Greg Benz Photography

ISO gain maps: sharing HDR photos is about to get much easier

HDR photography offers incredible improvements in image quality and support has come a long way in just a couple short years. We have a great range of editing software (all versions of Lightroom, Adobe Camera RAW, Photoshop, Affinity, Pixelmator Pro, etc). Most people have at least one HDR-capable display, considering smart phones and TVs – not to mention the majority Apple laptops / displays and a growing range of PC laptop and external monitor options (including a very budget-friendly monitor). We even have a good degree of support on Instagram and Threads (see here for more details). And “gain maps” allow us to share HDR images that look incredible on any monitor (even if it has limited or no HDR support at all).

However, we’ve had ongoing challenges in distribution. While there is fairly significant support for creating and viewing HDR photos (much more than most people realize), the key bottleneck has been distribution. For example, you can capture and upload an HDR photo to Instagram on an iPhone, you cannot upload that same image on an Android phone and vice versa. And uploading an edited image has been a problem too.

The reason for these challenges is because we have not had a single standard for “gain maps”, which are the key technology that let us safely share HDR images with anyone. Apple, Adobe, and Google (Android) have all used somewhat different mechanisms for encoding gain maps. They are all conceptually similar, but the differences have created technical issues. Additionally, these multiple formats create a burden for any website or app which wants to support HDR, as it significantly increases the development effort and risk of bugs. Thankfully, we now have an official standard for gain maps: ISO 21496-1.

 

Benefits of ISO 21496-1 gain maps:

This official standard is likely to have numerous benefits:

• HDR support will likely increase significantly in the coming year. This may be nearly automatic in some cases as important backend tools / libraries add support (for example, support in the WordPress media library will likely come from ongoing updates to a piece of software called ImageMagick). And even developers who do not use such libraries should be more motivated given significantly less development effort.
• This greater simplicity and increased support will likely be an important catalyst for adoption of HDR, in turn spurring a virtuous cycle of increased content creation and greater support.
• It should get much easier to share HDR on existing platforms (such as Instagram / Threads). The pain of figuring out which format works on which platform/device should start to go away.
• HDR image quality may improve further on existing platforms. This is not so much because the format is better, but rather because there are some cases where compromises are used due to format conflicts or lack of support on a specific operating system. This should allow improved image quality on iPhones in particular.

 

Support for ISO 21496-1 gain maps:

The ISO standard is already at a very mature stage and is rapidly gaining support, including:

• Web Sharp Pro (WSP) v6
  • WSP creates the most compatible HDR files possible. They offer the highest quality HDR possible, while remaining 100% compatible on any system (they’d work even in a 30-year old web browser). The JPG gain maps are dual encoded with both ISO and Android XMP, which offers the greatest HDR support possible both now and into the future.
  • The gain maps are supported as HDR by Instagram and Threads.
  • WSP offers full control of the base SDR image, which offers vastly higher quality on SDR or limited HDR displays.
  • WSP’s “enhance SDR to HDR” allows you to optimize your image for print and at the same time offer an optimized image which will stand out on Instagram. The SDR base image in the gain map will match your original edit exactly. Everyone gets a great result, regardless of HDR support. And you don’t even need an HDR monitor to create these HDR images for social media.
• Adobe Lightroom (Classic v14, Cloud v8, Mobile v10 apps) and Adobe Camera RAW v17, which were all just released in Oct 2024.
  • All versions support JPG gain maps, which is the format you should use currently. If you see options for “HDR output” or “maximize compatibility”, you should make sure they are checked (if you do not see an option, it is effectively enabled).
  • There is also quite a bit of ISO gain map support for other formats, but this seems to vary at this point based on the version of Lightroom used.
    • In LRC / ACR: ISO gain maps are created when you export with “HDR output” and “maximize compatibility” checked. This includes the JPG, AVIF, JXL, and TIF formats.
    • In LR mobile (iOS / Android), gain maps are created when you use the “export as” option with “HDR output” enabled under “more options” and use JPG or AVIF (there is no explicit “maximize compatibility” option). Other file formats do not appear to support gain maps (JXL, TIF, and DNG will export simple HDR images without a gain map).
    • In LR (cloud), gain maps are created when you export an HDR image as a JPG. Other file formats do not appear to support gain maps (AVIF, JXL, TIF, and DNG will export simple HDR images without a gain map).
  • Note that the Adobe spec references additional file types (PNG, DNG and HEIF), but Lightroom does not appear to provide encoding support at this time. I presume the ISO spec would allow for these formats (Adobe’s new demo app already reports that HEIC images captured with iOS 18 are encoded with the ISO standard). These are relative niche formats (PNG might for example be used by governments / museums for lossless encoding), but it seems likely that many common image formats will get support for ISO gain maps.
• Adobe has updated their gain map resources:
  • Their support page references the ISO spec.
  • The Adobe Gain Map Demo app v17 (available on the same page) supports the ISO file types and will explicitly tell you which format is used via the optional text overlay (<ctrl/cmd>-I).
  • The support page also includes updated sample ISO gain map images in JPG, AVIF and JXL file formats.
• Chrome-based browsers (which includes Edge, Brave, and Opera).
  • These all support ISO JPG gain maps.
  • It also includes ongoing legacy support for the Adobe/Google specs (which is great for images you’ve already exported from Adobe software or captured with your Android phone).
  • Additionally, AVIF with ISO gain maps is
• Apple software (including MacOS Sequoia, iOS / iPadOS 18).
  • This includes ISO JPG gain map support for Photos, iMessage, Previews, QuickLook, and 3rd-party apps (ie developer APIs).
  • The latest native camera app also writes the ISO format when capturing in supported modes to JPG or HEIF.
  • Additionally, Apple continues to support the older Apple encoding for JPG / HEIC (which is great for images you’ve already captured with your iPhone / iPad).

I expect to update this list as support grows (or I learn of others, as I may easily be overlooking someone). Support is likely to expand significantly in the coming year.

 

Where do we need support for ISO 21496-1?:

Ultimately, it will be ideal to have support on nearly all software for ISO gain maps in the JPG and AVIF formats. There are a few key applications where support would be especially beneficial given the large number of devices which would benefit immediately:

• Apple Safari / WebKit.
  • As all iPhone / iPad browsers use WebKit, this is a critical update as we cannot yet see HDR images in HDR browsers on Apple’s mobile devices (the hardware is widely available, including any iPhone less than 4 years old).
  • No one has invested more in HDR computer displays than Apple and their recent software updates include considerable support for ISO gain maps. They have been clear leaders in the space and it would be amazing to see them unlock the full potential of their mobile devices.
• The support in Apple software needs a bit of work still. ISO gain maps appear to be treated as if they were simple 3-stop HDR images (ie the gain map is not used as expected), resulting in an inferior result to what you would see in Chrome. Additionally, iMessage is not working correctly yet as of Jan, 2025.
• Instagram / Threads / Facebook.
  • Meta (the parent company for all these platforms) has been an early adopter and champion for HDR photography, especially on Instagram.
  • We already have a good deal of support (I have posted dozens of SDR vs HDR comparison images on Instagram).
  • Adding ISO support should make it much easier to post (without the workarounds I’ve been using) and likely should further benefit quality in the iOS app (which does not currently use the full 3 stops of headroom on the phone).
  • There is likely significant work to transcode existing images and update support on multiple platforms (iPhone, Android, and web), so it may take some time.
• Open source libraries, which are critical to support in applications such as WordPress and probably most websites. The Google-backed open-source libultrahdr library supports ISO JPG and is an ideal way for other libraries to add support. See the developers section of my main HDR page for more info.

