If you're a YouTube creator, HDR (high dynamic range) video is a skilful style to draw eyeballs and brand your footage look as beautiful as possible. Compared to standard video (SDR), it's far brighter and more than colorful — virtually more real than reality.

With that in mind, I decided earlier this summer to create Engadget's outset 4K HDR video for YouTube on Fujifilm's Ten-T4 and document the procedure in an explainer. How difficult could it be? Little did I know that it would turn out to be a trainwreck in almost every possible way. In the cease, I ran out of time and failed to postal service the video in HDR.

Simply I'chiliad stubborn, and so I tried over again and this time, I succeeded. Withal, it was still a huge challenge, so this commodity and the accompanying video are as much a cautionary tale as a how-to guide. I'm besides calling out tech companies (particularly Microsoft and Google) and asking them to step up and make it easier for both viewers and creators.

What'due south holding creators back from HDR?

I went through hell creating an HDR video so you don't have to

Steve Dent/Engadget

If y'all're a producer, HDR video can elevate your work considering it'due south simply brighter and more colorful than standard video. The benefits are more dramatic than 4K, which just delivers extra resolution that many people can't even see.

While few people own HDR monitors, plenty of folks take HDR televisions and HDR smartphones. If you have a newer HDR-capable phone or Television and desire to see the stunning deviation between SDR and HDR, picket an ordinary video and then scout this ane.

If you're at present feeling motivated, let me bring you back downwardly to Globe. Producing HDR is extremely challenging, and depending on what equipment you lot accept and your level of ambition, it may not be worth your fourth dimension. It requires you to know a agglomeration of different standards, complex color space concepts and endless jargon similar "MaxFALL" and "Rec.2020."

It'south begging for a more streamlined process from acquisition to post-production to final commitment on YouTube. Unfortunately, the key players have focused on professional HDR product and streaming delivery to consumers on HDR TVs. Meanwhile, piffling attending has been paid to YouTubers or PC users. As a consequence, the experience is pretty miserable on a Windows 10 PC or Mac and browsers like Google Chrome.

To start, HDR is completely broken on YouTube on PCs right at present, and has been for at least two months, thanks to a issues on all Chrome-based browsers and also the clunky style that Windows 10 handles HDR. While it might not bear upon that many users, it clearly affects creators who took the fourth dimension to craft an HDR video. It'southward too very demotivating for anyone thinking of making an HDR video (i.e., me) because many folks can't even play it on their PC right now.

If you're not besides discouraged yet, read on. While shooting and editing 4K is not that different from producing HD, HDR changes the entire color space, forcing y'all to rethink how you shoot, edit and color-right your videos.

What is it?

Steve Dent/Engadget

Steve Dent/Engadget

To produce HDR, information technology's best to have a decent agreement of how information technology works. For a more technical dive into HDR, check out Engadget'southward explainer video. For the purposes of this story, though, I've included a brief explanation here, every bit well.

HDR'south main draw is the extra brightness. Display brightness is commonly expressed in "nits" of peak brightness. HDR increases dynamic range by increasing brightness, which in turn boosts the contrast betwixt lite and dark images, measured in photographic "stops."HDR is designed to become upwardly to 10,000 nits, around 30 to xl times more than than the screen you're probably looking at correct now.

The other thing HDR offers is a wider range of colors (called a gamut) and more than colors within that gamut (the bit depth). Certain hues, particularly very saturated colors, are visible on HDR displays but not on standard TVs, projectors or computer displays.

HDR uses a colour gamut called Rec.2020, while SDR uses a gamut called Rec.709. While both are much narrower than the gamut of colors your optics can perceive, Rec.2020 tin prove over 100 percent more color than SDR, making for a noticeably richer experience.

Color Gamut

Engadget

HDR devices also evangelize more colors within that gamut by increasing chip depth. Older Rec.709 HDTVs and cameras were by and large limited to displaying 8-bit color information, significant that each pixel has 256 levels betwixt blackness and white luminance. This ways yous can ofttimes see "banding" or blocky color transitions in subtle gradient areas in skies or shadows.

