Doing more with HDR than watching YouTube videos on M1 Max MacBook Pro

[QuantumDot]

Hi!
I'm addicted to the HDR YouTube videos which I've been staring at for the last couple days on my M1 Max MacBook Pro. The videos look gorgeous. But is the HDR limited to just videos? Surely there must be images that are HDR which I could view on my MacBook. But a quick google search of 'HDR Pictures' doesn't really yield anything as amazing as the videos on YouTube.

What else can I do with HDR? Can I make my desktop background an HDR image?
Can I change the cursor to be a super-bright HDR arrow? How about drawing HDR vector graphics on Affinity Designer?
Or, making a Keynote Presentation with HDR-colored text, or HDR-gradient backgrounds/animations?

Looking forward to some answers!

 

[QuantumDot]

Hmm, perhaps that’s ALL you can do with the MacBook’s new display. No way to use it to create HDR content

 

[coolguy4747]

Photos taken with iPhones in HEIF/HEIC format will display in HDR. Aside from that I'm not aware of anything else that you can view or create in HDR besides video.

 

[QuantumDot]

Oh thanks. I just tried this with my iPhone X set to take pictures in HDR and save them in HEIC format. But viewing them on my macbook pro (using Preview and Photos) just displays it in SDR. How do I enable this on my machine? Thanks!

 

[coolguy4747]

There is an option in Photos preferences for "View Full HDR" - make sure that is enabled. Also, do you use iCloud Photos? I know Photo stream does NOT sync HDR versions, but iCloud Photos does. Not sure about other transfer options.

 

[kecinzer]

There is an option in Photos preferences for "View Full HDR" - make sure that is enabled. Also, do you use iCloud Photos? I know Photo stream does NOT sync HDR versions, but iCloud Photos does. Not sure about other transfer options.

View attachment 1946241

I don't have this option.

 

[coolguy4747]

I don't have this option.

It might only be available for Macs with built-in "XDR" displays. I am not sure if it shows up with Apple's Pro Display XDR or other HDR monitors - I've only seen it with my M1 Max MacBook Pro.

 

[mr_roboto]

I don't have this option.

I thought I didn't either until I realized I had the "iCloud" tab of the preferences pane selected, so go back in and click the "General" button at the top to see if it helps. Not a big fan of Apple's flat UI design obsession of past several years, they've gone so far overboard flattening and de-contrasting things that they're often visually confusing.