 

How does ISO 21496-1 compare to”legacy” gain map encodings?

The important thing to know is that the best format to use going forward is the ISO spec. However, this transition naturally raises questions about whether existing images can or should be converted to the ISO spec.

Time will tell how how many existing gain maps in “legacy” (Apple / Adobe / Android) formats are converted to ISO, but it seems likely that existing support will be retained for a very long time. So nothing should break, even if existing HDR image are not re-encoded in the ISO format. That said, you may benefit from re-encoding anything you’ve already shared. For example, Apple has not added support for the Adobe / Android spec, so re-exporting to ISO will give you greater HDR support on Apple devices.

All the various gain map encodings are conceptually very similar. It is even possible to dual-encode an image with both ISO and one of the XML formats (for example, Web Sharp Pro encodes with both ISO and Android XMP – along with some optimizations required for Instagram / Threads, which make it widely compatible with nearly all existing gain map decoders, as well as being future-proof).

However, there are differences which have resulted in the pain noted above. The differences include:

• The ISO spec is most similar to the Adobe / Android spec.
  • One very significant difference is that the metadata is now in the “codestream”, rather than in the XML.
  • This seems ideal to prevent confusion / mistakes that might result from unwanted alteration or retention of the data in subsequent edits. However, it likely means some significant development work to add support for any application which does not use an open source library or APIs built into the host operating system.
• The Adobe / Android specs are nearly identical (the Android spec adds a redundant “GContainer” header pointing to the auxiliary image).
  • The compatibility issues we have seen to stem more from Android decoders being written for single channel map data, resulting in Adobe images sometimes failure with software associated with the Android spec. But this has created issues where images exported from Adobe software did not work in some cases.
  • I would anticipate there is a very good chance that these images may be converted to the ISO format with no loss of quality, but cannot confirm at this time (I have not seen the ISO standard itself and am unaware of any transcoding tools which support such a conversion at this time).
• The Apple format is more unique. It is not fully documented, but has several unique metadata values.
  • I haven’t attempted to dig through their decoding example, so I am not sure if it is possible to losslessly transcode (convert) images previously captured with an iPhone to the ISO standard.
  • If the gain map “image” itself does not need to be re-encoded, it should be possible to do such a conversion with no loss of quality.

 

I would like to share a special thanks to the teams Apple, Adobe, and Google for consistently championing HDR photography, including gain maps. It is an industry-wide effort, and there are of course numerous other companies and individuals who have helped us get to this point. These collective efforts have unlocked an incredible new opportunity to share images which are vastly more realistic and lifelike than anything previously possible.

Great HDR requires a great SDR in the gain map

Modern HDR displays finally allow us to display with a dynamic range approaching what we saw in person. The vast majority of your audience on Instagram already has great support due to the capabilities of modern phones (85% of my audience reported seeing HDR support in my recent white square test). I hear from countless photographers every week who are starting to edit and share HDR images. But I see many of them making a mistake you can easily avoid: ignoring the experience others with a less capable display may have.

While most of your Instagram audience has HDR support, not everyone does. They might have an old phone, be in low power mode, or be viewing outside (where the brightness required for SDR will leave no headroom). And even if they have HDR support, most will have 1.5 – 3 stops of headroom. If you’re editing up to 4 stops (the limit for a MacBook Pro), they won’t see your full HDR either. Whether they have limited headroom or none at all, your image will be adapted to the capabilities of their display. If you create a proper gain map, you can ensure a great result by providing a high-quality base SDR image. But if you don’t consider the SDR, your viewer may see a very poor result.

Below, you’ll see why the base SDR matters, how to check your own images, and how you can easily ensure a great result for everyone.

 

The difference between good and bad SDR base images when posting HDR to Instagram:

I posted the same HDR image to Instagram using three difference approaches:

• custom HDR JPG gain map using Web Sharp Pro v6 (workflow #2) and uploaded via computer.
• HDR AVIF exported from Adobe Camera RAW and uploaded via iPhone. The SDR base image is auto-generated by (either by my iPhone or Instagram, I’m not sure but assume via iOS).
• HDR shared directly from Lightroom iOS mobile app (the Classic and Desktop versions have no similar direct sharing option). The SDR base image is auto-generated in this scenario (either by LR or IG, I assume LR – either way, it is not affected at all by the “preview for SDR display” settings in LR).

Note that Lightroom / Adobe Camera RAW support creation of JPG gain maps (see this tutorial). I have skipped them here because Instagram does not support them (these are valid HDR images, but Instagram supports only very specific encoding and the result is that the posted image will only show SDR).

Let’s first take a look at the SDR experience. The next three images are the result you will see when viewing the Instagram posts on an SDR display.

 

SDR results: Web Sharp Pro

With the custom gain map created by WSP, the SDR image is an exact match to the version I created from the HDR. This took about 30 seconds of work and ensures that the image looks great on any display, regardless of HDR support.

 

SDR results: AVIF

When posting the HDR-only AVIF, the SDR base image is automatically generated. As you can see, the result is low quality. The sky is over-saturated, far too dark (it providing light for the scene), and the water is low contrast and lacks detail. This is a serious concern for me as my source image uses 3.4 stops of HDR headroom. Most of my audience has HDR support, but most will have 1.5-3 stops of support. That means some portion of this bad SDR will be mixed with the full HDR when adapting to their screen. So even those with HDR support will see some loss of quality (with results being problematic at 2 stops or less of support).

Any time you share an HDR image on the web, it is critical that you share it with a gain map. A simple HDR-only AVIF will result in low-quality automatic tone mapping, and the results will vary from one browser to another. By the end of 2025, we should be able to share AVIF images encoded with a gain map – but you should definitely avoid sharing an AVIF without a gain map.

 

SDR results: LRM

When posting directly via the Lightroom mobile app, the result is unfortunately clipped at 2.23 stops of headroom. If you limit your edit to 2 stops of headroom, you should avoid this. However, even the global preview for SDR display controls are not used here. You have no control over the base SDR image. Additionally, the gain map is luminosity only. Adobe has done an incredible job with HDR support overall and I would expect these results will improve over time.

 

 

Impact on HDR results:

The results above show that it is critical to manage the SDR base image. If you were to compare the source HDR on a display with the 3.4 stops of headroom to avoid any tone mapping, you’d see that all three approaches are visually identical. However, that isn’t the case when the image is transcoding during the upload to Instagram. It turns out that the HDR results are significant different as well.

It is important to remember that a JPG gain map does not include an HDR image. It has an SDR base image and a pseudo image (the gain map). The HDR is generated by multiplying each base SDR pixel by the value encoded in the gain map. So if the base SDR is low quality, the HDR will likely be impacted. A low quality gain map will also reduce quality.

A gain map may be encoded at lower resolution than the base image, with 1/2 linear resolution being common for images encoded with a smart phone. This is done to minimize the size of the image, as the gain map obvious takes up some space. When the gain map is saved at low resolution, it will get resampled to full resolution to combine with the base image. The result is some loss of sharpness and clarity in highlights (as that’s where the gain map most likely deviates from the base image).

A gain map may also be encoded with a single channel (luminosity only) or three channels. A luminosity-only map cannot adapt color or saturation. This frequently causes issues with the color of highlights. A proper SDR often shows low saturation in the highlights (you can’t make a sunset bright without losing saturation in SDR). But an HDR does not have such constraints. If the image is encoded with a luminosity only-map, you may see an oversaturated SDR or an undersaturated HDR. And there can be other subtle hue corrections required when moving from SDR to HDR, and a color gain map can be very helpful there too.

