AVIF HDR photos exported from Lightroom not rendered correctly on iPad Pro/iPhone XDR displays

Hello folks, I got some issues viewing HDR photos on iPad and iPhone that have XDR displays.


Setup

  • Used Adobe Lightroom (Lr for short) for iPad 9.0.0 8AFC9B/112 to edit and export .AVIF HDR photos.
  • Photos were correctly tuned in Lr on an iPad Pro, both color and exposure looks normal in edit previews.


Expectation

  • When viewing the AVIF photos on iPad Pro using the Photos app, the photos should look identical to the edit preview in Lr.


Actual Results

  • When viewing using the Photos app on both iPad Pro and iPhone, exposure and color are not consistent with the Lr edit preview on iPad Pro—you can see the sky in Lr was correct in blue, the exported AVIF viewed on the same iPad Pro showed a lot of cyan.


Note: The attached file is the photo I took of my iPad Pro: on the left is the AVIF exported from Lr, viewed using the Photos app; on the right is the edit preview in Lr. They were displayed on the iPad simultaneously in HDR mode using iPad's Stage Manager multiple task feature.


Originally I thought it was an Adobe Lr export issue. But I later viewed the exported AVIF in Lr for iPad, and everything looked alright. So I suspected there were rendering issues with the Photos app.


I want to raise the awareness of this issue since HDR exporting in Lightroom is fairly new. I hope everyone can view the amazing HDR photos on Apple devices with perfect rendering. Thanks.



iPhone 15

Posted on Nov 11, 2023 11:22 PM

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Posted on May 16, 2024 09:08 AM

I am doing the same thing. Exporting HDR AVIF from Lightroom. What I found is that the HDR photo would only display properly on the first device that I import it to, but would have the same issue as you if the photo is downloaded via iCloud from another device that the photo was initially imported to.


For example, if the AVIF was first AirDroped to my iPhone or iPad for import into the Photos app, the photo would display properly on it. But If I simply load it into my Mac’s Photos app, then it would only show correctly on my Mac, but not my iPhone or iPad.

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10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 16, 2024 09:08 AM in response to Catalium

I am doing the same thing. Exporting HDR AVIF from Lightroom. What I found is that the HDR photo would only display properly on the first device that I import it to, but would have the same issue as you if the photo is downloaded via iCloud from another device that the photo was initially imported to.


For example, if the AVIF was first AirDroped to my iPhone or iPad for import into the Photos app, the photo would display properly on it. But If I simply load it into my Mac’s Photos app, then it would only show correctly on my Mac, but not my iPhone or iPad.

Nov 29, 2023 08:15 PM in response to mattie172

Thanks for the reply.


Yes, Chrome browser officially supports AVIF, while the entire Apple ecosystem is not ready yet. At the moment, if I send an AVIF photo via iMessage, it's sent as a file, and the recipient can't open it in the latest iOS.


Glad to hear Chrome renders consistently as Lightroom does. Let's hope Apple can iron out this issue sooner.

Jul 29, 2024 07:31 AM in response to Catalium

I was very excited when I discovered that Lightroom introduced real HDR support for RAW files. This means I can now use all that dynamic range that is captured with my full frame camera. And also, all the images I have taken since 2009 when I godt my first DSLR, they images can now get new life in HDR (so glad I have kept the RAW files all those years).


For the longest time I have grown used to having HDR support for images taken with my iPhone, so being limited to SDR when developing my RAW files from my full frame camera in Lightroom was disappointing.


Unfortunately I have discovered the same as you - the AVIF HDR files exported from Lightroom are not rendered correctly in the Apple Photos app - blue sky becomes cyan and also, even though the brightness are high in the highlights, details are still clipping. Not really useful. With Google Crome on my MacBook Pro with XDR display, I can show the images correctly in stunning HDR like in the Lightroom development module.


However - I think I have found a solution - not without limitations - but a solution that might be good enough until Apple makes propper AVIF HDR support in the Photos app. Lightroom defaults (at least on my MacBook Pro) to 4 stops of dynamic range, taking advantage of the 1600 nits brightness capability of the screen. And the HDR images taken with my Nikon Z6II full frame camera looks truly astonishing when developed in HDR in Lightroom and shown on my MacBook Pro directly in Lightroom. Actually, I think they look much brighter in highlights, than the HDR images taking with my iPhone. So I thought that maybe 4 stops of HDR in Lightroom is simply too much for the Apple photos app to handle?


So I tried to limit the HDR to 2 stops in Lightroom. It still looks amazing compared to SDR, and more in line with the HDR images taking with my iPhone. With only 2 stops of HDR, I still need to compress the highlights a little, but it is much better than SDR. And when I export to AVIF and import into Apple Photos, it looks identical to the result in Lightroom. Also on my HDR capable iPhone and iPad. Blue skies are now blue, and no clipping in the highlights.


So my conclusion is that the Apple Photos app does not support more than 2 stops of HDR for still images (maybe because that is the limit with iPhone images). And to be honest - 4 stops of HDR - and the resulting very high brightness of clear blue skies can be a little overwhelming. So maybe 2 stops are a good compromise, and also in relation to viewability on less capable HDR screens.


I hope the above makes sense.

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AVIF HDR photos exported from Lightroom not rendered correctly on iPad Pro/iPhone XDR displays

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