HDR Photography vs. HDR TVs
HDR Photography vs. HDR TVs
HDR Photography
HDR Photography has been around since film. It has become increasingly popular in the last few years especially with digital sensors on cameras progressing. HDR appears closer to what the human eye does, which is allow us to see a wider and deeper range of colors. You can see the lighter elements in what would normally be a shadow, and the sky or brighter elements could be darker. Nothing gets blown out of exposure.
"Separate photos are taken at different exposures during the process. These are called stops, and the amount of light is doubled from one to the next. So while the first stop produces an extremely dark image, the last result is exceptionally bright, lending better luminosity to the final portmanteau photo." - Tech Radar
See below for a few examples.
HDR TV and Video
It's an important distinction that HDR is not the same for video. You're still getting the expanded color and contrast, but there aren't several individual exposures involved in the process. The source content that is going through the screen has to be displayed appropriately in order for it to be clearly HDR.
End results are images with more contrast, and instead of several images being combined, it's using better technology to capture the footage from the moment of production.
Cause for Confusion
Tech Radar mentioned this important fact:
It can be confusing when two technology industries aimed at consumers are both claiming HDR capabilities in their products but mean two drastically different things.
HDR screens can display what's called HDR10, this is found in UHD Premium standard TVs as well. It is included in all Ultra HD Blu-rays, and can be streamed in several shows and movies on Netflix. Including the following:
- Chasing Coral
- A Series of Unfortunate Events
- Bloodline
- Chef’s Table
- Hibana
- Knights of Sidonia
- Marco Polo
- Marvel’s Daredevil
- Marvel’s Iron Fist
- Marvel’s Jessica Jones
- Marvel’s Luke Cage
- Marvel’s The Defenders
- The Do-Over
- The Ridiculous Six
There are several varieties of HDR created by manufacturers and as of now, HDR can mean any of their technologies added.
Dolby created Dolby Vision which supports up to 12-bit color (4096 shades of color) and "up to" 10,000 nits peak brightness (which is far brighter than any currently offered TV). It has 'dynamic tone mapping' that adjusts the brightness and contrast of scenes depending on how bright or dark they need to be. This is almost like a compressor for audio which helps raise the quiet sounds and quiet the loud ones.
HDR video is a landmark in entertainment history. We can now watch movies at home with the same color grading as seen in a movie theater. When broadcasters, and movies are shot in the best quality for HDR, this will be ideal. Remember that if you are streaming, use at least 25Mbps to watch HDR. Netflix uses adaptive streaming to allow the screens technology of HDR priority over the resolution in case of lower quality internet.
Steemians, what do you think of the two HDR's.
