One of the most confusing aspects with true HDR photography is managing the different HDR image formats. This guide shows how to output the right image format for popular uses and applications, including websites, Google Photos, Apple Final Cut Pro X, Apple Keynote and Instagram. There is a somewhat confusing set of formats and file types, including AVIF (.avif), JPEG XL (.jxl), gain-mapped JPEG (.jpg) and Apple’s HEIC (.heic).
The good news is that it is possible to output all possible variations from a combination of Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop.
You may also be interested in the following articles:
Comprehensive Guide to “New” or True HDR Photography
What is the Perfect True HDR Photography Workflow?
Guide to HDR Image Formats: JPEG with Gain Map, JPEG XL, AVIF and HEIC/HEIF
How to export the right format from Photoshop and Adobe Camera RAW
For photo editing, like many people, I use a combination of Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop (when the capabilities of Adobe Camera RAW are not sufficient). Over the years, the functionality of Adobe Camera RAW has been enhanced, meaning I have less need to use Photoshop.
Once you’ve imported your RAW file into Adobe Camera RAW, make sure you select the ‘HDR’ option to enter the wonderful world of HDR photography.
Editing in Adobe Camera RAW is performed in exactly the same way as with standard (non-HDR) editing. Once you have made your adjustments (and if you have no need to use Photoshop), HDR files can be exported in the following formats directly from Adobe Camera RAW:
- AVIF, making sure HDR Output and Maximise Compatibility (to create a gain map) are ticked
- JPEG XL (also making sure HDR Output is ticked)
- JPG (with HDR Output ticked). A gain map is always produced.
While HDR images will look great on displays with HDR capabilities, it is important to deliver decent images where the device, application or browser does not support HDR images. Selecting Maximise Compatibility ensures that output files contain what is called a ‘gain map’ that essentially tells the device, application or browser how to show the image on a non-HDR display.
With Camera RAW, you’ll notice that, as well as the usual settings under Light for attributes like Exposure, Highlights etc, there is an additional panel for SDR settings. Ticking Preview for SDR gives a separate set of controls to tweak the look of the image on non-HDR displays – which then are used to generate the gain map.
By optimising settings for HDR and non-HDR displays, you guarantee that your image will look as good as possible on any device.
For those requiring the extra functionality of Photoshop, things become more involved. The Save As option in Photoshop only includes JPEG XL. I didn’t realise for a long time that, when in Photoshop, you can actually enter Adobe Camera RAW (to perform additional tweaks) as it can be selected under the ‘Filter’ menu. Once in Adobe Camera RAW, you have all the HDR export options available. I’ve been so used to thinking that RAW images start in Camera RAW and end in Photoshop, whereas images can always begin and end in Camera RAW.
How to create gain-mapped AVIF files to embed on websites
Particularly when many photography sharing sites do not fully work with HDR images, perhaps the simplest way of taking control of your own images in the short term is to incorporate them within your own website. This gives you control over their quality and exactly how they are displayed (full images and thumbnails).
If you want to embed an HDR image on a website, the easiest way to do this is with a gain-mapped AVIF file, and the good news is that both Chrome and Safari browsers (and others) support the display of AVIF images. In the future, JPEG XL is expected to become more widely supported but gain-mapped AVIF is the way to go currently.
As discussed above, AVIF images to be embedded in a website can be created by Adobe Camera RAW easily. Make sure you select the HDR Output and Maximise Compatibility options, Additionally, you can tweak the options for image dimensions and quality level to ensure you don’t end up with unwieldy file sizes.
The image below is an example of an .avif file.
Bear in mind that, while Wordpress can allow AVIF to be added to its Media Library, Wordpress sites generally automatically create smaller versions of images for display on different types of devices, and this conversion process usually wrecks the display of HDR. The good news is that this can be fixed easily, and I will be writing a guide on this shortly.
How to create HDR images for photo storage/sharing sites (e.g. Apple Photos and Google Photos)
To date, photo storage/sharing sites have been relatively slow to embrace true HDR images. For example, I have used Smugmug for many years because of its gallery customisations, ability to store and display full resolution images and the capability to have folders containing multiple galleries. So, it’s very frustrating that HDR images are not yet supported. This also surprises me as companies are missing out on potential new revenue.
There is so much discussion online about the death of still photography, and here we are with new technology that could help to reinvigorate the market for these companies.
Among the major sites, Google Photos currently supports HDR images (sort of), although there are some profound limitations. Even in the best case, thumbnails are not shown in HDR (using Google Chrome or the Google Photos mobile ap). HDR is not currently shown at all with the Safari browser. While I can confirm that Google Photos can upload AVIF files, they did not display as HDR. I could not load JPEG XL (.jxl) images at all. The only success I had was with (flawed) gain-mapped .jpg files. These displayed in HDR fine (as shown below). However, 8-bit gain-mapped JPEGs are inadequate for archiving due to their poor image quality.
Another irritating feature with Google Photos is with video. While you can upload 4k HDR videos, you have to wait for its (presumably YouTube) servers to process the HDR format. As with YouTube, this can take days, weeks or never happens at all. In comparison (as discussed below), HDR videos were displayed perfectly with Apple Photos.
All in all, Google is a laggard when it comes to HDR support, and its earlier decision to not support JPEG XL files was a big mistake.
Compared with Google’s disappointing Photos service, Apple Photos fares much better in terms of HDR file support. It supports AVIF, HEIC and JPEG XL (JXL) files – both losless and lossy. Its support for JPEG XL (which I use to store lossless HDR images) has made it the service of choice for true HDR photographers currently.
Apple Photos is far from perfect, however. Thumbnails and slideshows are not shown in HDR. Apple now seems to have two distinct sharing options. Its Shared Albums option is dreadful. After a few hours trying to make this work, I realised that Apple compresses images dramatically and removes HDR from videos.