However, HDR TVs and cameras using Rec.2020 standards can record and display colour in 10 or more than $.25, so you get ane,024 levels of luminance between the blackest black and whitest white and over a billion colors. That delivers much smoother gradients between colors and shades.

One key matter to know well-nigh HDR is that there are two flavors: PQ (or perceptual quantizer) and HLG (hybrid log gamma). Explaining those is beyond the telescopic of this article, merely both utilize the Rec.2020 wide color gamut. The main difference is that HLG is designed for onetime-school circulate signals, and then it's backward compatible with SDR's Rec.709. PQ (likewise known as ST.2084) isn't backward compatible, so it's trickier to work with but generally delivers better HDR results.

Shooting

Gallery: I went through hell creating an HDR video so you don't have to | 29 Photos

The key to shooting HDR is to have the correct equipment and setup. Beware that this is a simplified guide for novices. For a more detailed swoop, check out this series from Mystery Box, a visitor responsible for many popular HDR videos on YouTube.

Can you shoot HDR with a camera that lacks an HDR-friendly log, along with 10-chip recording functions? Sure. Will it look great? No. You're more likely to finish upwards with banding, clipping, detail loss, washed-out colors and an epitome that simply doesn't measure out upwardly.

You demand a photographic camera that supports log recording and RAW video or x-bit recording at a minimum. That way, your image is recorded into a wide-gamut color space that maximizes dynamic range, while letting y'all record the about colors into that space.

You might have guessed it past now, but your entry-level DSLR or mirrorless photographic camera won't cut it. Luckily, cameras with those aforementioned capabilities are far cheaper than they used to exist. Panasonic's GH5 can now be found for $one,300 (body only); the Fujifilm Ten-T3 is just $1,000; and Blackmagic Pattern's Pocket Movie theater Camera 4K costs $i,300. The latter model can record 12-bit RAW video, while the first two tin shoot 10-bit video internally and externally. All offer log recording.

I went through hell creating an HDR video so you don't have to

Steve Dent/Engadget

If your budget is more flexible, accept a look at models like the Fujifilm 10-T4 ($one,700), BMPCC 6K ($2,000), Panasonic's S1 ($2,000), Nikon'southward Z6 ($ane,850) or Catechism's all-new EOS R6 ($2,500 on preorder). On the higher end of the scale is Panasonic'due south $4,000, Netflix approved S1H, Canon's new $3,900 EOS R5 and Sony'south all-new, $three,500 A7S 3 (on pre-order). Again, all of those cameras offer log profiles, along with either RAW recording or at to the lowest degree 10-bit color depth.

Now you lot need to gear up it up. The first matter to do is plow on the appropriate log profile setting to maximize the dynamic range. Beware that the resulting image will look washed out, but information technology will let you bring out some stunning video in post. Some cameras have a display setting that makes it easier to shoot past letting you lot run into (but non record) a standard-looking image.

If you can afford information technology, your best bet is to employ an external recorder with an HDR display, like Blackmagic Design's $1,000 Video Assist 12G HDR or the $one,300 Shogun 7 HDR recorder from Atomos. That will allow you lot to employ a "LUT" (look-upward table) setting that makes wide-gamut log footage expect like regular Rec.709.

Once you first filming, exposure is crucial for HDR. Your best bet is to keep the log image away from the blacks and highlight regions and in the center of your exposure range (using a zebra overlay or histogram can assist with that). If you over- or under-betrayal the footage also much, you won't be able to recover highlight or shadow detail.

Editing equipment

Ideally, you'll need an editing system that lets you edit and form HDR. All the same, if you don't own a fancy monitor, computer or other equipment, you can still cheat your way to an HDR video. I'll become into item about that before long.

