The Impact of Adaptation Time in High Dynamic Range Luminance Transitions

. Modern production and distribution workflows have allowed for high dynamic range (HDR) imagery to become widespread. It has made a positive impact in the creative industry and improved image quality on consumer devices. Akin to the dynamics of loudness in audio, it is predicted that the increased luminance range allowed by HDR ecosystems could introduce unintended, high-magnitude changes. These luminance changes could occur at program transitions, advertisement insertions, and channel change operations. In this article, we present findings from a psychophysical experiment conducted to evaluate three components of HDR luminance changes: the magnitude of the change, the direction of the change (darker or brighter), and the adaptation time. Results confirm that all three components exert significant influence. We find that increasing either the magnitude of the luminance or the adaptation time results in more discomfort at the unintended transition. We find that transitioning from brighter to darker stimuli has a non-linear relationship with adaptation time, falling off steeply with very short durations.