Greg Benz Photography

ASUS PA32UCDM: The best HDR OLED monitor for photographers?

SALE: for a limited time at launch, you can save $200 off the cost of the ASUS PA32UCDM.

ASUS just launched a very exciting new HDR monitor: the ASUS PA32UCDM. This level of performance has never before been offered at this price point.

This monitor offers:

• 1000-nits peak brightness to support up to 3.3 stops of additional dynamic range over standard monitors (certified DisplayHDR™ True Black 400)
• OLED for perfect blacks
• ∆E < 1  and hardware calibration for high accuracy (this is critical for HDR, as there is no standard yet to create ICC profiles for HDR display)
• 99% P3 coverage
• 4k resolution
• Connect your laptop with a single cable: 96W USB-C power delivery and three downstream ports (Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A)
• Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG support
• It also offers 240Hz and 0.1ms for those of you interested in gaming.
• All for only $1,699-$1,899 (comparable alternatives to this monitor are typically $2-$3k).

There is nothing else like this currently on the market. Other OLED monitors either lack the brightness or the color accuracy for HDR. As an OLED, it will naturally offer superior shadow detail compared to mini-LED alternatives. And this is the lowest price point I’ve seen for a monitor offering such a great level of HDR support.

[Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I rarely endorse other products and only do when I think you would thoroughly enjoy them. By purchasing through these links, you are helping to support the creation of my tutorials at no cost to you.]

Conclusions: Who should buy this OLED monitor and what are the best alternatives?

This article goes into significant detail on performance, setup, calibration, and comparisons. To help make the bottom line clear, let’s start with the conclusions.

The ASUS PA32UCDM is an excellent monitor. It fills an important role as a high quality HDR OLED monitor at a price point that bridges the gap between budget HDR and professional mini-LED. It features the ability to calibrate in HDR mode, 1000-nits (up to 3.3 stops HDR headroom), 4k resolution, and overall high quality. Setup is important to achieve these results, so be sure to review the details below if you purchase this monitor.

As with almost any current OLED monitor, the peak nits should not be compared directly to a mini-LED. This display is rated at DisplayHDR 400 as it can only achieve 1000 nits in small percentage of the screen simultaneously. It’s an excellent display, but a 1000 nits mini-LED will have an advantage for working in a bright room or displaying images with a lot of bright pixels. On the flip side, shadow detail is outstanding and achieves perfect blacks which are not possible with today’s mini-LEDs. So this is a monitor which will naturally excel in a darker environment.

The ideal HDR monitor for you depends on your working environment and budget. Here are my recommendations:

• If you work in an environment with controlled lighting or have a ~$1,700k budget: this OLED ASUS PA32UCDM is an excellent choice (budget $200-$300 more if you need to purchase a colorimeter).
• If you work in a bright environment or want a full 4 stops of HDR and have a ~$3k budget: ASUS PA32UCXR mini-LED is ideal (see my review).
• If you use MacOS and money is no object ($6k new), the Pro Display XDR is ideal for its simple setup, better customer support, 6k resolution, and absolute silence (no fans). Unless you can get one used, the first two options offer much better value for most photographers.
• If you have a more limited budget, there are many good alternatives:
  • If you are willing to use a 42″ TV as a monitor, the LG C4 is an excellent option for $900 (while inventory lasts, the C5 has no advantages here but the price has increased).
  • If you are interested in a 32″ HDR monitor for ~$1k: ASUS PA32UCR-K mini-LED (see my review for caveats and tips on local dimming with this older model, the PA32UCDM is well worth the extra cost for its better image quality).
  • The Gigabyte AORUS FO32U2 appears very promising as a 4K, 1000-nits OLED monitor for $800 (I have not had the chance to test it, and it does not support HDR calibration).
  • If you have a very tight budget (~$350), the Xioami G Pro 27i offers a 1000-nit, 27″, 2K resolution mini-LED with moderate color accuracy (see my review).
  • An external monitor is just one option. All of the 14-16″ M1 and later MacBook Pros include an outstanding 1600 nits mini-LED. See my review of the M4 MacBook Pro. Highly recommended!
• See my full list of recommended HDR monitors for much more detail on the key specs to consider and other great options.

Image Quality

It is important to remember that the peak brightness of an OLED is not directly comparable to mini-LED. While 1000 nits on this display is getting very close to the 1600 nits of an Apple laptop for example, that only applies when a modest percentage of the image pixels are very bright. Apple’s XDR mini-LED displays can light the entire display at 1000 nits, while an OLED like this probably only supports 2-10% of the display at peak values before it needs to dim a bit. With a properly edited HDR, you should have only a small number of pixels hitting such high values. So an OLED should work very well for editing HDR under proper ambient lighting conditions (your SDR brightness should ideally be 80-120 nits even for print work).

The biggest downside of this peak brightness limitation probably applies to photographers who are new to HDR and prone to pushing the brightness too high in which case the dimming might convince you to edit the content too bright. You can easily check your work on another display (such as your phone), Web Sharp Pro has HDR soft proofing features to warn you around excessively bright editing, and you can easily test your image with overlays or measurement tools in Lightroom, ACR, and Photoshop.

Like any OLED, it offers superior shadow detail compared to even the best mini-LED displays. I wouldn’t put too much weight on this, as high end mini-LED displays are excellent at the level needed for editing photos. You can see significantly better detail in extremely dark shadow detail. However, this doesn’t affect many photos and you wouldn’t be able to rely on your audience to see the benefit at this level (either because many may lack OLED or not be viewing in a suitably dark environment to appreciate it). So it’s beautiful and very nice to have, but I place more emphasis on headroom, sustained brightness, and color accuracy than the risk of blooming of shadows in photography.

On MacOS, HDR headroom ranges between 1.9 to 3.3 stops, depending on how high you set the (SDR) brightness slider in System Settings. You’d achieve that maximum when you set SDR brightness for 100 nits. This means that 3 stops is very reasonable in a darker room, but you should only expect 2 stops of support in brighter environments.

One of the key advantages of the ASUS ProArt lineup is its ability to calibrate in the hardware. There is no other option for HDR at this time, as there is no ICC standard for HDR. If you try to use a conventional custom profiling approach, the HDR content will clip (for any monitor on Mac or Windows). Unlike the other ASUS monitors I have reviewed, no colorimeter is included with the monitor and you’ll want to budget an extra $300 for one if that’s important to you and you don’t have one you own or can borrow. I did not find an official list on ASUS’s website, but their calibration software supports Calibrite Display Plus HL (which I own and used for my testing), Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro, or Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus.

