Higher Dynamic Range RESEARCH Laboratory September 15th -  22nd 2014

NEWS: In Sept 2014 CMIR (UWE) and the Bristol Vision Institute (University of Bristol) held the world's first HDR laboratory in the capture and Display of Higher Dynamic Range Images.


During Encounters Short Film Festival CMIR staged a Laboratory in Higher Dynamic Range research in Association with Bristol Vision Institute and the Faculty of Engineering of University of Bristol which represented one of the first Advanced Learning Environments in this subject area. Artists, engineers, academics, cinematographers and both PhD and MA students came together to research the production of a pathway for producing moving images with a higher dynamic range than standard TV.

Half the team, Geoff Boyle on left, Terry Flaxton on Right, Dr Sarah Sparke in the middle.

This built upon work created over the last several years in association with University of Bristol and BBC R & D.

We gathered together 2 RED One's, an Epic and 2 ARRI Amiras and a mirror rig to compile images with varying exposures to then merge them.
After assembling and going through the principles on day one, we began the exploration of the process on day two and shooting on day three with two artists, Rik Lander and Gina Czarneki. Cinematographer Geoff Boyle shot a series of tests to take individual and conjoined cameras through a 25 stop range to test the boundaries of exposure - these tests will be published here and on the CML website in the weeks to come.

Days 4 and 5 involved further shooting and post production to prepare the footage for display to the public on days 5 and 6, when  groups of the public were invited to come and see the results (each of the presentation sessions was over-subscribed).

For more information on the process of capture see: The Production of Higher Dynamic Range Video Price et al

For a discussion on the context for that production see: The Future of the Moving Image Flaxton

How Hollywood views HDR

Showing the Public the Results

Luminance rendered as F Stops

If you look at the top diagram it shows that the human eye/brain pathway uses 5 out of a 14 order of magnitude scale, sliding this instantaneous facility up and down the scale to deal with starlight at one end and desert sun at the other. (that 14 order scale is rendered as luminance in the diagram directly above.

All contemporary displays only currently show between 2 – 3 orders of this scale, but we now have a new prototype which displays across 5 orders and the BBC in turn have created a 200 frame per second projection system. 

The monitor used in the HDR Lab was the Dolby PRM 4220 Professional Reference Monitor.  In addition to being the Industry Standard for large screen high definition grading display, the Dolby PRM-4220 also offers a path to
the future. The new wave of high-resolution digital cameras feature extended dynamic range performance. Until now, monitors have only been able to display a small portion of these high-resolution images. The Dolby PRM-4220 is the first monitor capable of fully displaying the extended dynamic range at 600 cdm2, that the latest leading-edge cameras can capture.
The Dolby Professional Reference Monitor already supports native viewing of both 10-bit and 12-bit formats. As advanced 12-bit high-dynamic-range workflows such as the AMPAS IIF ACES and OpenEXR replace existing 10-bit workflows, the Dolby PRM-4220 is uniquely positioned to fully integrate into these emerging industry standards. It is the only Grade 1 monitor on the market that already supports these new workflows.

By combining variants of frame rate, resolution and dynamic range, we should be able to effectively produce ‘the perfect picture’ by then calibrating these functions to produce a combination that best resonates with our eye/brain pathway - and therefore conscious awareness. The proposition is that if we can manipulate all the factors of the construction of the digital image then conscious immersion may follow.

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