DJI HDR on iPhone: Keep the Pop Without the Headaches

High Dynamic Range video represents one of the most significant advances in consumer videography, capturing a wider range of brightness and color than standard video. When viewed on devices that support HDR—like modern iPhones, iPads, and Macs—HDR footage looks stunning, with deep blacks, bright highlights, and colors that pop off the screen. However, this same footage can look completely wrong when viewed on devices that don't support HDR, appearing washed out, overly dark, or strangely colored.

DJI drones typically capture HDR footage in HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) format, which is designed to work reasonably well on both HDR and SDR displays. However, "reasonably well" isn't the same as "perfect," and understanding when to keep HDR and when to convert to SDR is essential for creating content that looks great for everyone, regardless of their viewing device.

When to Keep HDR

Keeping HDR makes sense when your audience is primarily on recent iPhones or HDR-capable displays. Modern iPhones have excellent HDR support, with proper tone mapping that makes HDR footage look stunning. If you're sharing footage with friends and family who all use modern Apple devices, or if you're creating content you'll primarily view yourself, HDR is the way to go.

HDR is particularly effective for sunsets, neon signs, and high-contrast scenes that benefit from the expanded brightness and color range. These scenes showcase what HDR does best—preserving detail in both bright highlights and dark shadows simultaneously. A sunset scene shot in HDR can show both the bright sun and the dark foreground with detail, while SDR would require choosing one or the other.

When keeping HDR, preserve the HLG format and use 10-bit HEVC encoding to maintain the expanded color and brightness range. The 10-bit color depth is essential for HDR because it provides the color information needed to represent the wider dynamic range. 8-bit encoding can cause banding in gradient areas and doesn't provide enough color information for proper HDR representation.

When to Convert to SDR

Converting to SDR becomes necessary when you're sharing to apps that flatten HDR, resulting in footage that looks off or doesn't display correctly. Many social media platforms don't properly support HDR, and they'll convert your HDR footage to SDR automatically, often with poor results. By converting to SDR yourself using professional tools, you maintain control over how the conversion happens, ensuring your footage looks its best even after platform processing.

Mixed-device audiences also benefit from SDR conversion. If you're sharing footage with people using a variety of devices—some with HDR support, some without—SDR ensures everyone gets a good viewing experience. It's better to have footage that looks good for everyone than to have footage that looks amazing for some viewers and terrible for others.

Embedded players and web-based sharing often work better with SDR. Many web video players don't properly support HDR, and embedded video players can display HDR footage incorrectly. Converting to SDR ensures your footage displays correctly regardless of where it's embedded or how it's viewed.

Compression Targets for HDR Content

When keeping HDR footage, your compression settings need to preserve the HDR information while still reducing file size. This means using 10-bit HEVC encoding, which maintains the expanded color and brightness range that makes HDR special.

For HLG HDR content at 4K30, aim for 24 to 40 Mbps. The lower end of this range works for simpler scenes, while the higher end handles complex scenes with lots of detail and movement. Since HDR contains more information than SDR, you need slightly higher bitrates to maintain quality, but the difference isn't dramatic—HDR is more about color and brightness range than raw detail.

For converted SDR content, use similar bitrates to native SDR footage: 20 to 35 Mbps for 4K30, and 35 to 50 Mbps for 4K60. The conversion process itself doesn't require higher bitrates—you're just encoding SDR content, even though it originated from HDR source material. The quality of the SDR conversion depends largely on the tool you're using, with professional conversion tools producing better results than automatic platform conversions.

Action footage at 60 fps needs higher bitrates regardless of whether it's HDR or SDR. For 4K60 HDR content, use 35 to 50 Mbps to maintain quality at the higher frame rate. The increased frame rate requires proportionally more data, and HDR adds additional information that needs to be preserved.

Testing and Validation

Before committing to a workflow, test how your HDR footage looks after compression and conversion. Export a 10 to 20 second test clip, compress it with your chosen settings, and view it on both HDR and SDR displays if possible. This quick test confirms that your settings produce the results you want before processing entire batches of footage.

If you're creating both HDR and SDR versions, compare them side by side to ensure the SDR version maintains the look and feel of the original, even if it doesn't have the same dynamic range. A good SDR conversion should feel like the same footage, just without the extreme highlights and shadows that HDR provides.

Check how your footage looks on the actual platform where you'll be sharing it. Upload a test clip to Instagram, TikTok, or wherever you plan to post, and view it on different devices. This real-world testing reveals how platform compression affects your footage and helps you optimize your settings accordingly.

The Complete HDR Workflow

Putting it all together, here's a complete workflow for HDR footage from DJI drones. Start by determining your audience and distribution platform. If everyone has HDR-capable devices and you're sharing directly (not through social media), keep HDR and compress with 10-bit HEVC at 24 to 40 Mbps for 4K30 or 35 to 50 Mbps for 4K60.

If you're posting to social media or have mixed audiences, convert to SDR using professional conversion tools, then compress the SDR version at 20 to 35 Mbps for 4K30 or 35 to 50 Mbps for 4K60. Test your conversion on an SDR display to ensure it looks good.

For maximum flexibility, create both versions. Keep an HDR master for viewers with capable devices, and create an SDR version for universal compatibility. Share both, or default to SDR for the widest compatibility.

The result is footage that looks its absolute best for every viewer, regardless of their device capabilities. HDR viewers get the full HDR experience, while SDR viewers get a perfectly converted version that maintains the look and feel of your original footage. This approach ensures your content always looks professional, no matter where or how it's viewed.