With its 4k resolution, text is easy to read. I prefer the higher clarity of 6k on my Pro Display XDR, but only slightly. I find this 4k works quite well and have no concerns. Note that I set MacOS scaling to the 2560×1440 equivalent for both monitors.

The display has a glossy finish. There is no matte option for those of you who might work in an environment which may cause reflections.

How does this OLED compare to mini-LED?

Actual monitor results are what counts, but there are some key differences between OLED and mini-LED which tend to hold true. In general, OLED excels in dark content and mini-LED excels at bright content. Which is best for you depends heavily on how bright your ambient light is, as well as your goals for HDR headroom.

OLED can struggle to achieve higher brightness. This can obviously affect peak nits, and therefore your HDR headroom (especially in a brighter room where using a higher SDR brightness may leave you with little HDR headroom). What’s much less obvious is that the overall brightness of the content will often cause dimming of the display. An OLED often only achieves its peak nit values for a 2-10% “window” (ie percentage of pixels on screen). So if your image has only a few pixels at 3 stops, they might properly show around 1000 nits on the display. But if 25% of the image is that bright, then the same pixels values might be display at something like 400 nits. This is caused by ABL or “automatic brightness limiting“.

ABLis common to nearly all OLEDs and may be done to prevent burn in, protect electronics, to achieve energy efficiency targets, etc. It causes a degree of tone mapping in the display when the overall display is too bright. Even just large amount of white background on this web page is enough that an HDR image would be dimmed somewhat. The result is still a good HDR image, but the image won’t have quite the same punch and is not as accurate as what you’d see without it.

Mini-LED can easily achieve high brightness. It is not immune to some degree of ABL, but you will generally see it far less often and to a much lesser degree. Not just higher peak values to achieve greater HDR headroom, but also greater sustained brightness. For example, mini-LED Apple XDR displays can show 1000 nits across the entire display and up to 1600 nits in smaller areas.

If you were to compare my ABL test (#15) on a mini-LED vs this OLED, you would see that the HDR images get brighter while the page background is set to black. This is because the surrounding white (even though it is just diffuse/SDR white) creates enough brightness to trigger the ABL. The result is that the images lose a bit of punch against the white background on the OLED, while a mini-LED would show the images the same way with either background.

To put all this in context. The PA32UCDM is able to achieve high levels of accuracy (deltaE < 1), and so is its mini-LED sibling. But remember that calibration tests the monitor’s ability to make a small rectangle at the correct color and brightness, they do not guarantee that the same pixel values will be as accurate when you show an image and other content across the entire display. If you were to test with 100% patches covering the entire monitor, you would find that the mini-LED would get much closer to hitting the expected values, whereas the OLED would be much darker (ie poor gray tracking). That’s not a terribly realistic test either, as we rarely cover the whole screen in bright content. The most common scenario for that would be in MS Word or a light theme web page where much of the screen is using SDR white – but HDR pixels are even brighter.

There’s no standard for an objective test here, but there are a few things you can look to for confidence. This display is certified to DisplayHDR 400 True Black, which should give you a sense of the comparative performance. And it has a “typical” (aka “sustained”) brightness of 250 nits. That’s helpful to know, since it’s much higher than the roughly 100 nits you should use for SDR content like the background of this web page. Overall, the performance for this OLED is great, but a mini-LED would be more able to show the true full brightness under more conditions. If you’re concerned with accuracy, you could set this monitor to the 400 nits limit and have confidence that you’re seeing 2 stops of HDR with greater accuracy. Or you could allow the full 1000 nits with 3.3 stops of headroom, but less certainty that you’re achieving the target brightness. I think most people would most appreciate the full 1000 nits, just check a few images elsewhere (such as your phone) if you’re new to HDR to make sure you aren’t editing the images too bright (as a monitor that darkens make it harder for you to see your mistake).

OLED offers perfect blacks. That means no blooming and better shadow detail. This is often an advantage for dark content when viewed in a dark room. However, mini-LED cannot achieve perfect blacks. Unlike OLED (where each pixel is individually lit), mini-LED uses a shared backlight which causes blacks to show a bit of grey around lit pixels (known as “blooming”). While older mini-LEDs (with low zone counts, limited backlight control, and more basic processing) tend to be prone to this issue, it’s much more controlled on newer models. OLED will show better detail in deep shadow areas when viewed under suitably dim ambient light. In very dark content with a suitably dark room, this OLED will clearly show much better detail than even the best mini-LEDs. The classic demo for this is a video showing a moving star field (the blacks will get much darker on OLED). It’s a nice benefit for watching content, but not a must have for editing photos. The advantages of OLED are modest here for most photographers, especially as much of your audience is unlikely to be viewing your work with OLED in dark conditions that would allow them to see it. Video may benefit more as that content is more often viewed in a dark environment.

OLED also offers very fast pixel response times. This primarily matters for gamers. Having support for 120Hz is beneficial for photographers to see smooth results when panning and zooming images, as well as scrolling text for general use. If you can only achieve 60-90Hz, that’s ok, but 120 will be appreciated by most users. Gamers will often appreciate much higher refresh rates, but photography won’t benefit from exceeding 120Hz. Nearly all OLED will hit this target, but mini-LED varies.

Today’s best mini-LED tend to be the optimal choice for most photographers. They can be used in brighter rooms, achieve higher HDR headroom, and will retain brightness more accurately even in images with more HDR pixels. However, OLED is an excellent choice, especially if you work under controlled lighting.

The PA32UCDM fits these patterns:

• It offers excellent image quality, but is best appreciated in a room where you can control the ambient light.
  • If you need to raise it to maximum brightness in your room, you’ll have 2 stops of HDR headroom.
  • When your screen contains a lot of bright content (even just the white background of this web page), you will likely see HDR images dimmed by the ABL.
  • If you want to achieve 4 stops of headroom and consistent rendering of HDR, you should look to the ASUS PA32UCXR mini-LED (review).
• The clarity of shadow detail is incredible.
  • You can clearly read text set to a grey value of 0.0001 in 32-bit Photoshop (this is the lowest level you can directly set in Photoshop colors).
  • On the Pro Display XDR, the text is very legible at 10 brighter values, yet shows significant blooming.  The ASUS mini-LED (PA32UCXR) does a clearly better job, but this OLED clearly outperforms both. It’s not even close in the most extreme dark shadows.
  • Like any OLED, the black shadow detail is much better than mini-LED. This will allow you to appreciate extremely deep shadow detail on your display, but is a modest benefit for content creation as much of your audience will either lack OLED or view it surroundings too bright to appreciate the same detail.

