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

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.

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.

This is still an issue -- is there any way to reliably share HDR images from Lightroom using mac/ios?

I have a similar problem with my HDR AVIF files in iOS Photos on my new M4 iPad Pro. Main problem is with bright blues and teals. All is fine with macOS. I’ll lodge a bug report.

Just to add that Pixelmator Pro displays the file correctly even when opened from Apple Photos (which doesn't).

I ran into something similar as well on my MacBook Pro and found opening the image in chrome renders it as Lightroom had. Not really a fix but if it works for you as well then it’s evidence that the files created by adobe are correct.

And another pain point is the format compatibility—while AVIF can be viewed locally, it's not supported in iMessage and other messaging tools.

That's very true but if stored in Apple Photos the AVIF can be directly shared (messages/email)- but it will be converted to jpeg. Hopefully all these issues will be ironed out eventually.

Report a bug:

Feedback - Photos - Apple