HDR grading
Also known as: high dynamic range grading
Grading for displays that show brighter highlights and deeper shadows than standard video, which changes how a picture is built.
Updated
What it means
Standard video has a fixed ceiling. Rec. 709 assumes a display of modest brightness, and everything in the grade is arranged under that limit. Nothing escapes it.
HDR raises the ceiling substantially. Specular highlights, sun on water and a bright sky can sit far above the rest of the image instead of being compressed into it. The range is the point, not the brightness.
That changes the craft rather than the settings. A HDR video grade uses brightness as an accent, and treating the whole image as brighter is the mistake almost everyone makes first. Brightness applied everywhere reads as glare rather than as range, and the picture loses the depth it was supposed to gain.
How it works in practice
It needs capable source material. A 10-bit color file in a Log profile carries the range; an 8-bit clip with a baked look has already thrown it away.
A reference display is not optional. Judging an HDR grade on a standard monitor is guesswork, and the result looks wrong on the devices it was made for. Phones and televisions disagree about this constantly.
Two masters are normal. A high range version and a standard one from the same grade, because an automatic conversion rarely respects either. The standard version is what most viewers see.
What to watch out for
Platform handling is inconsistent. The same file can play as high range on one application and as a flat, washed-out version on another, which is why a standard master still exists alongside it.
Action footage rarely needs it. A GoPro shooting a high contrast scene is not producing master material for this, and the camera option is about handling that contrast in the moment.
Mixed delivery breaks matching. A high range clip cut against a standard one reads as a brightness error rather than as a style, so one or the other has to win across the whole sequence.
How RawClip handles it
Delivery is a standard dynamic range master, because that is what plays predictably everywhere a highlight gets shared. Footage recorded in a flat profile is still graded to use its range, which is where most of the perceived depth comes from.