Each of the images below are the actual HDR served from Instagram, with the extracted gain map shown beneath each image.

 

HDR results: Web Sharp Pro

With the custom gain map created by WSP, the result on Instagram is a very close match. The transcoding done by IG is imperfect, and there is some minor loss of saturation in the sky. It’s trivial and overall a great result. The gain map is full resolution and includes color information, which allows the highest quality.

There is some JPG artifact and loss of detail in the transcoded result, but it’s similar to what you would see with any image on Instagram (not an HDR-specific concern).

 

HDR results: AVIF

The HDR AVIF is also a pretty good match for tone and color to the original. The sky is slightly oversaturated in this case. I would rate the result from Web Sharp Pro as slightly better in that regard, but they’re both close.

However, there are other concerns here. There is significantly more loss of detail than the result from WSP. The issue is that the final result from WSP has a full resolution gain map, while the auto-generated map from the AVIF is at 1/2 resolution.

The gain map itself is luminosity only. This helps explain the significantly over-saturated base SDR, as the only way to get the HDR color is to put it into the base image when using a luminosity-only map. Still, it’s a curious result as the HDR is over-saturated and both would be improved with a less saturated base image. But that is the nature of automatic tone mapping or auto-generated base images, they will often be disappointing.

 

HDR results: LRM

The HDR shared from LRM is clipped at 2.23 stops. At this time, you should clearly limit your edits to 2 stops if sharing directly from LRM.

While LRM offers controls for the SDR (“preview for SDR display”), that is not used for the direct sharing to Instagram at this time. Additionally, the gain map is also 1/2 resolution and luminosity only.

Those limits do not apply when saving from LRM to a local JPG gain map, but the encoding of that image will likely be rejected by Instagram (resulting in loss of HDR).

 

How to check for issues when sharing HDR:

The most important lesson here is to soft proof your results. You can (and should) check the image you create on your computer. But it’s also critical (at least when first using any new service) to also check the final result after you upload your image. As you can see above, there are many ways your image may be altered when transcoding during upload. This isn’t a problem if you directly share the image on your own website (but be careful with any media libraries, which might also transcode).

There are several ways to check your results:

• You can open your image in Adobe Camera RAW and turn HDR mode on and off to see the SDR and HDR results.
• You can also use the Adobe Gain Map demo app to soft proof at various levels of HDR support (use the manual slider on the right side).
• You can view the image in an HDR-capable browser like Chrome and compare to FireFox (which lacks HDR photo support at this time).
• You can disable HDR support in your display or use another device which lacks HDR support.

If you upload via an app on your phone, be aware that local caching may mean that you are seeing your local copy and not the actual result that was uploaded. It is best to check on a computer or another device when uploading from a phone.

While there is a lot of detail here, this is all very easy once you know what works. Most of my HDR images need only 30 seconds of work to optimize. This is very easy to do and well worth the minimal effort required.

 

How to ensure everyone sees a great result, regardless of HDR support:

As you’ve seen above, it is critical that you as an artist provide input into the SDR base image. Even if every device had HDR support, we’d still face scenarios where a phone is used outside or in low power mode. A proper gain map ensures your image looks great everywhere.

There are a few ways to control the SDR result:

• Web Sharp Pro v6 puts you in full control.
  • The SDR and HDR results are completely predictable and completely in your control. You can optimize the SDR any way you like (see workflows #2 and #3).
  • If you wish to edit for print, you can automatically create an enhanced HDR and know that the base image will exactly match your SDR edit (see workflow #1).
• Lightroom and ACR offer the “preview for SDR display” sliders.
  • These gives you predictable results and a better SDR than any automatic result. However, this only gives you 7 global sliders and no local control to optimize the result.
• All versions of Lightroom / ACR can export JPG with a gain map (check the “HDR output” option).
  • While Instagram will not accept these images, you can post them to your own website (on a WordPress site like mine, just use the “full” size option in the media library).
  • The “preview for SDR display” sliders give you control of global tone mapping. Web Sharp Pro offers much more control over the SDR, but this is still a good (and predictable) option for those who don’t use Photoshop.

Avoid any export process where you do not create a gain map with at least some artistic control over the fallback SDR image.

Here’s the workflow to create the final version of the image above (see the Web Sharp Pro v6 announcement for two other workflows to give you flexibility for any scenario).

 

Errata: exceptions around gain maps

The gain map spec is very clear and should provide perfect results every time (even when gain maps aren’t supported, as the JPG will fall back to the base SDR image). However, there are a couple of cases where the results may vary from what is expected:

• The Instagram iOS app does not currently share your image as a gain map (this does not apply to Android or computers).
  • It will share a simple 3-stop HDR and tone map from there as needed, or it may share the base SDR if there is no support.
  • This is a very minor concern as most viewers will have 1.5 to 3 stops of headroom. For a small percentage of users, the results are not optimal.
  • Instagram has been rapidly improving their results and I would expect that this relatively rare edge case gets resolved in due time. The upcoming ISO standard for gain maps should help address device specific concerns like this.
  • The benefit of and support for HDR already greatly outweighs this concern. I primarily mention it in case you encounter it while testing an iPhone.
• Apple’s new support for ISO gain maps actually renders the image as a 3-stop HDR and tone maps as needed
  • You may see it when using Apple Photos, iMessage, Preview, Quick Look, or apps using Apple APIs.
  • It has no impact on Safari as it just renders the base SDR image (no HDR photo support at this time).
  • This has no impact on Chrome, Brave, Edge, Opera, Lightroom, ACR, Photoshop, etc.
  • Given Apple has great HDR support on most devices, the impact is limited even where it is applicable.
  • Apple’s support is very new and hopefully this is improved with future software updates. The current behavior is not consistent with expected results for a gain map and I therefore consider this a bug (though it might be more of a deliberate decision to reduce memory consumption by holding a single image rather than two in memory, and it may have some performance benefits – though I see the same results even when a device is not running on battery power).

So neither of these are any cause for concern for photographers, but represent opportunities for ongoing improvement in support for HDR. They may even be resolved by the time you read this, this is a rapidly evolving space.

Web Sharp Pro v6 adds significant new capabilities for sharing HDR photos

I’m happy to announce the launch of Web Sharp Pro (WSP) v6, which is another free update for all existing customers. This launch is a bit unique as I have been quietly adding these features to “v5” for a while to help get some feedback and expanded testing before I had everything ready. The key theme in v6 are new capabilities for sharing HDR photos, which allow you to show much more lifelike images using the full dynamic range captured in your RAW files. I’ve been hard at work on these capabilities for close to two years and am excited to finally start sharing more about them.