On the whole, the image quality is amazing, but mini-LED still has an edge in monitors. OLED TVs have gotten much brighter in 2025, and hopefully OLED monitors follow suit over the next two or three years close much of that gap.

How is the hardware quality?

The PA32UCDM has a nice metal exterior and stand. It looks very attractive. It also feels like a product built to last, though I cannot evaluate quality by testing a single unit for a week. The stand feels solid and offers smooth and precise control over height and tilt (there is no swivel, but you can easily just turn the whole stand to achieve the same result). The ports on the back are clearly marked and much easier to read that previous ASUS models. The controls for the on screen display are easy to find and reach from the front.

Connection options are good. It has 96W charging and passthrough Thunderbolt 4. So you can connect the display and a downstream hub via a single cable. It also has a 1 downstream USB-C and 1 USB-A, which might meet your needs without a dock. For video input, I recommend using the Thunderbolt input, but it also supports HDMI 2.1.

This monitor does have a fan. It is fairly quiet, but definitely audible. Using the Decibel X app on iPhone, I measure 26 dB sound in front of the monitor when turned on and 23 dB when the monitor is off. I hear it if the room is otherwise dead quiet, but cannot hear it at all if I turn on music on my laptop at even a relatively low volume. The fan will often run continuously once the monitor is warm.

The sound quality of the speakers is very basic (like most monitors). The max volume is modest and the sound is limited, but it does offer useful sound. Most people will probably prefer to use external speakers or their laptop audio.

There is no web cam built into the monitor.

What could be better?

If you want greater maximum headroom, a brighter display for a bright room, or 6k resolution – that’s another class of premium monitor and you should expect to pay more at this point. The PA32UCDM hardware performs very well for its price point. Some may be concerned that this model does not include a colorimeter, though I tend to prefer an external colorimeter and you may be able to borrow one or use it with multiple displays (such as your laptop or another future monitor). I believe the overall product offers good value and have no major concerns with the hardware.

However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t areas where ASUS could and should do better. In particular, I find that ease of use could be significantly improved, along with customer service.

There are several areas where the menus, software, or documentation could be easily improved to make this product easier to use:

• Bad HDR defaults:
  • This monitor is promoted for HDR use (1000 nits) and should default to offering a good HDR experience.
  • However, the default setup caps HDR brightness to 250 nits, which is is a very poor HDR experience. And then the EDID firmware bug at this setup makes the problem significantly worse as the computer reports full HDR support and simply clips.
• Firmware bugs:
  • The EDID (“Extended Display Identification Data”) appears to self report a 1015 nits limit when the HDR display brightness limit is set to 250 nits (per Advanced Display info in Windows, as well as obvious clipping in MacOS at this limit). This is a serious issue as is causes significant clipping in the default mode (your web browser will not properly tone map HDR video and photos in this scenario). Thankfully, this won’t affect you when you configure the display per my recommendations. The higher limits are fine (when set to 400 nits, it reports 445 nits and max reports 1015 nits).
• Calibration software:
  • There is a very long list of colorimeters which show as supported under Windows and are not available under MacOS (only 3 listed). Perhaps this is due to a lack of MacOS drivers from the vendors, but that seems unlikely. And it may be due to the latest Windows ASUS software being 2 months newer than the MacOS version (v4.1.6.4 vs 4.1.7.3).
  • The lack of clear error messages in the ASUS software should be addressed ASAP. You should be in great shape if you follow my guidance below, but I believe many people would be quite frustrated without better guidance and this almost certainly increases ASUS costs for technical support and returns. Here are a few examples where the ASUS calibration software could be improved:
    • There are several settings which the user is required to set in the monitor. This should be completely automated by ASUS during calibration.
    • Failure to turn off HDR mode (which is not intuitive) results in “error 4156”. A clear description of the most likely steps to resolve this common issue should be shown.
    • If the colorimeter is not pointing at the screen without the diffuser, you see “error 1038”. A clear description of the most likely steps to resolve this common issue should be shown.
  • The ASUS calibration software does not auto-detect the connected colorimeter, or even remember the last option you used.
  • The monitor should be able to self report how long it has been on so that you can skip the warm up screen whenever possible.
  • The ability to create a custom name for the user modes is great, but the names are hard to read as you cannot use underscore, dot, or space (all of which are used in the included modes)
  • On the last screen before you start calibration, the middle grey background makes it very hard to see your mouse so you can click the button to start. A black background would be much easier.
  • The color calibration tab (where you start calibration) does not show the date/time a given mode was last calibrated of if it was ever calibrated at all. You can infer this from the history, but it is cumbersome.
  • When running multiple calibrations at once, the final screen shows only one result rather than acknowledging it ran multiple (you can find these in history, it just isn’t intuitive and it is unclear if clicking “apply” will program any failed calibrations).
  • Calibration targets in K are not clear to those who know that D65 is more precise than “6500K”. This could at least be noted in the written manual.
  • The “embedded calibrator calibration” is neither grayed out nor warns you if you click on it with a monitor like this which does not have the feature. It’s confusing if you don’t realize this only applies to a product you don’t own.
  • If the calibration is highly successful (achieves <1 deltaE), there should just be an option to apply it. As it stands, the monitor stays fully lit until you accept the result and then you wait for it to apply. It would be faster if just done when you return if you let it run unattended.
  • The MacOS color profile was incorrectly switched to sRGB after calibration (this may be a bug in MacOS itself, unclear).
• Display Widget:
  • The concept of the display widget (to let you control the monitor from the operating system) is great, but the implementation is too incomplete for it to be useful at this time.
  • There is no MacOS app.
  • The Windows app is insufficient for setting up the monitor.
    • The app supports importing settings and I would love to give you a file to set everything up as below, but Display Widget simply lacks key options.
    • There is no option to control “Uniform Brightness” or the brightness limit for HDR to properly enable HDR. You cannot control the HDR preview (required for calibration, though ideally the calibration app would take care of this for you).
  • The options are laid out differently in this app vs the monitor and it creates confusion, as does some poor naming.
    • For example, the app toggle under “system settings” for “Display HDR” seems to suggest HDR will be disabled when laptop power is low. The naming is a little vague and it is not clear that this is a setting which is only possible when driven from the computer (the monitor lacks this option as it does not know battery state or have control of the operating system HDR mode).
    • Further down the same display is an option for “Power Saving”. This is an option on the monitor, but mixing it with other controls that are unique to the app creates confusion and ambiguity.
    • Ideally, the software would list options controllable on the monitor up top and then clearly break out options which are specific to the Display Widget (such as “HotKey” and “App Tweaker” sections).
    • Custom user modes do not show any custom name you set in the calibration software.
  • The active mode can be confusing. There are so many modes that none of the default HDR modes will show in this app until you click to the right. Either shrinking the UI to show all or switching to a dropdown would be much more intuitive.
• Written manual:
  • The written manual does not describe screen saver options clearly (Does not mention Proximity Sensor disabled in HDR mode next to the description of the options. What happens under the three levels of Panel Protection and Image Protection? What is “ISP”?)
• Ease of use in monitor settings:
  • When you use an Apple monitor, things are incredibly easy. It’s nearly impossible to get it wrong. You do not have to think about it. The ASUS setup (and nearly all monitors other than Apple) are very confusing. I often have questions, and I have much more experience with this than the average photographer.
  • I would love to see ASUS eliminate or hide options which are not high value.
    • For example, the presets should probably include just P3 (100 nits SDR) and P3 PQ. That’s all the typical user needs. Anyone who needs more can easily achieve it with custom modes, which are probably better anyhow (to achieve the ideal SDR brightness for either reference viewing or to suit their environment).
    • Why is Dolby Vision a setting vs just automatically using it when providing in the input?
  • It would be ideal if the HDR display options were shown at the top of the list of presets, given this is an monitor clearly built for HDR.