I went through hell creating an HDR video so you don't have to

Steve Paring/Engadget

Showtime, you'll need a fast Windows or Mac desktop or laptop, like something you'd be able to apply for gaming. The minimum spec is 16GB of RAM, a relatively recent four-core or better CPU and an AMD or NVIDIA GPU that's two generations former or newer. It should have USB-C with Thunderbolt support for Mac or PC, and an HDMI 2.0a output or meliorate. On peak of your system drive (ideally NVMe SSD), yous'll need a large second drive (at least 500GB) that'southward either SATA SSD or, ideally, NVMe SSD.

A faster PC would work better. Thirty-two gigabytes of RAM would be much, much better than 16GB. I'd adopt to have an RTX-level NVIDIA or Radeon 5000-series (5500 or higher up) GPU or a Radeon VII. Unlike with gaming, actress CPU cores profoundly improve performance when it comes to HDR product. The more than, the better.

If you're looking into laptops, Gigabyte's Aero 15 WB is a good mid-range pick (yes, $one,900 is a mid-range option for HDR editing), with an RTX 2070 Max-Q GPU, six-cadre tenth-generation Intel Cadre i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD. Simply add another SSD (it tin can take 2) and you're fix to go. On the higher finish, the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition comes with an Intel Core i7-10875H CPU, an NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD for $3,100. If neither fits your budget, you tin can probably build a well-specced desktop PC for less.

If you're an Apple person, y'all'll probably want a xvi-inch MacBook Pro. They beginning at $two,400 with AMD Radeon Pro graphics, but the best configuration offers AMD Radeon Pro 5500M graphics (8GB), a bright 500-nit brandish, a tenth-gen 8-cadre Intel Core i9 CPU and 1TB of storage for $3,200. If a desktop model is what yous're later, the 27-inch iMac starts at $one,799. Or, if you've actually got the greenbacks, get an iMac Pro (starting at $5,000) or the $half dozen,000-and-upwardly Mac Pro.

For the all-time results, you're going to demand some kind of HDR grading monitor. That's a complicated subject field, so I'll attempt to simplify it. The best "affordable" grading monitors are ASUS' mini-LED $4,600 ProArt PA32UCX (pictured below) or Apple's $5,000 Pro Brandish XDR, as they offer authentic colors and extremely bright output (one,200 and ane,600 nits, respectively). However, even those aren't considered truly professional compared to grading displays similar Sony's $30,000 BVM-HX310.

ASUS ProArt PA32UCX professional display

Steve Dent/Engadget

In a pinch, you lot can use any decent ten-chip HDR monitor, with some models costing under $600. Simply be aware that they won't be as vivid or every bit accurate as the monitors mentioned above. Along with the ASUS ProArt model, I edited this HDR video using BenQ'due south $ii,000 SW321C, which isn't almost as bright but is merely equally colour accurate. Dell's 27-inch 4K U2720Q offers DisplayHDR 400 brightness in an IPS panel, with ten-chip colour for $600.

Some other selection is just to use a good 4K HDR TV set. Generally, the more you spend, the brighter and more than color accurate it'll be. Many models from Vizio, TCL, HiSense, LG, Sony, Samsung and others should fit the beak. On top of an HDR grading monitor or Telly, you'll need a regular monitor for your editing software (unless y'all're content to use a laptop display). That can be near any PC monitor, but as usual, it's amend to spend the most you tin can.

There'south 1 slice of equipment you lot need but may not even know exists. Video capture/playback devices let you lot properly display an HDR (PQ or HLG) signal on your monitor or Television receiver. You'll need this considering your GPU isn't capable of outputting a dedicated HDR video signal from editing software. So, without one, you'll take no way of monitoring your HDR video for editing or color grading.

If you have a desktop PC and gratuitous PCIe slot, you can purchase a product like Blackmagic's DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K for as niggling as $195. That will give y'all a 4K HDR output via HDMI 2.0, and you can connect that directly to your HDR display.