Web Sharp Pro v6 adds the following new capabilities:

• Share any HDR photo to Instagram in the highest quality possible.
  • This offers an easy way to show your HDR images to a large audience, as most people view Instagram on an HDR capable smart phone.
  • I am not aware of any other way to achieve this at this time. Instagram current supports only a subset of valid HDR gain maps and Web Sharp Pro is designed to specifically encode images for success on Instagram. And while you can share simple HDR images in some cases to Instagram, the SDR base image is auto-generated – which means you may see a good HDR result, but those with a limited SDR display will have a poor experience (even HDR-capable phones may show SDR in low power mode, when viewed outdoors, etc – so it is very important to ensure a high quality SDR base image).
• Export any image as an HDR JPG gain map, which allows you to share your images in the highest possible quality (even if the viewer does not have an HDR display).
  • You are in complete control and can completely customize the base SDR image any way you like.
  • See this post to see a proper gain map significantly improves the experience for all viewers
  • There are no limits on what is possible, and there are three key workflows to suit your needs (videos below).
    • Workflow #1: Export from an SDR source image using WSP’s “enhance SDR to HDR” option. The SDR version in the gain will be identical to your original source image. This is ideal if you wish to use a standard editing workflow, print your work (in addition to sharing as HDR), or upgrade an existing edit.
    • Workflow #2: Export from an HDR source image. When you do this, WSP will invoke ACR to help generate the SDR image. Rather than using just the “preview for SDR display”, this gives you access to every tool in ACR (sky masks, local brushes, every single slider, etc). This allows you to create the highest quality HDR edit and at the same time create a very high quality fallback SDR image with minimal effort, to ensure everyone see’s a great result.
    • Workflow #3: You may provide both the SDR and HDR version of your image to be encoded in the gain map. This gives you 100% control over both the SDR and HDR version of your image.
• Support for ISO 21496-1 gain maps, as well as dual encoding for legacy XMP gain maps.
  • This means that the images have the maximum compatibility possible for both today and the future.
  • The images are already shown with the benefit of HDR in most web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera), in Adobe software, Apple software (iMessage, Photos app, Preview, Quick Look), Instagram, and effectively any software or website which adds HDR support in the future.
  • And of course, they safely display as your SDR base image anywhere HDR or gain maps are not support. These images are 100% safe to use anywhere.
• View your HDR images on a TV as a slideshow. This is not otherwise possible with AppleTV, AirPlay, ChromeCast, etc – as those services do not yet support HDR photos. (video below)
• Create generic masks (via the top-right flyout menu). This allows you to create a single mask to customize where you apply enhance SDR to HDR, sharpen, or add grain. This allows you to generate multiple different exports or re-export in the future and automatically re-use your customization.
• You may now hide the crop overlays button in order to show up to 6 custom preset buttons. Since the WSP v5, there is no longer any need to use crop overlays for almost any reason. The quick export templates are simpler and easier to use. Go to the top-right flyout menu in the panel and turn off “Show crop overlay options”.

Note that support for gain maps includes Windows and Apple Silicon. Support for that export does not currently include Intel-based Macs (ie those >4 years old), but you may still export an HDR AVIF.

 

How to share any image as HDR on Instagram:

This first demo shows workflow #1, where you can upgrade an existing SDR source image to HDR. This offers a very simple way to support both print and HDR. It’s also great for images you have already edited, working with familiar SDR editing workflows, enhancing images you’ve created with AI tools or downloaded from stock image sites.

When you use this workflow, the gain map will use your original SDR as the base image. This means no loss of image quality! If you were to manually upgrade your image to HDR and export as a gain map through some other approach, your SDR base image would not match the original and would likely look inferior to your original edit to anyone viewing on a a limited display.

This demo is recorded on a standard (SDR) monitor to also show that you can take advantage of HDR on Instagram even if you do not yet have an HDR monitor.

Be sure to use the exact workflow as shown, as there are several ways you may lose HDR on Instagram (IG). To ensure successful HDR on Instagram, just make sure you do the following:

• Select any “Instagram” template in Web Sharp Pro.
  • IG does not accept all valid HDR encodings (which is why many otherwise valid HDR images will be converted to SDR).
  • When you use one of the “Instagram templates, WSP will use special encoding designed to meet IG’s requirements to successfully show as HDR.
• Use the new “JPG (w/gain map)” HDR format in WSP settings.
• Upload from a computer web browser (or Android phone).
  • Do NOT upload from an iPhone. Even if you get an HDR result, the SDR base image will be auto-generated and the result is much lower quality for anyone viewing on a limited display.
  • It is likely that ISO gain maps eventually allow great results when uploading from an iPhone, but the current mix of support on different platforms impacts the quality of transcoding during upload from an iPhone
  • Note that this is just a concern for uploading, most iPhone users will automatically see your image as HDR once successfully uploaded from a computer.
• While uploading to IG, always change from the default 1:1 crop to “original“.
  • If you allow any cropping, you will almost certainly lose HDR in the uploaded image.

For more information on IG, please see Instagram now supports photos and click the “tutorials” button in WSP to review the IG and HDR sections.

 

How to export your HDR with full control of the base SDR image (workflow #2):

With workflow #2, you provide an HDR image as the source. During export, Web Sharp Pro will let you interactively generate the SDR base image with the full capabilities of Adobe Camera RAW (ACR). This includes the use of any slider, local masks, etc. It’s a very quick and easy way to generate a high quality SDR fallback for viewers with limited displays. This is a great workflow for creating the highest quality HDR from your RAW images, with a quick and easy way to ensure a great SDR base image.

See the note below on RAW HDR Smart Objects, as you’ll be prompted with assistance to use workflow #3 for better / simpler results.

 

How to fully control the base SDR image in your gain map (workflow #3):

With workflow #3, you provide an image which includes both your HDR and preferred SDR image in your source image. This gives you 100% control over the base image using any tool you like. Web Sharp Pro will create a gain map where the HDR is based on your 32-bit image (as it appears at the time of export). You would provide the SDR base image as content in the bottom layer or group of your image, and just name the bottom layer/group “SDR” to signal to Web Sharp Pro to use that content as the base SDR image (rather than invoking workflow #2 / ACR).

You might use this workflow for several different reasons:

• To manage the edits in Lightroom: Do a full HDR edit in Lightroom, create a virtual copy to create an SDR version, then open both as layers in Photoshop, put the SDR on the bottom layer (with the name being “SDR”).
• To customize your own SDR to HDR upgrade (ie, instead of using workflow #1 with Web Sharp Pro’s automated approach).
• To tone map an HDR to SDR with tools not available in ACR.

See how to set up custom buttons to quickly export from WSP with your favorite settings for Instagram, Threads, etc. Additionally, you can hide the “crop overlays” button via top-right flyout menu (4 bars icon) in the v6 panel. When you hide the old overlays option (which are no longer needed), you can show up to 6 custom buttons.

If you start from a single-layer RAW Smart Object edited for HDR (ie 32-bits), you are set up for workflow #2, but can get better results with workflow #3 by creating the SDR from the RAW. Web Sharp Pro will detect this and offer to help quickly set up workflow #3 (it will duplicate the RAW layer, move/rename it, and invoke ACR so you can create the SDR version at the highest quality from the RAW). This option is relevant for RAW images opened as smart objects from Lightroom Classic or ACR, but not Lightroom Desktop. When you open a smart object from Lightroom Desktop, it’s current design effectively sends a rasterized TIF as a smart object – it is not RAW and therefore you wouldn’t be prompted for that option. This is therefore mostly applicable to those using ACR (if you use LR Classic, a virtual copy for the SDR may be ideal as you won’t need to save any layered TIF when you can just open the same SDR + HDR layers again).

 

Which HDR export workflow should you use?

There are great reasons to consider all three workflows, and it may be optimal for you to use a mix of them. For the sake of learning, I recommend starting with workflow #1. This requires no knowledge of how to edit an HDR image and is an easy way to get started.