Ultimately, the issues above (other than limited colorimeter support on MacOS) should be no problem if you read this whole post and follow the guidance below. But the changes above would be helpful for all, and are probably critical to a good HDR experience for many who may not read the guidance below. Hopefully the MacOS colorimeter list is expanded with a software update in the near future.

As a side note, the Display Widget software (currently Windows only) from ASUS is a step in the right direction for ease of use. The level of simplicity for HDR on MacOS is so far ahead of anything I’ve seen under Windows. With a Pro Display XDR, you plug it in and it works with zero setup (even calibration is completely optional). Much of what makes that possible is Apple’s tight integration between the operating system and software (and unsurprisingly you can’t use that same monitor under Windows). Microsoft would do well to consider an open standard for display makers to better integrate into Windows (something offering great performance by default and an ability to control the monitor settings entirely in the operating system).

While I have not needed to contact ASUS technical support for any questions related to this monitor, I did last year when reviewing an older model and I found the support experience rather frustrating. The phone support experience was particularly frustrating for me. The phone system randomly disconnected on multiple calls and the call quality often had audible crackling and low quality that made conversations more difficult. The email support was higher in quality, though responses typically took 24 hours and there were several times when the response did not sound like the person had bothered to read my concern carefully and/or lacked sufficient expertise to resolve the issue. I don’t expect you’ll need technical support if you follow the guidance on this page carefully, but if you do, use the email option and be patient. Sadly, experiences like this have been fairly common for me with many similar electronics companies (Apple being a notable exception where technical support is usually fast and high quality).

Side note: MacOS System Info reports 5120×2880 resolution (but does not offer it as a choice in System Settings / Display). This monitor has 3840 x 2160 resolution. I suspect this error is a MacOS bug (rather than another EDID bug) as I don’t see this 5K resolution when connected to a Windows computer.

How to configure it for HDR photography:

Here are the most important things to know for setup:

• Use the 96W USC-C connection to connect the computer.
  • The other USB ports are for downstream connections like a dock or keyboard.
  • You may use the HDMI port and will get the same image quality, but you’re going to need a USB connection to do calibration or use the optional Display Widget software.
• Turn on the monitor with a long press on the round button on the back bottom of the display near the middle (just right of the joystick control when you’re facing the front of the monitor and can’t see the back)
• If the monitor does not offer auto-detect, manually select the Thunderbolt input
• Once connected, you must enable HDR mode in System Settings / Display
  • This is written out as “high dynamic range” in MacOS
  • You will likely need to reduce from the peak refresh rate to enable HDR.
  • If you cannot enable HDR mode, reduce the refresh rate.
    • On MacOS under Thunderbolt 4, I found I could use with HDR mode up to 240Hz with “larger text” (1920×1080) scaling, but that the max allow dropped to  60Hz by the middle scaling option and was supported at that level up to the maximum 4K scaling. I find the 2K scaling (2560×1440) looks best and supports 100Hz. Note that this is just scaling of the MacOS user interface, and your images are always displayed with the maximum resolution and no interpolation with any multiple of 100% zoom in LR, PS, etc.
    • On MacOS over HDMI 2.1, I see greater support. This is odd, as Thunderbolt 4 should support higher bandwidth and I’m using a certified cable. Under HDMI, I was able to get 120Hz at 4K HDR, 100 Hz at 2560×1440, and the full 240 Hz HDR at 1080p scaling. I find that pattern odd (lowest refresh rate support at middle resolutions), unless somehow the M4 Max cannot internally handle its UI scaling in that scenario (and this does not improve if I only drive the ASUS display with no others active). I have reported this as a potential Apple bug via Feedback Assistant.
    • On Windows (over Thunderbolt), there is no option for 240Hz, but you can use 120Hz all the way up to 4K (3840×2160).
    • On Windows over HDMI 2.1, I still had 120Hz HDR support, but the color bit depth drops from 10-bit to 8-bit. So that’s one more reason to prefer the TB connection.
    • I am unclear whether these differences in supported frame rate are an issue caused by the operating system or the monitor. The ability to select 120Hz on MacOS with 4K scaling on MacOS would be nice for scrolling text. This is a surprising result given I’m testing with an powerful M4 MacBook Pro and my cheap Windows laptop achieves 120Hz at the same scaling.
    • I have no particular concern about the 120Hz limit I see on Windows. The lack of 240Hz support on Windows may very likely be related to my testing with a relatively cheap PC laptop that may very well not be capable of driving the display to its limits.
  • If you cannot enable the toggle in Windows, make sure you are not using the monitor in a mirrored configuration (extended only) and check that your refresh rate is not set too high.
  • The monitor should automatically switch to an HDR mode, but you can check that HDR_PQ DCI is set as noted in the setting section below.
  • When properly connected, you should see headroom >0 in my test #1.
• System Settings / Display should show the color profile as “PA32UCDM“. That’s likely the case at first, but I found that MacOS was reset to sRGB during the calibration process, resulting in over-saturated colors after calibration. Simply putting it back to the correct value then showed correct color on the monitor.
• Once you’ve enabled HDR, you should set the SDR brightness slider in System Settings.
  • MacOS shows a brightness slider in the display settings when HDR mode is enabled.
  • Windows has an “SDR content brightness” slider hidden under the > icon on the far right of the HDR mode toggle.
  • Set the SDR brightness at a level which would be comfortable for reading text in a browser. Do not try to set it darker to improve headroom, that will induce eye strain and result in editing images which are too bright.
  • If you are measuring the SDR white level (“diffuse white), it should be set to 80-120 nits under controlled lighting (note that 1 nit is the same as 1 cd / m^2). If you need to set it brighter, your room is too bright and you should dim lights or use window shades. This will help ensure both better prints and HDR.
• At default settings, the default monitor settings will unfortunately limit the display to 250 nits (shown as “brightness” at the top right of the on screen display).
  • This combined with the bug noted below where the EDID falsely reports 1015 nits support in this scenario means that you will have almost HDR support and HDR content will clip very badly because software like browsers will not be able to tone map to the correct limit. You’ll also see the Lightroom histogram and my headroom test incorrectly report 2 stops more headroom than you actually have. So this is a serious problem at default settings, but easily avoided with the correct setup.
  • The solution is to use the monitor settings below to raise the brightness limit to “MAX” (1000 nits). But you can only choose this when Settings > Uniform Brightness is turned off.
  • (Note: each time you change brightness, the monitor will briefly go black and exit the OSD, you’ll need to wait for the “HDR mode” notice to clear before you can go back in to go from 250 to 400 to 1000. This is tedious, but the only way to do it).
• DO NOT use any custom ICC profiling tool such as Spyder / X-Rite at this time.
  • If you use a typical profiling approach, you will cause all HDR content to clip to SDR. There is no HDR standard for custom ICC profiles.
  • If you have done this, you may see that my test #1 reports you have HDR headroom, but the content looks clipped.
  • If you’ve already done this, revert to the factory profile
    • in MacOS go to ColorSync Utility / Devices tab / Display, then select your display and click ⌄ by “current profile” and choose “set to factory”.
• Other watchouts (for Windows, these generally aren’t issues on MacOS)
  • Do not use the Windows HDR calibration utility, it will only cause problems.
  • If your computer comes with 3rd-party software which affects the display, you may need to uninstall it. In rare cases, I’ve seen such software cause conflicts.

