HDR demo Gallery
What is this?
High Dynamic Range (HDR) is an extension of the normal limited color range of 8-bits-per-channel standard dynamic range (SDR.) At 10-bits per channel, HDR pixels contain more color information that can actually define the luminosity of a color aside from its RGB values. For screens that are capable of displaying this luminosity data, the images on this page will have have an extended, realistic brightness and contrast that will almost appear as if it’s separated from everything else.
How to see HDR AVIF images:
First and foremost you need a screen, (monitor, laptop screen, TV, or mobile device,) capable of displaying HDR10, and you MUST be using Chrome as your web browser. It’s one of the few that (as of 2023) supports AVIF images and can display rec.2020 color profile. You should have Windows 11 with HDR enabled for an HDR screen, Android with a phone screen rated for HDR (Pixel Pro, Samsung Galaxy Ultra, etc), or MacOS 15+.
Apple XDR users:
- Theses images were mixed on an M1/M2 Macbook Pro XDR Screen. If you also have one of these Macbook Pros, or the Apple Pro XDR Display, you’re set.
- For Apple XDR users, Set your screen brightness to between 40-50% brightness to see 1000-nit art. The images will crush and look flatter at 100% brightness.
Windows/Android users:
- If you’re using an LCD-based HDR screen, it MUST have full array backlight dimming capabilities. The most backlight zones, the better. Without a Full Array Backlight, the screen won’t be able to selectively make specific areas of the images brighter, and it will probably look a bit bland.
- If these 1000nit images look too bright/blown out, check the calibration of your system’s HDR range for proper toning, or your screen simply may not have the capability to hit those peak levels.
- If the HDR images look flat or washed out with clipped bright values, then your screen has HDR disabled, you’re not running the latest version of Chrome, or does not support HDR at all.
iOS (iPhone / iPad) users:
- iOS and iPad OS do not currently support AVIF, but apparently will soon.
how it should relatively look if HDR is working on your display
if HDR is working, this gradient should appear MUCH brighter than the webpage surrounding it. If the gradient clips to white half-way up, then your screen either has very limited HDR capability (sub-500 nit peak) or needs to be calibrated.
SDR (JPEG)
500nit HDR (AVIF)
1000nit HDR (AVIF)
How were these made?
As of Photoshop 2023, HDR color display is supported for live-editing 32-bit images, along with Adobe Camera Raw v15, HDR processing is supported and can export as HDR-supporting files such as AVIF and JPEGXL (JXL.) With HDR color display enabled, I reopened the PSD’s for these artworks, upscaled to 32-bit color, and remixed every layer to have luminance values. Therefore, these are full HDR reconstructions of these artworks, and not just a filter pass on the final flat art. In their raw live form, these PSD’s are around 2-3 GB each.