Beyond that, I believe the best workflows depend on your needs:

• Workflow #1 (SDR source)
  • Supporting both print and HDR. The vast majority of the HDR images I have shared were created from SDR images as I have printed a large range of my work for clients or myself.
  • Ideal for Beginners (ie just learn the export workflow with no need to learn any HDR editing workflows)
  • Ideal for those with no HDR monitor (you can easily upgrade your images for sharing on Instagram / Threads, a computer monitor becomes more important for workflows 2 and 3 when you do an original HDR edit from the RAW).
  • Upgrading existing SDR images (such as your older edits or AI-generated images)
• Workflow #2 (HDR source)
  • Optimizing for HDR. The highest quality HDR results typically come from doing the original RAW edit in LR / ACR using HDR mode.
  • This is a great option for those using Lightroom Desktop. Just open your HDR image into Photoshop.
  • This is also a great starting point if using ACR. Just open your image as a RAW smart object (hold shift as when clicking “open” in ACR), WSP will offer to duplicate that RAW layer to set up workflow #3.
• Workflow #3 (HDR + SDR)
  • This is my favorite workflow for full control when I edit the original workflow to HDR, and it is very quick and easy once you learn it.
  • Ideal for working with Lightroom Classic. Just create an HDR edit, then make a virtual copy of it and edit for SDR, then select both to right click and “Edit in / Open as smart object layers in Photoshop”.
  • Ideal for full control of both the SDR and HDR renditions, using any editing tool you like.
  • Ideal for manually enhancing SDR to HDR.

All of these approaches can be quite fast and easy. Workflow #1 is the simplest. Most of the HDR images I share use this workflow and it typically takes me about 30 seconds to generate and export the HDR. Workflow #2 is also quite fast and easy. Workflow #3 can be fast or much more involved, depending on what you want to do.

 

What limitations are there for gain maps?

Web Sharp Pro is optimized to allow you to create any edit you like with optimal SDR and HDR results. You can do pretty much anything with a photograph. However, there are some limits which could apply if you make a significant mistake using workflow #3.

It is important to remember that a gain map is not two separate images. That would require an image twice as large as normal. In practice, a gain map tends to only be about 30% larger than a simple SDR image. This is achieved by including a base image and a second image which is used to apply a multiplier to each pixel to generate the alternate image. For a JPG gain map, the base image is always SDR. That means that the SDR version of your gain map will always match your SDR source.

However, there are mathematical limits to what is possible for the alternate (HDR) version. For example, if an SDR pixel is nearly black, then you will not be able to create a bright HDR pixel. And while it is possible for the HDR pixel to be darker than the SDR, encoding for that is generally limited (due to the risk of quality issues it can create). Neither of these scenarios should affect any proper SDR + HDR edit of the same image. However, if you were to accidentally or deliberately make one of the images significantly different than the other, the result may be a strange HDR with ghosting from the SDR or other artifacts. Watch out for misalignment of pixels if you are creating separate SDR and HDR edits, that would create a high risk of issues for the final gain map.

 

Create an HDR slideshow to show on your big-screen TV:

Most of us have a gorgeous HDR display right at home. Your TV likely supports HDR and you can use Web Sharp Pro to make a slideshow for it. Just export your images (ideally using fixed height and 2160 pixels to target 4K), then go to the top-right flyout menu in WSP for the new “create HTML slideshow” feature. Just open the new HTML file in an HDR-capable browser like Chrome. When you connect your computer to your TV over HDMI, be sure to enable high dynamic range in the MacOS / Windows display settings. See my e-book for more details on how to set up your TV to show HDR.

If you export as index.html, you can copy the whole folder to your website and just point the browser to that folder to show in a browser. As shown in the video, you can even customize the timing and order of images if you’re comfortable editing HTML.

 

Thanks and acknowledgement

There are a large number of people who have contributed to the overall HDR ecosystem which makes this all possible. I’d like to thank the numerous customers of mine who help beta test or otherwise provide great product input. I’d like to say a special thanks in particular to Adobe, Apple, Google, and Meta for their extensive contributions to HDR in software, operating system capabilities, display hardware, mechanisms for sharing images, and open standards. And the countless other companies and individuals who have contributed in numerous ways to help upgrade every aspect of the ecosystem required to support the future of electronic image display.

The latest HDR trends at CES 2025

I just got back from a couple of exciting days at CES 2025. If you aren’t familiar with the Consumer Electronics Show, it is one of the largest trade shows in the world and is where new monitors and TV are often announced. So it’s a great way to get some first-hand experience with a variety of displays you won’t necessarily find at your local retailer. I’ve been attending the past couple of years to help learn more about the various HDR (high dynamic range) displays on the market.

The trends continue to look very good for the future of HDR photography. There were several notable new technologies and products on display, including much brighter OLED, wider gamuts (covering most of Rec 2020), and an expanded range of options. With these changes and recent price drops, I’ve updated my list recommended HDR monitors. page.

Before we get to the details, it’s probably helpful to provide some background. There is an old type of “HDR” (tone mapping) which is generally hated by photographers, and there is a newer “HDR” which is absolutely amazing because it’s supported by new hardware(same name, completely unrelated technologies). These new HDR displays are already widely supported in TVs, smart phones, Apple laptops, and a variety of other monitors. What makes them so special is that they are able to achieve truly greater dynamic range by increasing peak brightness while keeping blacks very dark. So while a standard display can only show 8 of the 14 stops of dynamic range from your RAW files, an HDR display can often show 12. It’s a completely different experience. And at the same time, color gamut is often much better (often covering most of P3 and a significant portion of the much larger Rec 2020 color space). This means gorgeous sunsets which are both bright and colorful, city lights that glow, etc. These images are much more natural as they no longer need to be compressed into the limited tonal range of old monitors.

These new HDR displays are enabled by one of two key technologies. OLED lights each pixel individually and therefore offers perfect blacks, but increasing brightness has been a bit challenging until recently. Mini-LED offers very bright pixels, but cannot achieve perfect blacks as multiple pixels share the same backlight. The shortcomings of both technologies have been quickly getting resolved and we are moving towards a world where both offer excellent HDR (with OLED being ideal for dark environments and mini-LED being ideal for brighter rooms).

 

Brighter OLED (multi-layer / stacked OLED)

Last year’s CES highlighted some transparent OLEDs. You can literally see through it anywhere the pixels are not lit. It’s gorgeous, and feels like a novelty that won’t get used this way outside of perhaps some fancy office lobby, a car windshield, or other niche applications. But a transparent OLED is incredibly useful in less obvious ways.

The 2024 M4 iPad Pro introduced a new type of OLED display which Apple calls “tandem OLED”. In a design like this, you can stack transparent OLED layers. This allows the display to get much brighter, while having similar or better lifespan (ie avoiding burn-in). The M4 Pro iPad is one of the most gorgeous consumer HDR displays I have ever seen, out of hundreds I have experienced. The benefit is immense: you get the perfect blacks of an OLED and brightness that keeps up with mini-LED. Of course, there is increased cost associated with a more complex design like this. That naturally raises questions as whether it will become widely adopted.

The 2025 LG G5 TV offers some very encouraging news as it apparently uses a 4-layer WOLED design (LG calls this “Brightness Booster Ultimate”). Official specs and details will be available later in the year, but this display apparently offers close to 4,000 nits peak brightness (LG has noted a 40% increase in full screen brightness vs last year’s G4). This design is replacing MLA (multi-lens array) to achieve high brightness. It will be very interesting to see how it performs in tests for actual peak brightness after calibration, as well as color gamut.

LG had a G5 in their booth. Unfortunately, the demo content made it hard to evaluate. It seemed that someone wanted to shows off the brightness, and didn’t care about retaining highlight detail. It is certainly bright, no question about it. I have no doubt this TV will offer both high brightness and image quality, but I was unable to appreciate it at the booth.