I recommend the following settings in the monitor:

• If you’ve customized and are unsure of the defaults, you may reset to factory settings via Settings > All Reset. This will clear any calibration as well.
• Preset tab
  • Select HDR_PQ DCI.
  • Choose PQ Clip for best accuracy. You may use PQ Optimized for some highlight rolloff (slightly less accurate, but allows you to see more highlight detail). Skip the Basic option (low accuracy).
  • While the HDR_PQ BT2020 may sound appealing for wider gamut, it has been my experience that accuracy is reduced. You can edit in Adobe software with ProPhoto or Rec2020 to retain this color and be ready for it in the future, but I would not try to display it yet on consumer monitors. You will make much better editing decisions with accurate color than a slightly wider gamut.
  • Do not use the HLG or HDR_DolbyVision options unless you are using an unusual source such as a DVD player or your camera over HDMI. The PQ options are best for a computer.
  • If you wish, the User modes may be used for advanced users.
• Palette
  • Brightness must be set to MAX. [ VERY IMPORTANT ]
    • This is a very confusing label. This is not the SDR brightness (as you would typically control in an SDR mode on the monitor), this is really the peak brightness allowed. So when you set it to “max”, what you are really going is setting the maximum to the maximum (ie setting the HDR clipping limit to the full 1000 nits).
    • However, you must first turn off Uniform Brightness in the Settings tab, or you will be unable to set the brightness above 250 nits.
    • If you do not increase brightness to “MAX”, the monitor will show significant clipping in HDR mode (2 stops of clipping as the default will limit output to 250 nits without any tone mapping)
• Settings tab:
  • enable HDR preview (this is required for ASUS calibration).
  • Uniform Brightness must be disabled or will be unable to use HDR without seeing significant clipping. [ VERY IMPORTANT ]
  • Update the language as necessary.
  • It would be best to disable the sound, you’ll get better results from external speakers or your laptop.
  • It is best to turn off the Light Sync options and focus instead on ensuring your ambient light is fixed if possible. Eliminating variability will help you achieve the most consistent results for editing photos.
  • You may update the OSD (on screen display) timeout if you wish to change how long it stays on screen after using the monitor buttons.
  • You may refine the proximity sensor settings if needed for your use. This feature dims the display if it fails to detect someone near the monitor (to help improve lifespan of the monitor).
  • Screen Saver
    • All of these options are used to control features meant to help prevent burn-in with an OLED monitor. They are not well documented, but what is clear is that your options here will not limit peak brightness or HDR display immediately. They will cause dimming over time or occasional display blackouts.
    • Proximity Sensor:
      • This option is disabled in HDR mode, but fine to enable for SDR mode if you won’t be viewing from far away.
    • Panel Protection:
      • This includes occasional tricks to help avoid monitor burn in, including dimming over time if there is no change on screen. This dimming is much slower than image protection and ok to use.
      • If you have 100 nits SDR white and panel protection is “max”, you will see no dimming until the display has been static for 50s. At that point, it will dim slowly continuously and continuously until it gets to 5 nits at about 2 min 50s.
      • If you have 100 nits SDR white and panel protection is in the middle position, you will see no dimming until the display has been static for about 1 minute 50s. At that point, it will dim slowly continuously and continuously until it gets to 25 nits at about 6 min.
      • The “off sensing” is always enabled and runs a 6 minute blackout period that won’t be nice in the middle of your work. Min runs “off sensing” every 12 hours, the middle is 8, and the top/max position will be disruptive with blackouts every 4 hours
      • I would pick the middle setting to allow dimming if you walk away, but without monitor blackouts every 4 hours.
    • Image Protection:
      • It is meant to help avoid potential burn-in from things like a continuously visible Windows task bar.
      • I cannot comment on the long term risk of burn in here, but I would personally disable image protection.
        • It will darken the display and therefore reduce accuracy.
        • If you adjust your SDR brightness in HDR mode to 100 nits and then switch from image protection off to max, the diffuse white will drop to 80 nits.
        • OLED longevity has improved significantly in recent years and I would be comfortable taking the risk. The tests I see generally indicate you need to abuse the display pretty heavily with continuous bright content. I would consider any risk here an investment in my art. In other words, I would prefer to take what I would consider a small risk that might replace the monitor in five years (when there are even better and cheaper options) than try to create great content on a dimmer and less accurate display.
        • You can take steps to minimize static content, including letting your task bar / dock auto-hide, and using a darker theme in Photoshop.
• Avoid changing anything else
  • There is no need to alter anything in the Image, PIP, or QuickFit tabs.
  • In HDR mode, brightness is control in the operating system Display Settings (not on the monitor, see key setup above).