Rather than improving Shared Albums, Apple has left it as it is, and introduced its iCloud Shared Photo Library. While this, thankfully, does not compress images or remove HDR from videos, its functionality is extremely limited. It only allows you to share a single shared library in its entirely, without the option to create individual galleries.
Apple TV is also currently a significant weakness. While there is the Apple Photos app on Apple TV (so you can access and display your photo collection – even when stored in lossless JPEG XL), photos are not currently displayed in HDR. This seems an unfortunate omission from a company trying to promote Apple TV as an effective way of displaying media on 4k HDR TVs.
Apple Photos’ support of HDR videos is excellent. Uploads were displayed immediately in HDR format.
Unbelievably, I have been able to find only one photo sharing site that can display gallery thumbnails as well as clicked photos in HDR format. That is Zonerama. I can confirm that it does work with AVIF files exported from Adobe Camera RAW ( although the ‘Maximise Compatibility’ has to be turned off for HDR to display). The basic service is free for unlimited storage, so I guess I cannot complain. However, I find that customisation of galleries is very limited. To my eyes, the look of the site is visually messy. The service (in my testing) is too slow and the app is rather painful to use. I would love to see a premium service with excellent responsiveness and customisation options. It’s just not a mainstream option currently, which is a real shame as they had a first-mover advantage. Also, not being able to archive JPEG XL files is a deal breaker.
At this stage, it is worth mentioning that users of Adobe Lightroom can create online HDR photo albums, but don’t get too excited. This is totally underwhelming at present, which is a real shame given the outstanding HDR functionality built into Lightroom, Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop. Thumbnails are not in HDR and the slideshow option does not display in HDR either. Only by clicking a thumbnail can you view a ‘full’ image in HDR. Given that online visitors to a gallery are initially presented with thumbnails to showcase a photographer’s work, why would you want this first view to be of non-optimised, non-HDR images?
You have probably sensed that my review of current capabilities has left me rather irritated. Hopefully, 2026 will bring some major enhancements. Currently, Apple is the clear leader as a result of enbracing the exciting JPEG XL image format. If Apple adds HDR to its Apple TV Photos app, improves sharing with Apple Photos and supports HDR JPEG XL in Apple Messages, the Apple ecosystem will be a very attractive option for True HDR photographers.
How to create and use HDR images in Apple Final Cut Pro and Keynote
Apple’s Safari browser can display HDR images (including JPEG XL) and Apple offers an impressive set of HDR-capable systems and displays with 1600 nit maximum brightness, including:
- iPhones (with OLED screens)
- iPad Pros (with OLED screens)
- Macbook Pros (with extremely impressive mini-LED screens)
- Pro XDR mini-LED standalone display.
With the launch of new standalone HDR displays expected in 2026 (such as a replacement of the Apple Studio display), it is not surprising that Apple sees strong benefit in driving the use of HDR images.
Apple’s Final Cut Pro video editing software can create some very compelling slideshows of HDR images. These can be shared on YouTube. My testing found that the latest version of the software could directly read .jxl (JPEG XL), .avif, gain-mapped .jpg and .heic files.
As a demonstration, here is a slideshow of my HDR images produced by Final Cut Pro:
For more information on how you can use HDR images with Apple Keynote, visit my article Apple Upgrades Keynote with HDR Image Capability.
Apple still actively uses its own HDR-enabled HEIC format (for example, producing .heic files from its latest HDR-enabled screen capture tool on macOS). While HEIC is not widely adopted outside the Apple ecosystem, Adobe Camera RAW reads HEIC files, and so images can be converted easily to more widely compatible formats.
iPhone users will be glad to know that photographs stored in ProRAW format (for the best possible quality) can be read by Adobe Camera RAW perfectly.
How to share and display HDR images on social media (e.g. Instagram)
Many photographers dislike Instagram for many reasons, including the facts that it favours low-quality video ‘reels’ over still images and applies image compression. As I enjoy creating high-resolution images for display on large screens, I find Instagram’s maximum image dimensions (a paltry 1080 pixel maximum width) combined with aggressive image compression too painful to bear. Despite all of this, Instagram actually supports HDR images, albeit in the flawed gain-mapped JPEG format. It is not straightforward to produce compatible images. These can be viewed by Instagram’s mobile application or through the Chrome browser. HDR display with the Safari browser is currently not supported.
Instagram requires .jpg file (with an embedded gain map) but, for technical reasons not discussed here, files produced by Adobe Camera RAW are not fully compatible with Instagram’s current system. However, there is a solution. Greg Benz – a true HDR photography enthusiast – has created an excellent Photoshop plug-in called Web Sharp Pro. This will produce .jpg files that work well if Instagram is your thing.
Here is Instagram in HDR using Google Chrome – thanks to Greg Benz.
Please don’t be put off
You’ve probably guessed by now that True HDR photographers may be messing around with different file formats for quite some time. It shouldn’t put you off, but it can be a bit of a pain! Making a commitment to True HDR Photography may need a re-evaluation of your platform, devices, applications and workflows. Currently, Apple seems to be setting itself up as the platform of choice for True HDR photographers.
Apple’s early support for the JPEG XL format can make workflows much simpler. In my own workflow, I am ignoring the flawed gain-mapped 8-bit JPEG format – with compromised HDR image quality and unnecessarily large file sizes. True HDR Photography deserves future-proof (at least 10-bit) image formats that show what HDR can deliver for still images, such as lossless (and lossy) JPEG XL and AVIF (for websites due to broader browser support).
For more information, visit:
What is the Perfect True HDR Photography Workflow?
Guide to HDR Image Formats: JPEG with Gain Map, JPEG XL, AVIF and HEIC/HEIF