LG not only sells TVs, it also supplies OLED panels to other manufacturers. Apparently Panasonic uses this same new 4-layer panel, and rumors suggest that Sony’s anticipated A95L replacement this year will use it as well. While these are all premium TVs, that helps put a lot of volume behind multi-layer OLED and that’s likely to be very helpful to bring down the cost of this exciting technology. From what I’ve seen in the M4 Pro iPad, this technology would be very exciting should it be released for computer monitors.

Samsung also unveiled a brighter QD-OLED, the S95F. I did not get a chance to see it, but apparently it uses a more efficient backlight to help achieve higher peak brightness without increasing power consumption. It also uses a 2nd generation anti-glare screen.

If I had to guess, I’d expect the LG panel achieves somewhat higher peak brightness and the Samsung may excel in color gamut. But those differences will likely be small. All of these are will be excellent TVs and help push the boundaries of HDR OLED technology.

 

Ultra-wide gamut mini-LED (TriChroma RGB backlight)

You may not yet know Hisense, but they are a massive Chinese TV maker whose share of the global market is increasing quickly. They announced a new “RGB local dimming technology” for their new 116″ mini-LED TV (116UX). Other mini-LEDs use a single backlight and filters to achieve red, green, and blue sub-pixels. This new “TriChroma” backlight actually generates red, green, and blue light. As a result, Hisense claims they can achieve an astonishing 97% coverage of the Rec2020 colorspace. That’s a level pretty much unheard of outside of laser projectors, and the RGB backlight technology makes this claim pretty credible. Even if overstated, this appears to be quite an accomplishment.

It will be interesting to see how this technology truly performs and whether it may be scaled down to small screens. With mini-LED, there is always some degree of blooming where dark pixels leak some of the light used to illuminate neighboring pixels. With a colored backlight, there is risk of color blooming (cross-talk). This could cause some local color inaccuracy, particularly around bright, saturated objects. I inspected the demo at CES quite closely and didn’t have any concerns, but a darker environment and still content might make it more apparent if there is an issue. It seemed very promising, but I will be very interested to see if this technology can be scale down to smaller and lower cost displays. I don’t expect to see it in a computer monitor anytime soon, but it’s an interesting technology to watch.

 

What about micro-LED TVs?

Like last year, there were some micro-LED displays at the show. They remain absurdly expensive (around $130k for a 100″ TV). They also do not scale well for smaller displays (each pixel is a discrete set of electronics and it is hard to make it small). It’s unlikely you’ll own one in the next 5 years. At the rate that OLED and mini-LED improving, I’m not sure if these will ever see much adoption. We’d need major breakthroughs in manufacturing to compete with the cost structure of OLED. Micro-LED might be best suited for things like outdoor signs at sporting events.

Nevertheless, micro-LED is awesome to behold in person. It shows what a 10,000 nit display with perfect blacks can offer. So while these may not show up in your home, they make it clear that there will be ongoing demand for improved performance to keep driving the other technologies forward for some time.

 

Expanded HDR monitor options

CES is much more of a TV show, but there were several interesting new HDR computer monitors:

• ASUS PG27UCDM (preorders start Jan 21, pricing TBD – for reference, its larger 32″ sibling is $1200)
  • 27″ 4K OLED with a peak brightness of 1000 nits
  • I spent a good amount of time with this display in the ASUS booth. It shows very good color accuracy and HDR performance when set to its limited 400 nits mode. Unfortunately, all the other 1000 nit modes (including all DolbyVision modes) show very poor image quality. The hardware is clearly very capable and I was viewing a pre-production model. I would expect a firmware update could easily address this and hopefully that’s the case by the time it launches. It was impressive in the limited mode and I suspect it could offer even more with some software tweaks.
  • If you see color issues, go to the on screen menu / Image / HDR Setting and choose “DisplayHDR 400 True Black mode”
• Asus ProArt PA32QCV (price / launch date TBD)
  • 32″ 6K certified to DisplayHDR 600
  • This is the same 218 PPI I have on my Pro Display XDR and find it to be ideal for offering both high resolution and making it easy to review critical sharpness in images intended for print.
  • The ProArt line offers the ability to calibrate for HDR in the hardware, which is very beneficial.
• Dell 32 Plus S3225QC (worldwide launch May 22, $800)
  • 32″ 4K QD-OLED apparently offering HDR True Black 400 support for $800
  • While I recommend 600nits+ for OLED, this should offer ~2 stops of HDR headroom and it is notable to see companies like Dell offering displays targeting creatives (most OLEDs in this price range have typically targeted gaming, which tends to prioritize frame rates over color accuracy).
• Dell Pro 14 Premium laptop
  • This laptop will offer an optional 2.8K OLED using a tandem OLED.
  • Unlike Apple (which uses tandem ultra to achieve 1600 nits), Dell appears to be using the technology for energy savings.
  • I suspect it may peak around 400 nits from what I’ve read. Even if that is the case, this would offer real HDR benefit and is another example of expanding use of multi-layer OLED, which is likely to be beneficial for HDR cost and capability as the trend expands.
• There were several other updates to gaming monitors. This continues the trends towards higher frame rates for gamers, but also likely helps continue to bring down the cost of entry-level HDR.

 

What do all these TV technologies mean for photography? Where are the 4,000 nit monitors?

The brightness, dynamic range, gamut, and pricing of TVs these days is very impressive. You can already get an excellent 1150 nits OLED HDR experience in Lightroom, Photoshop, etc for under $900 with a 42″ LG C4 TV. That’s up to 4 stops of HDR headroom under controlled lighting. Of course, many people will prefer the size of a 27-32″ display and the familiarity of monitor controls. So can we expect similarly excellent performance and cost in a computer monitor soon?

The trends are clearly moving towards bright OLED / mini-LED everywhere. Most TVs, smart phones, and Apple MacBook Pro are already there. The trend is clearly towards nearly universal support of HDR with increased performance and decreased cost. It’s really a question of how quickly we’ll get there. There are some important differences between the TV and monitor markets. There is a larger market for TVs, so efficiencies of scale are important. TVs are often subsidized by advertising models which do not apply to monitors. And there is an enormous volume of TV and movie content available in HDR, where as HDR video and photos are rather limited on the web today.

At the same time, there are many reasons to be excited for the monitor market. Apple has already converted nearly all of their displays to HDR, often with very high specifications. It’s clearly possible and largely a matter of costs and consumer demand. Much of this investment in TVs should benefit computers directly or indirectly. And perhaps most importantly, the recent updates in the HDR photography ecosystem for widespread support of editing, ISO standards for sharing, and social media support will spur demand from creatives – who in turn will create content that helps spur demand from other consumers who wish to see these gorgeous images and video.

When you consider the overall trends for HDR in 2024 (such as BenQ launching its first consumer HDR monitor), there is significant momentum in the market. We are likely at a tipping point in 2025 where consumer HDR will begin to accelerate.

Which HDR monitor should you get? See my recommended HDR monitors for details on the best options today and the specs that matter most.

 

There were so many product and technology announcements, I likely missed something notable. And some of the best tech at the show was behind closed doors and not available to general attendees. If you heard other CES news you think may be relevant to the future of HDR displays for photography, please comment below.

The best of HDR photography in 2024

Have you ever felt that a scene with gorgeous light looks flat in your photo? That’s probably because most displays can’t do justice to the incredible dynamic range your camera captured. But now, with the latest HDR display technology, your photos can truly shine — exactly the way you saw them in real life.