Once you’ve done the above setup, you may then proceed to use the ASUS calibration software to improve the accuracy of the display. You only need to calibrate the HDR mode you are using. There should generally be no need to use other modes or disable HDR. If you wish to optimize an SDR mode for print work, you might wish to calibrate that as well and set the custom buttons on the monitor to help toggle between the two modes (though ideally the monitor will just switch between your last SDR and HDR mode as you toggle in the operating system).

Calibration process:

1. Install and launch the ASUS Calibration software
2. Check that the monitor is set up as noted in the prompt in the calibration software:
   1. HDR mode in MacOS / Windows must be off
   2. Monitor Settings / HDR Preview must be on (this seems to be how the monitor converts the SDR signal to HDR during calibration)
   3. You can ignore the “ambient effect” setting, as it does not apply to this monitor from ASUS
   4. Make sure “true tone” and “night shift” are off in MacOS, as these will significantly distort the calibration
3. Connect a supported colorimeter to one of the downstream USB ports on the monitor. The following colorimeters are supported on both MacOS and Windows (be sure to scroll down, may not be obvious there are more than 3 choices):
   1. Calibrite Display Plus HL (can handle up to 10,000 nits displays)
   2. Calibrite Display Pro HL (3000 nits is probably ideal, will be a long time before you need 4000+ in a monitor, though some TVs are there now).
   3. Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro
   4. Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus
   5. Datacolor Spyder X, Datacolor Spyder X2 Elite, Datacolor Spyder 5, Datacolor Spyder X2 Ultra, X-Rite i1 Display Pro, X-Rite i1 Display Pro Plus
   6. spectrophotometers (most accurate, ridiculously expensive): CR1-100, CR-250, Klein K-10, X-Rite i1 Display i1 Pro 2, X-Rite i1 Display i1 Pro 3
4. Check the modes you wish to calibrate, that should include at least HDR_PQ DCI
5. Click “start calibration” and follow the prompts. If you see an error, check the steps above and the troubleshooting info below.
6. If you created a custom user mode, go to the “device” tab and click the icon right of the name to set your own custom name (this will show in the on screen display of the monitor)

Here are some helpful links:

• User Manual
• ASUS ProArt Calibration software and drivers
  • Choose your operating system, and download the calibration software (Windows users might wish to install the driver, no need on MacOS)
  • Click the Bios and firmware tab to check for any updates (see the version installed on your monitor via Settings > Information).
    • If you need to update, be sure to follow the PDF instructions in the download very carefully (guaranteed pain if you don’t pay attention).
    • Be sure to format a memory stick with FAT32, copy the bin to it, and insert the memory stick in the correct port on the monitor.
  • You may wish to click “see all downloads” at the bottom of the list, but there’s probably nothing you need there.
• ASUS Display Widget lets you control many aspects of the monitor directly through the computer for convenience (currently only available for Windows).
• ASUS support article for calibration.
• Tech support. Note that it has been my experience that the phone system is flaky (poor connection quality). While online support is slower, I’ve had better results. If you follow the steps I’ve outlined here, you shouldn’t need it.

Troubleshooting:

• Cannot select HDR mode: make sure the refresh rate is set not too high
• You are able to pass test #1 to confirm you have HDR headroom, but the display looks clipped:
  • make sure you set the monitor as noted above (brightness must be “max”, which is only an option after you turn off “display uniformity).
  • do not use any custom ICC profile. This will break HDR. Switch back to the factory profile. You should only use the ASUS software (or CalMAN / ColourSpace) to calibrate in the monitor itself.
• If you fail test #1 (0 headroom) and/or see zero headroom in Lightroom but have HDR mode enabled in Windows:
  • I saw this immediately after calibrating. The overall display looked bright and clipped in this mode.
  • Simply toggling HDR mode in Windows system settings and the monitor did not help. But after I toggled HDR support on the internal laptop display and subsequently toggled it for the monitor (both in Windows settings), then it worked properly. I don’t know if it is a bug in the monitor or Windows, but I suspect it’s a Windows issue (given the involvement of other controls in the OS and no similar issues under MacOS).
• Color looks over-saturated after calibration:
  • There appears to be a bug in either MacOS or the ASUS software which may set the monitor profile to sRGB after calibration. Just go to System Settings / Display and change the profile back to PA32UCDM.
• Display looks wildly incorrect:
  • Make sure both the computer and display are in HDR mode (or both in SDR mode if that is your intent).
• An error occurred during calibration (may show as error 4156):
  • Make sure HDR mode is OFF in System Settings / Display in the computer. This is true even when calibrating for HDR.
  • Make sure Setup / HDR Preview is ON in the monitor settings (the calibration software appears to send a known SDR signal for the monitor to display as HDR during calibration).
  • Make sure night shift and true tone are off (may not errror, but will certainly invalidate the results).
• Calibration quits with an error:
  • Make sure MacOS / Windows HDR mode is off, even when calibrating an HDR mode (may show as error 4156)
  • Make sure the colorimeter is right over the target and the sensor is facing the screen with the diffusor cover out of the way (may show as error 1038)
• Color looks over-saturated after calibration:
  • Make sure System Settings / Display still show the factory PA32UCDM profile in use (I found MacOS switched to sRGB after calibration, changing back to the factory profile in MacOS settings then showed accurate post-calibration color).
• If the display starts cycling full screen blue, red, white, green, black (in that order, over and over):
  • I ran into this by trying to connect both the TB4 and HDMI cables, also while using the ASUS calibration software.
  • This is clearly an edge case, but one you should avoid as it makes the monitor appear like a broken product (does not respond to the power button, you have to physically unplug and replug it).
  • I also found that MacOS showed two monitors (which is expected), but then would keep showing one even after both were disconnected. I had to reboot MacOS.
  • So my sense is that both Apple and ASUS may show a bug when you connect both inputs from a Mac to the monitor.
  • Avoid the issue by only connecting one cable or the other. If you prefer HDMI, you may consider using a dock instead of trying to use the TB4 for downstream use (including the colorimeter, which should connect to the computer instead here).
  • If you run into this, power cycle the monitor and reboot the computer and all should be fine. It’s just a strange use case probably not fully considered / tested by the developers at one or both companies.
• See my main HDR troubleshooting page for additional things to check.

I’d like to extend a special thanks to B&H Photo for helping to facilitate access to a unit for testing for this review.

