HDR is the latest big buzzword thats making
its rounds around the industry, and is shaping
up to be one of the most exciting new developments
in the video industry since 1080p. Unfortunately
it can be a bit tricky to explain so we thought
we would go through some of the main things
you need to know about HDR.
Firstly, the HDR we are talking about is different
to the photography term which has been around
for years. HDR photography is when you take
several pictures at different exposures and
then blend them together in post to get the
detail in the shadows as well as the sky.
But the HDR we are talking about is just one
single exposure, nothing changes on the camerawork
side of things at all, but its graded to take
advantage of new HDR compatible displays that
are able to show a far wider dynamic range
than normal TV’s and monitors can.
So what do we mean by normal screens. Well
pretty much every TV or monitor so far uses
a standard called Rec.709 which has been around
since 1990. Although our cameras can record
well over 10 stops of dynamic range nowadays,
rec.709 can only display between 6&7 stops.
Ultra HD Premium is a new TV standard which
means that a 4K TV is HDR compatible. For
a TV or monitor to be able to display HDR
it needs to have a high enough contrast ratio,
dark enough black’s and bright enough whites.
It also needs to be able to accept 10-bit
colour, and display a wider range of colours
than the normal rec.709 technology can. A
few of the most modern TV’s you can buy
will be able to display HDR, its not that
common just yet, but i’m sure we will be
seeing a lot more of it over the next year
or so.
So once people have TV’s which can display
HDR, we need some HDR content to show on them.
Luckily on the camera acquisition side of
things our current cameras are already perfectly
capable of capturing HDR, you just need to
use a log format to make sure you are recording
as many stops of dynamic range as you can.
We are now starting to see some products that
enable us to monitor in HDR on set, for example
Atomos have brought out their Flame series
or monitor recorders and SmallHD have released
their large production monitors with HDR capabilities.
This means when you filming in log and intend
to grade and distribute in HDR, you will be
able to see the image on set using the same
technology.
Then once you have captured your footage you
have to grade it to take advantage of the
extra dynamic range. This is where most of
the work is going to happen and where the
process differs from normal video production.
Grading software is starting to introduce
support for HDR, Resolve can handle it, the
latest premiere pro version can, and i’m
sure it wont be long before every video editing
software has some method of controlling HDR
images.
Then of course, once you have finalised your
grade and your HDR project is ready you’ve
got to actually get it to your audience. Distribution
is still very much a question mark when it
comes to HDR, the only certain is that online
streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon Video
have already started updating their key titles
to have HDR versions. Plus youtube has announced
it will support HDR content as well, although
no details have come out yet as to how that
will work. UHD Bluray’s will have HDR support
and who knows whether broadcasters will pick
it up for normal TV channels, but it is definitely
possible. Although the move to fullHD distribution
has been slow in the broadcast world, let
alone 4K, technically HDR wouldn't require
much extra bandwidth at all. So it could be
that we see a move towards HDR channels on
TV.
Hopefully that clears up some confusion about
HDR, but do you have any more questions? Are
you excited about the rise of HDR content?
Let us know in the comments below and make
sure to subscribe to this channel for more
videos like this.
Thanks for watching.