Photos displayed on a modern HDR (high dynamic range) display allows us to show the full dynamic range of our RAW files. While our cameras typically capture 14 stops or more of dynamic range, older (standard / SDR) displays can only handle about 8. That forces compromises that drain the color from sunsets, make dynamic light less vibrant than real life, and increase the complexity of editing. With HDR displays, you can finally see your photos in their full glory — vibrant colors, rich contrast, and details in both the highlights and shadows that are lost on standard screens.

To be clear, I’m referring to “new” HDR display technologies like mini-LED and OLED which allow better photography via better hardware. These two are often confused, but they’re completely unrelated. If you’re unsure, see the “new” vs “old” HDR comparison to see why the new “HDR” is the most biggest leap for digital photography in decades.

HDR display has been around for quite a while. It was first introduced for movies and it’s now quite difficult to find a TV or movie which does not support some HDR standard like HDR10 or DolbyVision. That was a natural starting point. Hollywood movies are created by a relatively small number of technical experts working with large budgets. And because movies are more commonly watched in dark environments, they worked well even with the first few generations of OLED (which did not get very bright).

Until recently, HDR photography presented a much greater set of challenges. It requires an editing experience simple enough for amateurs, brighter screens for use in a much wider range of environments, and new standards to help share mixed SDR and HDR content across a much more complex set of devices and software. While there is certainly important work ahead, enormous progress has been made in the past in the past couple years.

We are now at a point where HDR photography is very useful and can be shared with a wide audience thanks to some important recent developments. And we are getting close to the point growth will accelerate as adoption expands from innovators to the early adopters who start to take practical advantage of HDR to make their photography stand out online. So I thought it would help to recap some important developments in 2024 which set the stage for HDR photography to start to take off in 2025.

 

HDR Hardware: It’s Everywhere — You Just Didn’t Know It Yet

There is a common misperception that HDR support is rare. The reality is that a very large number of people already own one or more HDR-capable displays. It just seems rare because we haven’t had the software, distribution channels, and content to appreciate the hardware. Software has improved significantly, distribution options are quickly expanding, and this will naturally lead to more and more content.

HDR is supported on the majority of smart phones sold since late 2020. This means that most people on mobile-first sites like Instagram have great HDR support while viewing your images.

HDR is nearly universally supported in TVs (support was first added in 2016). Even very cheap big screens tend to support HDR (often noted as HDR10, HLG, or DolbyVision). Unless your TV is very old, it most likely supports HDR and can be a great way to share photos at home.

Most Apple laptops and displays sold since 2018 support HDR. The M1+ MacBook Pro, M4 iPad Pro, and iPhone 14 and later offering truly stunning levels of HDR capability (“XDR” branded displays).

Given this, a large number of people already own 2-3 HDR displays and don’t even know it!

The only place where HDR hardware isn’t already the majority are in PC laptops and external monitors. But there are already many options for both and support is quickly growing. And you can easily use a 42″ TV as a great HDR monitor for as little as ~$600 new. See my list of recommended HDR monitors if you’re looking to upgrade your setup.

We’re at a pivotal moment: HDR photography isn’t just for tech enthusiasts anymore. With major platforms like Instagram and Threads embracing HDR, and widespread HDR support on smartphones, laptops, and TVs, 2025 will be the year that HDR photos go mainstream. If you want your work to stand out, now is the time to dive in.

 

The best of HDR photography in 2024

There are have been numerous developments in the past ~18 months which give photographers the opportunity to make serious use of HDR. The collective impact of these updates is that we now have excellent support to edit and export HDR images which can be viewed as HDR by a large audience on Instagram and can be safely shared anywhere (even on devices lacking HDR support. We also have the ability to share these images with a very large audience (particularly on Instagram, where ).

Notable HDR photography improvements in the past year include:

• Instagram and Threads offer excellent support for sharing HDR photos
  • This allows you to share HDR with a very large audience (the majority of viewers have great HDR support on their smart phone)
  • See this tutorial for details on how to export and upload HDR photos to both platforms.
  • See my Instagram and Threads profile for SDR vs HDR example posts.
• Widespread support for encoding and viewing JPG “gain maps”
  • Gain maps are the key technology which allow your photos to look great on any display, regardless of whether it actually supports HDR or not.
  • Before we could share gain maps, an image processed for HDR meant older SDR displays may not look ideal (or vary from browser to browser).
• Web Sharp Pro v6 added significant new capabilities for sharing HDR photos
  • (I haven’t even announced v6 yet, but you can get started now by clicking the “tutorials” button in the v6 panel and reviewing the HDR sections – more information coming soon!)
  • Supports exports optimized for the specific encoding required for HDR photos on Instagram and Threads (see this tutorial).
  • Full control of the base SDR image when exporting a JPG with a gain map. This offers a significantly better experience on any SDR or limited-HDR display.
  • Support for HDR photo slideshows on a TV. Go to the top-right (four bars) flyout menu and choose the option to “create HTML slideshow”. Then just connect your computer over HDMI to a TV to show the images.
• The entire Adobe suit of software includes extensive support for HDR editing and export.
  • all versions of Lightroom (Classic, Desktop, iOS, Android, and web) for MacOS, Windows, iOS, iPadOS, and Android (for Pixel phones)
  • Adobe Camera RAW for both Windows and MacOS
  • Photoshop for both Windows and MacOS (under a tech preview “precise color management for HDR display”).
• PS 2025 updated roughly twenty tools for 32-bit HDR support (spot healing, remove, etc) to allow extensive support for advanced HDR editing.
• Affinity Photo and Pixelmator also offer good HDR support
• Halide announced support for HDR capture in their upcoming mark III update
• Significant improvements in the pricing and availability of HDR displays
  • Xiaomi now sells a 1000-nit 27″ HDR for ~$350.
  • ASUS launched a new flagship 1600-nits 31″ mini-LED monitor with hardware calibration and 4x the zone count of the Pro Display XDR (at half the price).
  • Apple launched a ground-breaking 1600-nits “tandem OLED” in the M4 iPad Pro. This offers one of the best OLED experiences available and up to 4 stops of headroom in a mobile device.
  • MacOS v15 (Sequoia) added an HDR brightness slider. This makes it very easy to use an 3rd-party monitor or 42″ TV for a great HDR experience, thus greatly expanding the range and affordability of options for Apple users.
  • A quickly growing number of PC laptops are supporting HDR with 600 nit OLEDs
  • Nearly all Apple displays offer HDR now (only the budget iPhone SE and lower tier iPads lack HDR now)
• Apple now enables up to 1000 nits SDR in the M4 MacBook Pro to enable up to 1000-nits SDR. By leveraging their HDR capabilities in this way, this makes it much easier to use their laptops for every day use in bright environments (such as when using your laptop outdoors or near bright windows).
• Initial support for encoding AVIF gain maps
  • Adobe Camera RAW and Lightroom add gain maps to HDR AVIF when “maximize compatibility” is enabled (JXL and TIF also support gain map encoding, but they will have limited impact for a while).
  • Chrome and related browsers offer gain map decoding support under a developer flag (chrome://flags/#avif-gainmap-hdr-images)
  • AVIF is close to being ready for general use and will be a vast improvement over JPG (the images are higher quality and ~30% smaller). All modern browsers support SDR decoding of AVIF, with 95% of web visitors having support (the remaining 5% gap come from people using outdated browsers and we should soon get to a point where the gap is small enough to use AVIF – especially in related applications)

 

Will HDR photography start to go mainstream in 2025?

[ Jan 11, 2025 update: Be sure to see new HDR tech released at CES 2025. ]

There are a number of improvements coming for HDR which should help early adopters more easily share HDR and help their images stand out online.

