Re:An update on HDR and color management in KWin
by account42 on Wednesday December 20, 2023 @09:10AM
(#38708845)
I agree in general - sRGB and other SDR technologies are a hack to deal with tech limits. Removing those limits instead makes lots of things easier.
> Most professional photographers and serious hobbyists shoot in RAW format, which has always been a "HDR" format in all but name, typically capturing about 12 bits per channel instead of the 8 bits typical of SDR.
While RAW captures do have a greater dynamic range than your typical 8-bit sRGB image, they are still fairly limited compared to lighting conditions in the real world. There are plenty of scenes you won't be able to accurately capture in a single exposure even on high end cameras.
Also it's worth pointing out that using 12-bit RAW formats doesn't mean that there is 12 bits of useful information per pixel. At some point all you are doing is storing more precise noise. This is even more of a problem for phones with tiny lenses and image sensors - which is why they often take many exposures and magic them together into one image.
> Most professional photographers and serious hobbyists shoot in RAW format, which has always been a "HDR" format in all but name, typically capturing about 12 bits per channel instead of the 8 bits typical of SDR.
While RAW captures do have a greater dynamic range than your typical 8-bit sRGB image, they are still fairly limited compared to lighting conditions in the real world. There are plenty of scenes you won't be able to accurately capture in a single exposure even on high end cameras.
Also it's worth pointing out that using 12-bit RAW formats doesn't mean that there is 12 bits of useful information per pixel. At some point all you are doing is storing more precise noise. This is even more of a problem for phones with tiny lenses and image sensors - which is why they often take many exposures and magic them together into one image.