HDR: gain maps vs tone mapping

One of the greatest innovations to help improve the quality of HDR (“high dynamic range”) images is a technology known as a “gain map“. Their value is often misunderstood or overlooked, so in this article we’ll dive into what they are and why they are vastly better than the alternative.

TLDR summary: Always share HDR images with a gain map. This is easy to do and ensures that viewers who don’t have the same great screen as you will still see a beautiful image. Avoid sharing AVIF or JXL until gain maps are well supported in those formats. JPG gain maps offer excellent quality and are the best option in 2025. 

Backstory: what happens when you share HDR images?

When sharing photos online, there has always been some variability in the experience (even for SDR or “standard dynamic range” images). The viewer may have different brightness, black point, wide gamut support, or differences in how their software renders the image. There are ways to manage it, but it’s just a reality.

In the world of HDR photography, the differences in experience are a bit bigger. This is a huge step forward in image quality through new technology, so naturally older SDR monitors simply cannot show an image as HDR. The HDR images are simply adapted to the capabilities of an SDR display (rather than clipping, which would obviously be bad). The result is that the best possible image is shown, based on the capabilities of the display. When done properly, the worse case scenario is the same SDR image you would have shared, but a vastly better HDR experience where possible.

HDR images may also be adapted to less-capable HDR displays. The number of stops of additional dynamic range a monitor offers over SDR is known as “HDR headroom”. A great HDR display (such as those on a modern MacBook Pro) offers up to 4 stops of dynamic range. A less capable display might offer only 1 or 2 stops. An SDR-only display would have 0 stops of headroom. These capabilities are dynamic. When you make the display brighter, the headroom available for HDR decreases. So an HDR image will often need adaptation even on an HDR display.

While the gaps will shrink over time, we will probably never avoid the need for adaptation. This is particularly common for mobile devices, which will have reduced headroom when used in bright ambient light (or in low power mode). And we are also likely to see the best displays continue to improve for at least the next decade. The current best HDR displays support 1,600 nits of peak brightness. However, the full HDR standard allows up to 10,000 nits and there are already multiple TVs which support this level of capability. We won’t see that in computers anytime soon, but 5-6 stops of HDR headroom may be in our future (6 is likely the upper limit for benefit).

To sum things up, your audience will either see:

1. Your HDR image as you edited (if they have enough HDR headroom)
2. An adapted version of your image (the best possible version for their SDR or limited HDR display)

HDR adaptation: gain maps vs tone mapping

In scenario #1, your HDR image is shown as you edited it. Any valid HDR encoding will support that. However, it is easy to take for granted that scenario #2 applies on displays less capable than yours (or when used in brighter ambient light, etc).

In scenario #2, there are various ways the image can be adapted. There are two options today:

• Let the computer automatically generate the SDR version of the image. This is known as “tone mapping“.
• The artist can provide the SDR version of the image. This is done with a “gain map“. You can think of this like embedding both the SDR and HDR version in the same file (in reality, one version is stored normally along with a map to derive the other – this helps minimize file size)

If you share an image without a gain map, then tone mapping is used. It’s just the default when you don’t provide a better way to adapt the image.

You can create a gain map using Web Sharp Pro v6, which gives you 100% control over the base SDR image (as well enabling you to share optimal HDR images on Instagram and Threads). You can also create a gain map using Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW, which offer some artistic control over the SDR. Photomator also supports gain map exports, but offers no artistic control over the base SDR (and is therefore the same as letting MacOS tone map the image).

(1) HDR (gain map)

(2) HDR (simple AVIF, no gain map)

(3) SDR reference (Greg's original)

(4) SDR (from gain map, any browser)

(5) SDR (from simple AVIF in Chrome v133)

(6) SDR (from simple AVIF in Safari v18)

(7) SDR (from simple AVIF in FireFox v135)

Rollover each to compare different versions.

Your HDR headroom and browser will affect rendering for the HDR images (#1 and #2).

Only the gain map (#1) is able to achieve a perfect match to both my original HDR and SDR edits (as created in Photoshop).

The HDR AVIF (#2) will appear close when viewed with 3+ stops of HDR headroom, but shows a minor color shift in the sky in Chrome. When it is viewed on a less capable display, it will degrade significantly (as shown in the SDR screen captures in #5-7)

#3 is a direct export of my SDR edit (for reference to show the version I intended to share). The remaining images are screenshots from a browser showing one of the above HDR images on an SDR display (text changed to label the image).

The gain map (#4) is a perfect match to the desired SDR result. The tone map versions based on the simple HDR AVIF (#5-7) vary by browser and all are significantly degraded from the desired SDR result.

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Tone mapping has several downsides:

•  The SDR experience is almost always visibly inferior to the results using a gain map created by a skilled photographer.
  • An HDR-only image offers no creative control over how the image is adapted to less capable displays.
  • Compare #3 (a direct export of my SDR image for reference) with #4-7. The gain map is the only version that looks the way I intended. 
  • HDR eliminates many of the creative tradeoffs affecting SDR. The optimal edit often involves very specific local changes that a global tone mapper will not address.
  • For example, an SDR edit might show water in the foreground nearly as bright as the sunset sky (simply because we need to see water detail and the sky can’t be too bright if we wish to retain color in SDR). But in HDR, we can properly show the sky as brighter than the water. There is no global relationship between the SDR and HDR pixels, it depends on the image content.
  • An AI-based tone mapper might help close the gap, but that only further exacerbate the next concern (variability from one browser to the next).
• Moderate HDR displays also degrade
  • Any HDR display with less than the full headroom will use some tone mapping. The full HDR encoding above requires 3 stops of headroom. If your HDR display only supports 2 stops, you will see that the HDR AVIF (#2) is already significant degraded compared to the gain map (#1). The clouds have better detail/color and the water looks better.
  • So the SDR tone map examples are the worst case, but a significant number of HDR displays would show a loss of quality as well.
• There is no standard!
  • Compare versions #5-6 above. Chrome and Safari do not match.
  • Every browser does it differently and is subject to change over time (Safari v17 was different than v18, next year might be something else, etc).
  • Chrome (Edge/Brave/Opera) have the best tone mapping. It may be acceptable for some uses, but is still often inferior to a gain map.
  • Safari 18 introduced updated tone mapping. It is not nearly as good as Chrome, but is much closer than v17.
  • Safari 17 added tone mapping, but the results are truly awful.
  • These results are subject to change over time (and they have changed many times in the past couple years).
  • Other software (such as the Windows File Explorer, MacOS Finder, etc) may all use their own versions of tone mapping, or none at all.
  • There appear to be no serious efforts to standardize tone mapping for HDR photos.
• Lack of support on old browsers. Tone mapping may not be supported, resulting in images that fail to render (or show as nearly black).
  • The current version of FireFox will show HDR AVIF as a very dark image.
  • Many older browsers are still in use and will simply refuse to show an HDR-only image.
  • These issues apply to about 5% of browsers in early 2025. In time, these browsers will be updated/replaced to something which at least supports tone mapping.
• It creates more disparity between the printed and HDR version of the same image. Many photographers are concerned that the HDR image feels consistent with the print. This is easily achievable with a gain map, but not with tone mapping.