In 2025, we can expect:

• Much more widespread support for sharing HDR
  • Given how widespread and quickly growing HDR displays already are, the biggest barrier now is in having easy ways to share HDR images online. Sharing HDR on your own website, Instagram, or Threads is already great, and ongoing efforts should help significantly expand your options share your beautiful HDR images.
  • The ISO 21496-1 standard should help greatly accelerate support as it allows developers to focus efforts on a single standard (instead of the current mix of Adobe, Android, and Apple encodings).
  • ISO encoding is already supported in
    • Web Sharp Pro v6
    • Apple support for Photos, native camera app, iMessage, Quick Look, Preview, and developer APIs under MacOS / iOS / iPadOS (everything but TvOS)
    • Chrome, Brave, Edge, and Opera for MacOS / Windows / Android
  • ISO support should also help eliminate device-specific constraints for uploading or viewing images (such as problems uploading a valid gain map from an iPhone to Instagram)
  • The open-source libultrahdr Google library now offers full support for transcoding (including resize, compress, crop, and mirror) of JPG gain maps. This should allow many common and critical libraries to add support (ImageMagick has already integrated it).
  • The WordPress media library should be able to add support for HDR JPG in hosting environments which support ImageMagick (pending additional efforts to update the PHP end of things – and ideally the default GD library would get support as well to support all hosting environments).
  • Growing awareness and demand should also help further accelerate existing trends towards more options and greater simplicity.
• Better selection and pricing of HDR displays for PC laptops and external monitors
  • There is a clear trend towards more support and lower pricing. At some point, we should hit a tipping point where things move more rapidly, though it is hard to say how fast things might accelerate in 2025.
  • We may get an early look in a couple weeks at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Many HDR improvements were announced there last year, and there are many rumors of potentially large breakthroughs for OLED TVs (indicating we may start to see OLED monitors support up to 4000 nits).
• The potential to start sharing HDR images encoded as AVIF with a gain map
  • This format offers higher quality (for both HDR and SDR) as well as much smaller images (about 30% smaller on average).
  • Initial support for browsing and decoding is already available. This should be quite common by late 2025.
  • Support for SDR AVIF is at 95% and growing, so these images should also be relatively safe to share by late 2025.
  • By end of 2025 or early 2026, we should be in good shape to share HDR AVIF safely and with the confidence that the HDR support is close to or the same as what we’ll have for JPG at that point (beyond upgrading browsers to ensure safe SDR browsing with AVIF, mobile operating systems are likely the gating factor for HDR AVIF gain maps since desktop browsers already have support).
• There will certainly be many more HDR improvements in the coming year. The pace and breadth of investment has been enormous and we can expect significant improvements. However, there is limited public information on product roadmaps for HDR support. So rather than offering speculation, I’ll simply outline which additional capabilities would be most beneficial for the HDR community…

 

 

What else do we need for HDR photography?

 

Webkit / Safari support for HDR images:

No one has invested more into providing great HDR hardware than Apple, so it is rather surprising that you need to use 3rd-party browsers to take advantage of it. Many MacOS users (and the in-store demo computers) use Safari, which lacks HDR. And on iOS / iPadOS, all browsers (even Chrome) lack HDR support as they are required to use WebKit. Hopefully, we will see some good news at WWDC in June or earlier. It’s great that we can use apps like Instagram, Thread, Lightroom, and Pixelmator, but the time has come to fully unlock the untapped potential of the iPhone and iPad for HDR photos in the browser.

 

Greater support for uploading HDR to the web (ie transcoding support to preserve gain maps):

The libraries noted above are an excellent start, but there are are likely other important open-source or proprietary libraries which will need updates or some degree of integration. In addition, 3rd-party apps will often need updates to provide support outside of web browsers. Be sure to contact your favorite web services (Reddit, Flicker, Discord, Facebook, SquareSpace, Wix, etc) and let them know you would like to share HDR JGP gain maps on their platform. These investments will be largely driven by customer demand.

 

HDR support for profiling a monitor:

There is no currently no ICC standard for profiling a monitor in HDR mode (if you enable a custom profile, HDR content will clip to SDR). There are several options now for accurate color including: Apple displays (which are very accurate from the factory), ASUS ProArt monitors (which support calibration in the hardware), and using a TV as a monitor (as nearly all TVs support HDR and calibration in the hardware, and new TVs are often very accurate when set to the right modes). You can also switch the monitor between SDR (with support for profiling) and unprofiled HDR (Windows supports this by default and MacOS users can do it most easily using BetterDisplay). However, this still means many low cost HDR monitors (which are often aimed at gamers) will not show HDR as accurately as possible. A standard for profiling any HDR monitor would offer tremendous simplicity and improved image quality for a large range of monitors (especially lower-cost monitors).

 

More support for showing HDR photos on a TV:

The vast majority of people have a huge HDR screen sitting right in their living room. That TV is perfect for sharing your photos with friends and family in your home.

Web Sharp Pro v6 now includes an option (via top-right flyout menu) to create a HTML slideshow you can show when connecting your computer / phone / iPad to your TV over HDMI. That’s a great, but it would be even better to have support with wireless options like AirPlay, AppeTV, or ChromeCast.

 

Solutions for the “HDR is too bright” concern:

There is a relatively small but vocal group of users who complain that HDR video and photos are too bright on their phones. It’s not quite a concern I have personally, but I completely understand where they are coming from. It’s a real concern in a very specific use case: viewing in a very dark environment (typically someone scrolling social media on their phone at night in bed).

In response to this, Samsung has created a way to completely disable HDR in OneUI7. This is a terrible design. I have no problem with offering this option, as user choice is always important. But it is a bad solution for the vast majority of users who are concerned with bright HDR. No one is complaining that their display is too bright when they use outdoors or when they set the brightness slider high. Turning HDR off all the time would prevent getting the benefit where possible, and hidden settings like this are likely to cause user confusion.

A much better solution would simply be to limit or disable HDR headroom when (a) the ambient light sensor detects the phone is in a very dark environment and (b) the user has set the brightness slider to a low level. With that approach, you would avoid the problem and still be able to easily enjoy the benefit of HDR as much as possible. With testing to ensure the limits are set correctly, this could probably even be enabled as a default behavior. And while an option to force HDR off could still be offered in addition, I expect there would be almost no need for it.

I believe such a feature to limit headroom when viewing with low brightness in a dark environment should be offered in all major operating systems (iOS, MacOS, Android, Windows, etc). A feature like this needs to be done at the operating system level for a number of reasons. Having each app do this would create a confusing and cumbersome user interface, variability across apps, require a lot of wasteful repeat work by developers, and privacy controls probably require it (as 3rd-party apps don’t have access to ambient light or display brightness info to prevent user “fingerprinting”). In scenarios where the operating system lacks ambient light info (such as using a desktop with an external monitor lacking a web cam), the headroom could be limited simply when brightness is at or near the absolute minimum.

 

 

Ready to make your photos pop like never before? How to get started with HDR now:

It’s never been easier to work with HDR photos and you probably already have everything you need to get started! Here’s a quick list of resources:

• Most photographers I know already own 1-3 HDR displays and don’t even know it. If you bought a TV, Apple laptop or smart phone in the past 4 years, it very likely supports HDR (there are many other options, those are just some of the most common).
• See my HDR tests and overview to learn more and confirm what you already have.
• Adobe Lightroom supports nearly all of these devices (Android support is for Pixel Pro at this time).
• See my HDR e-book for tips on using your TV as an HDR monitor.

If you’re considering investing in a great display, see my reviews of the MacBook Pro or external HDR monitors.