With a laptop y'all'll need, at a minimum, Blackmagic Design's $145 UltraStudio Monitor, which connects to your PC via a Thunderbolt port and supports HDR at up to 1080p30. While it can't brandish 4K resolution, you'd encounter your colors accurately. To do this video, I borrowed Blackmagic Design'southward $995 UltraStudio 4K Mini, which connected to the Thunderbolt port on my Gigabyte Aero 17. It supports 4K 60p HDR output and recording via HDMI 2.0b or professional person SDI ports, and presented zero issues with either the ASUS ProArt or BenQ displays.

Editing and grading

I went through hell creating an HDR video so you don't have to

Steve Paring/Engadget

Later on shooting, you'll have footage that looks pretty tiresome and crappy, but don't worry. Yous'll reap the benefits in post-production.

I'grand using Blackmagic Design's $300 DaVinci Resolve 16 Studio software for editing and color grading, just considering information technology has better tools than Premiere Pro for producing HDR content. (Notation that the free Resolve version isn't appropriate for HDR as it lacks many of the primal features needed.) I'grand assuming that y'all're familiar with DaVinci Resolve editing and grading tools and have correctly prepare the aforementioned gear. If not, I'd propose starting your research hither.

Editing and grading on Resolve in HDR is as well complicated to explain in a single article. Nonetheless, you can check out this excellent mail on the subject from Mystery Box. That article is ane in a 5-part guide on doing HDR from theory to shooting to posting.

How-to videos are also, generally, hard to observe on YouTube, just this 1 from Reelisations explains the basics and is actually in HDR, to kicking. Another guide from Film Resolved explains exactly how to deliver HLG HDR video to YouTube if y'all don't have an HDR display. Finally, the site Labo de Jay has some detailed YouTube explainers on HDR forth with sample footage in all major HDR formats (in French with English subtitles).

The key takeaway hither is that y'all have to modify Resolve's color infinite to HDR, either PQ or HLG. I'd recommend HLG to start because it supports both SDR and HDR on YouTube.

Davinci Resolve 16.2 color page

Steve Dent/Engadget

Past using HLG, you can edit and colour correct your footage without the need for an HDR display or a video display device. Just cut and course your video unremarkably, and then export it to YouTube and check the HDR image on an HDR smartphone or TV. If you don't similar what you lot run into, you tin can brand adjustments and repeat the process until y'all do. This tin be a pain, but information technology does make HDR doable on the cheap.

As mentioned, I graded the video accompanying this article using HLG. As I have two HDR displays on loan, I was able to check my project both in SDR and HDR at the same time. I needed to make some compromises, though. If I gear up the dissimilarity and saturation where I wanted in SDR, it was overly contrasty and saturated in HDR. However, if I adjusted the HDR to look reasonably natural, the SDR paradigm lacked dial and color.

In the cease, I figured that far more than people would meet the video in SDR, and so I graded it for that. It made the HDR hyper-realistic in terms of color and dissimilarity, simply gives folks who watched it on HDR smartphones and TVs a good thought of the potential. If you lot try to post your own HDR video and use HLG, you'll have to figure out your own compromise. Even so, if you endeavor to become the best of both and utilise PQ HDR — which uses metadata to assist YouTube sort out HDR from SDR — then best of luck. Information technology cost me many sleepless nights.

Wrap-upward

I went through hell creating an HDR video so you don't have to

Steve Paring/Engadget

Despite its enormous potential, HDR for YouTube creators is withal archaic and broken in some ways. That'southward besides bad, because all the pieces are there. Features like log and even RAW video accept come to inexpensive cameras. And, with a relatively small investment in a PC, display and some other extras, anyone tin can create a mini HDR product studio.

But it'southward tricky to learn and the PC features required for YouTube creators are hard to use. HDR on YouTube for PCs depends on the Chrome browser engine, only Google and Microsoft have left the Windows version in a broken state for months.

It's still worthwhile learning how to make HDR content, even if you don't take an HDR display. Notwithstanding, clearly, creators and their fans won't purchase into it en masse if the companies behind information technology aren't interested. So, the camera makers, editing software companies and streaming platforms take to piece of work together to brand information technology more functional. Until that happens, HDR volition remain a YouTube niche.