HDR Spotlight HDR image encoder

Checking display

Give your highlights more light. HDR brightness, without adding detail.

How it works

Preview

NO IMAGE SELECTED
Original image
OriginalsRGB
HDR output
EncodedST 2084
Background
Actual encoded output
BT.2020PQ / ST 2084
Processed on your device

Behind the brightness

Same image. More light.

A brightness transformation of the pixels you already have. No AI, no recovered highlights, no extra detail.

  1. 01 / Decode

    Start with your pixels

    The image is read as sRGB and converted to linear light, where brightness can be scaled consistently.

  2. 02 / Boost

    Choose what shines

    Increase the light across the image or target bright areas. Each extra exposure stop doubles the luminance of fully selected pixels.

    +1 stop2× light
  3. 03 / Encode

    Package the light for HDR

    The boosted pixels are converted to BT.2020 and PQ, with HDR color metadata so compatible viewers can interpret the result.

    BT.2020PQ / ST 2084

What glows

Direct the brightness.

Threshold sets where the full boost begins in Whites and Bright modes, with a soft transition below it.

Whites
Favors near-white pixels where all three color channels are bright.
Bright
Selects bright areas by weighted sRGB brightness, including bright colors.
All
Applies the same exposure multiplier to every pixel. No threshold needed.

Good to know

A little context.
A better result.

What changes in the file, and what you see on screen.

Will this add detail to my image?

No. It increases the brightness of existing pixels. It does not sharpen, reconstruct textures, or recover information from blown-out highlights or crushed shadows. A larger output size does not create real detail either.

Why might the result look different on another screen?

The visible boost depends on the display’s HDR capability, available brightness, system settings, and the viewer’s HDR support. An SDR screen cannot show the same peak brightness, and the result may be tone-mapped or displayed differently.

Does more exposure always look better?

Not necessarily. Start low and increase it while checking your highlights. The encoder uses 203 nits as reference white before the boost; encoded values above PQ’s 10,000-nit limit are clipped. Those numbers describe the file, not the brightness your screen is guaranteed to produce.

Which format should I download?

Use PNG when you need transparency and enable Preserve transparency. JPEG uses the selected background instead. Both outputs carry HDR color information, but support varies between viewers. Dithering helps reduce banding in the 8-bit PQ output; it does not add image detail.

Where is my image processed?

Processing happens locally in your browser, on your device. Your image is not uploaded to a server for encoding.