Gain maps offer several advantages:

• Artists can create a much higher quality SDR rendition for less capable displays (including limited HDR displays).
• It is possible to have 100% creative control of the image on any display, rather than only for the most capable displays (which are not the most common).
• The base SDR image is consistent with any print and can be printed. This makes the format vastly more attractive to the most skilled content creators.
• Renders consistently across browsers.
• Widely supported under an ISO standard.

What are the downsides to using a gain map?:

• There’s really only one: a gain map will increase file size by 15-30% (30% is typical for high quality). It is nowhere near doubling because a gain map uses a very creative approach to derive one version of the image from the other (rather than truly embedding two images in the same file).
• There are a few niche scenarios today where a piece of software might support HDR encoding but not a gain map (which would show the SDR version). This is very limited and quickly moving towards being a non-issue. Software supporting HDR image formats is generally adding gain map support, and we will soon be encoding gain maps in formats such as AVIF or HEIC (which can encode the base image as an HDR and the map is used to generate the SDR).

There are many misperceptions gain maps, because understanding them requires a solid understanding of both the art and software development. Here are a few key points to know about gain maps:

• Gain maps are not limited to JPG (or just intended for 8-bit formats).
  • There are already implementations or proposals to use gain maps with HEIC, AVIF, JXL, PNG, TIF, and DNG.
• A JPG gain map is not an 8-bit HDR:
  • A gain map is two images embedded in the same file (ie two 8-bit images when using JPG).
  • That means an HDR JPG is actually based on 16-its of data (though the quality is not directly comparable to a 16-bit native format, there is more than enough data to avoid quantization / banding concerns when the image is properly encoded).
• Gain maps are NOT a “hack” to provide HDR in an 8-bit format, they are also critical to quality at much higher bit depths
  • It is true that gain maps help overcome banding issues when encoding HDR in a JPG, but that they serve a much more important role.
  • Higher bit depths do not help your HDR image adapt to an SDR display.
  • The key reason to use JPG gain maps today is because they are 100% safe (even if you have a monitor and browser from 1990s, you’ll still see a great SDR image).
• Newer formats like AVIF / HEIC / JXL will be preferable to JPG – but only once we can safely use them with gain maps.
  • That will offer smaller file sizes (typically 30% smaller) and even higher image quality (less risk of banding, less visible artifacts).
  • SDR AVIF is already well supported, so AVIF with base image encoded as SDR is the most likely next major format (and likely to be a great option in 2026).
  • Longer term, encoding a format like AVIF with a base HDR image will likely be the optimal choice. The base image is always shown at full quality, and you can therefore more aggressively compress a gain map with a base HDR image (because loss of quality is less of a concern in the less important SDR rendering). In the long run, these formats should allow high quality HDR gain maps which are smaller than the SDR-only JPGs we share today (though SDR will of course get much smaller with these formats as well).
• In some cases, sharing a simple HDR image will be transcoded (converted) to a gain map for you. This eliminates browser variability, but the results are almost universally terrible. Do not let a computer create your art, this is hardly better than automatic tone mapping. See: great HDR requires a great SDR in the gain map.
• It is important that transcoding software support both gain maps and high bit depth formats (such as AVIF). Both approaches will be widely used (ideally together), and therefore should be supported to ensure the output is comparable to the source.

 

Are there any alternatives?: ICC tone maps

Not every image is needs maximum quality. This creates a scenario where neither of the above approaches is ideal. The benefit of gain maps is lower and so the file size is therefore more of a concern. At the same time, browser variability in tone mapping is still a concern. And that’s why there are ongoing efforts to create a third option: ICC tone maps.

There are ongoing efforts to create a standardized way to embed a tone map into an image using an ICC profile with a LUT (lookup table). This does add to file size, but less than a gain map. Storing the tone map into a profile has a few benefits. First, it can eliminate browser by browser variability (at least once widely supported). And second, it allows for the tone mapping to be more customized to a specific image. For example, your phone might analyze the image or consider your use of portrait mode to pick the best ICC tone map to embed in the image.

This is an attractive option for mobile capture and sharing, where images are rarely edited by humans and file size is a frequent concern for bandwidth and power on a phone. It is unlikely to be a suitable replacement for gain maps for skilled artists editing their images. And it would not support the potential for better automated approaches where an AI might create the SDR rendition of a gain map.

 

Conclusions: gain maps vs tone mapping

HDR images must be adapted to less capable displays. Even as we move towards a future when all displays are updated to HDR, we will still have situations where some are less capable and require adaption. This is a long term concern, but is easily managed.

The key points to remember are:

• Gain maps offer superior image quality over tone mapping on most displays (anything less than the most capable HDR displays under optimal conditions).
• It is easy to create gain maps through Web Sharp Pro (which supports Photoshop) and Lightroom.
• Avoid sharing JXL or AVIF on the web until gain maps are well supported (they’ll be great later). JPG gain maps work very well and are the ideal format to use in 2025.
• ICC tone maps may be a good solution for automatically derived images (such as direct sharing of smart phone photos) to avoid  browser variability, while minimizing file size impact.
• Tone maps offer the lowest quality for display on anything less that premium HDR displays, but may be the best choice when file size is much more important than image quality.

How to create an HDR timelapse

I’m very excited to see that the popular LRTimelapse app now supports the ability to create an HDR time lapse video from your HDR photos in Lightroom. Many of you have been asking me how to create HDR time lapses, or to create HDR video from your photos. Both of these are great ways to share your work. And this also gives you more options to share your HDR work (such as to share HDR on Facebook, which does not yet support photos but does support video).

I haven’t had a chance to try it yet myself, but certainly will soon and I look forward to sharing my experience when I can! But given how many of you have specifically asked me about how to do this, I wanted to make sure you were aware of this new capability in a widely loved program for timelapse. The current capability supports timelapse and isn’t really designed to make slideshows (ie show the same image for more than a frame), but perhaps we’ll see that added too in the future.

If you’ve tried it, please share your thoughts below!

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