in mind that HDR is much more detailed in shadows than Rec.709.

8. Export the video. Use HEVC (H.265). Set Profile to 'Main 10', check 'Rec. 2020' and 'High Dynamic Range'. This exports a 10 bit HDR file.

There are a couple of significant differences from FCPX. FCPX has the ability to show HDR as RAW values, where the video display is not over exposed and saturated. This is flat and not color correct, but is very useful to set the Midtones (HDR Specular for Pr). Pr may have this ability, but I don't think so, I couldn't find it. If someone knows how to do this let me know; otherwise I'll submit a Pr feature request. The second, with Pr you can't input the HDR metadata. Pr tags the file with metadata, but whatever it is it's unknown. This feature/bug has already been submitted.

The workflow with HLG video is:

1. Import the clips, trim them, and drop them on the timeline.

2. Editing is done in the normal Rec. 709 timeline.

3. With experience set the 'Exposure', 'Highlights', 'Shadows', etc. Keep exposure at 90% or so.

4. Export the video. Use HEVC (H.265). Set Profile to 'Main 10', check 'Rec. 2020' and 'High Dynamic Range'. This exports a 10 bit HDR file.

5. Results will vary, it is not possible to know what the resulting 2020 file will look like ahead of time. Good HDR is possible, but sometimes it is sub par.

Pr has a very significant difference from FCPX. FCPX has the ability to create 'Compound' clips from HLG clips, and these clips can be edited on the 2020 PQ timeline. That is, the 2020 data is extracted from the HLG clip, and it is edited just like log video. HLG and log clips can be mixed on the same timeline, Outstanding HDR is possible with HLG with FCPX. I don't know a workaround with Pr. If someone knows a good way to consistently edit HLG with Pr please let me know. Otherwise I'll submit a Pr feature request.

Report · Apr 20, 2019

I did a presentation in the Flanders-FSI/MixingLight booth at NAB on the full Monty of color management in Pr, including all the way through SDR and into handling, viewing, and exporting in the three PQ and one HLG options available.

The Premiere team assigned a color engineer to assist and I have spent several hours via phone, screenshare, and in person with him to 1) get all the correct information and 2) verify everything.

That will be presented in a video tutorial on the MixingLight.com subscription site early next week, but outside the paywall available to everyone. Adobe will even be linking to it.

Much of the material hasn't been discussed publicly and much of the rest is rather different from much of the mythology of even whether Premiere is color managed.

And it will have all the details on properly setting up for viewing both SDR and HDR.

Neil

Report · Apr 21, 2019

if at all possible, include any workflows including luts, thx!

Report · Apr 21, 2019

Neil, I'm really looking forward to your presentation. Thanks for putting it together.

Report · May 18, 2019

Hi Neil,

Did that presentation ever get posted?

Thanks!

Report · May 18, 2019

The first part on general color management in Pr has been going through revisions to make sure it is as clear as possible. That should get "up" by midweek, hope the HDR one already in the can goes up with it.

Neil

Report · Apr 21, 2019

This is exactly how I said HDR exports should be done!

Report · Apr 27, 2019

DaVinci Resolve use HDR10.

Resolve 16 (currently in beta) now offers HDR10+ and Dolby Vision with the Studio version.

Exported my first HDR clip in 16 last week. Works great.

Report · Apr 27, 2019

That's good to know about Resolve 16, thanks.

Unfortunately I shoot most of my HDR with ProRes RAW, and Resolve doesn't support this. And they probably won't be since they have their own BMRAW format. The only way I know how to use Resolve with ProRes RAW is to bring the clips onto FCPX, export them as ProRes 4444, and use these clips in Resolve. I never thought the hassle was worth it, but it might be if I could use Dolby Vision.