The 'old' HDR vs 'new' HDR

There is a lot of confusion around "HDR" these days, as the same name is being used for a completely new and unrelated technology. In this video, you'll learn how the new HDR (true high dynamic range display enabled by new hardware) compares to the old HDR (tone mapping, for old standard dynamic range displays).

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[heroninja]

Its amazing to finally have a monitor that can reasonably display actual HDR content. Its like opening up a window into a whole new world.

[tobiasyoder]

wow thats wild. All of a sudden all these photos I used to think looked great look so flat

[admay]

What happens when an image processed for HDR monitors is displayed on a standard monitor? My guess is it will be awhile before HDR monitors become very common outside the photography community.

[steinilux]

This photo is taken in Luxemburg 😉
Great tutorial... thank you!!

[chaibhav]

Excellent video Greg! Also, Meliá is a great hotel to stay at when you're in Luxembourg :)

[KeshenMac]

I am all for the proliferation of HDR images, videos, and displays!! Let's stop using standards from 30 years ago!!!

[tobiasyoder]

It seems like this new HDR calls into question the age old aphorism that "raw files come out flat". That was true in the days where we needed to do all manner of tone map coaxing, but now just with clicking a button even raw files have plenty of lifelike punch.

[supercrazpianomanaic]

Hi Greg! So i just watched a bunch of your videos and read your material online, great stuff!
Bottom line, there's no more point for me to use the "old" hdr or even shoot in exposure bracketing from the get go? As long as i get a good enough exposure (and err on the side of caution by slightly underexposing in a complicated scene with lots if bright lights), ill be able to retrieve all that detail in post with the new HDR? Do you no longer merge exposure bracketed photos? I have a sony a6600 so the dynamic range is solid (at least to my eyes)

[MishaG]

I don't have LR, can this be done in Aurora HDR? Great video Greg!

[koningslakkie]

Hey Greg,

Thank you for these tutorials, you are the only one I could find that is covering HDR. Do you have a way to show HDR-photos on a (OLED) TV? At the moment the only way is to connect a laptop through HDMI and showing it in Lightroom or Bridge. Are there any other ways? Thank you!

[ashvarma]

Great explanation video. Many thanks. May I ask a very basic question: how would handle printing an image that has been processed using the new HDR?

[dickblom]

Hi Gregg, Thanks for the 'Fog lifting' ! In the end of the video you say 'click on the next video' .Is that the 'Lightroom now supports ' from 9 months ago or the one ' HDR (greater dynamic range) update 6 days ago ? Thanks.

[DamienJKennedyPhotography]

Thanks Greg, any recommendations for a true hdr monitor in 4K?

[TheOneLin]

What happend to the lights under the benches in the 'new' HDR?

[PaulMcElligott]

I don't think of "old" and "new" HDR as different versions of the same thing. "Old" HDR was a trick to squeeze more dynamic range out of the limitations of cameras in the mid-to-late 2000s. I've found, more often than not, that one exposure out of my three bracketed exposures has all the dynamic range I need, and this with a Canon Digital Rebel back in about 2010, so it's increasingly useless to me, especially with newer cameras. Occasionally fun, but useless.

"New" HDR is just using the capabilities of modern displays to unlock what our camera has always captured. I just wish the technology was more standardized.

[vo.images]

Do you usually margin into HDR in Lightroom or Photomatix Pro, what is your preference?

[davidturner]

New HDR feels like the first time that camera and display technologies are finally growing beyond their deep roots in film photography. We are embracing a format for display (and capture and edit) that film and paper cannot achieve due to hard, physical limits. The ultimate limiting factor will always be biology, our eyes. Nevertheless, new HDR brings us closer to that insurmountable limit. It might be a marginal gain, but pushing the margins even a little bit provides the space for new things.

[CSGPhotos]

Will Capture One support "New HDR?"

[bk]

So I've got a great HDR Display and I edit my image in HDR... now what? I certainly can't print it. And I can't share it, as most people I know have SDR Displays. I think HDR is phenomenal, love it for movies and gaming, but for me at least, it's still pretty far off before I'll be using it for editing my photos.

[jensvielmann]

1. Watched it on an old TV. That probably doesn’t even cover the SDR range. And I still could see the difference between those images in tonal range… if it would just be about compressing information into the smaller range, I shouldn’t have seen any difference. So what gives.
2. In the past before all that, I got the best results with 32 bit hdr s in photoshop processed in ACR. Sometimes 2 or 3 times. One processed for highlights, one for shadows etc. and then blending them in PS.
(Nowadays, with the added masking capabilities in ACR maybe even one processing would be sufficient.
3. Maybe I am getting old… but until I see an HDR Monitor at my parents and on every desktop in the office… I think it’s interesting but not the time for it, yet…