Color Management Part 23: HDR tone mapping in practise by Chris Zwar

When John Lennon stated “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans”, he may need been speaking about plans for a video on coloration administration. Apologies that it’s taken so lengthy to get this one out, it was solely purported to take a couple of weeks after the earlier video, not a couple of months. But life occurs, and whereas I’m fortunate to have been busy with work since posting half 22, this sequence has needed to take a again seat to business initiatives.

Tone mapping will get difficult. And despite the fact that the essential idea is simple to know – we’re modifying a excessive dynamic vary picture for traditional dynamic vary shows – the numerous permutations and combos begin including as much as make it frustratingly complicated.

In part 22 I launched the essential idea of tone mapping, and the video ended by displaying how we will use 32 bit mode with sRGB initiatives. But sRGB was by no means meant for High Dynamic Range, and so the popular approach of compositing HDR video is utilizing ACES. But even right here, ACES isn’t only a button we will click on. Currently, we’ve three totally different ACES choices in After Effects, in addition to the unique Adobe Color Engine.

This video continues immediately on from the earlier one, Part 22. And we nonetheless haven’t completed – within the subsequent video I’ll display inverse show transforms, that are significantly essential when coping with company branding colours.

Although ACES solves many issues for visible FX artists, particularly these working in a big manufacturing pipelines, High Dynamic Range can nonetheless be a minefield for people or small studios engaged on movement design initiatives. This sequence has been aimed toward After Effects customers and the movement design trade, which is at present in a irritating state of affairs. While all digital cameras can file High Dynamic Range photos, and we’ve demonstrated that HDR compositing merely appears higher, nearly all of video deliveries are solely required to be Standard Dynamic Range Rec.709. This implies that if we need to use ACES for higher wanting, trade commonplace compositing, then tone mapping the HDR composition for SDR output should occur. While that is typically one of many fundamental strengths of ACES, the method could make movies darker than meant – a possible hazard for business movement designers. Indeed, generally it looks like video content material usually has gotten darker over the previous few years, and I’ve usually puzzled if ACES pipelines had been in charge.

This sequence has undoubtedly turn into a lot bigger than I ever anticipated, and there are components of this video that I really wrote a number of years in the past. The notion that “what you see is what you get” is now not true when working with HDR, was one of many key factors in my unique plan. When I first found that After Effects can not show HDR video within the person interface I used to be barely shocked. It wasn’t one thing I had considered, however it felt prefer it was a big deficiency on Adobe’s half.

It has taken me a couple of years to totally grasp the complexities, and acknowledge how integral the User Interface is to an enormous software like After Effects. Fundamental modifications to person interfaces are usually not straightforward! And but, just a few weeks in the past, Adobe launched After Effects 2025 – constructed on a model new person interface code base known as “Spectrum”. While there are certain to be some complaints for anybody who has to regulate to the change, and I’m positive a couple of early bugs will want squashing, what this hopefully means is that After Effects now has a model new basis on which to include future HDR options.

Right now, in October 2024, this video is correct: After Effects can not show HDR photos on a HDR monitor. After Effects 2025 has solely been out for a few weeks. But I’m wanting ahead to the time when this video turns into outdated, and After Effects is up to date to help native HDR within the composition viewer. I do not know when this can occur, and I can solely assume that when it does it’s going to have concerned an unlimited quantity of labor. But HDR is the long run, and so it’s solely a matter of time.

This is a component 23 in an extended sequence on coloration administration. If you’ve missed the opposite components, you’ll be able to catch up right here:

Part 1: The honeymoon is over

Part 2: Newton’s Prisms

Part 3: It’s all in the brain

Part 4: Maxwell’s spinning discs

Part 5: Introducing CIE 1931

Part 6: Understanding the CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram

Part 7: Introducing gamma

Part 8: Introducing Colorspaces

Part 9: The theory of a color managed workflow

Part 10: Using After Effects built-in color management

Part 11: Introducing OpenColor IO

Part 12: Introducing ACES

Part 13: OpenColorIO and After Effects

Part 14: Combining OCIO with After Effects

Part 15: Logarithmic file formats

Part 16: RAW video files

Unscripted: Looking at ACES and OCIO in After Effects 2023

Part 17: Linear Compositing

Part 18: Bit Depth

Part 19: Introducing High Dynamic Range

Part 20: High Dynamic Range Compositing just looks better!

Part 21: HDR Formats, Colorspaces and TLAs

Part 22: Introducing Tone Mapping

AND – I’ve been writing After Effects articles and tutorials for over 20 years. Please take a look at a few of my other ProVideo Coalition articles.