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Steve Yedlin
Personal blog · yedlin.netdesignscience
Steve Yedlin's personal blog at yedlin.net covers design and science. Since 2016, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 28 times, most often “Resolution Demo”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
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28mentions?
20HN people?
2016–2026first – last linked?
Too few sampled comments (18) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Steve Yedlin's resolution tests, colour-science essays, HDR and display-settings pages, which commenters cite as thorough tests by a working cinematographer on resolution and film versus digital.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 18 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Resolution Demo2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-07-28
- /OnColorScience/index.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-12-22
- Debunking HDR [video]2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-06-11
What Hacker News says?
Some Yedlin links. I found his process to be methodical, precise, thorough and definitive. The question as to whether there is any perceptible visual difference between film and video that has been post-produced by an expert was definitively answered for me. Resolution Demos: https://www.yedlin.net/ResDemo/index.html On Color Science for Filmmakers: https://www.yedlin.net/OnColorScience/index.html
Comment linking /OnColorScience/index.html
on “Nikon to acquire RED”Submitted Debunking HDR [video] as a story · 128 points
HN discussionNot quite what you ask, but very related: http://yedlin.net/ResDemo/
Comment linking /ResDemo/
on “Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?”Submitted ON COLOR SCIENCE FOR FILMMAKERS as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSteve Yedlin (cinematographer of The Last Jedi) posted an excellent analysis of image resolution in cinema on his website. It utterly convinced me that resolution beyond 2K/1080p is superfluous on most normal-sized cinema screens at normal viewing distances. IMAX will, however, benefit noticeably from higher resolutions. http://yedlin.net/ResDemo/index.html
Comment linking /ResDemo/index.html
on “8K is now being broadcast in Japan”Submitted ON COLOR SCIENCE FOR FILMMAKERS as a story · 3 points
HN discussionFilm is definitely still available, and you can use a target to as a starting point for a LUT, though the workflow is not straightforward. The core of the problem is that you're only sampling a fraction of the number of colors in the LUT, so to derive the rest of the LUT entries, you need to interpolate and extrapolate. The trick is which algorithm you use to take the sparse 3D mesh of the calibration target and war…
Comment linking /OnColorScience/index.html
on “Film simulations from scratch using Python”Submitted Debunking HDR as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe author has a FAQ related to the video and he expands on "Why don’t you mention HLG in the demo" in it https://www.yedlin.net/HDR_Demo_FAQ.html
Comment linking /HDR_Demo_FAQ.html
on “Debunking HDR [video]”Submitted Color Science for Filmmakers as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHis previous stuff is so interesting and it's very refreshing to see a Hollywood professional able to dig so deep into those topics and teach us about it https://yedlin.net/NerdyFilmTechStuff/index.html I think the point that SDR inputs (to a monitor) can be _similar_ to HDR input to monitors that have high dynamic ranges is obvious if you look at the maths involved. Higher dynamic gives you more precision in the in…
Comment linking /NerdyFilmTechStuff/index.html
on “Debunking HDR [video]”Submitted Steve Yedlin, ASC – Director of Photography as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe thing is, most people don't actually need 4K. In fact, I believe most modern films—including big-budget blockbusters—are still being mastered in 2K (with UHD Blu-Ray discs being upscaled from the 2K masters). My question to anyone for whom spending $300 on an NLE is a big deal: does your project really need more image resolution than titles like Jurassic World and The Hunger Games? Keep in mind that, in addition…
Comment linking /ResDemo/index.html
on “Olive: Professional open-source non-linear video editor”Submitted Resolution Demo as a story · 1 points
HN discussionthanks for your insights. my comment was overly cynical. in practice though visually , on a good (really good) monitor, you really can not see a difference. trained eyes, cannot really see a real difference. the difference becomes visible more due to a monitors own quircks not displaying accurately (mapping of this sdr/hdr to colourspace). this was posted before here on HN and i dont think its wrong. though ofcourse…
Comment linking /DebunkingHDR/index.html
on “From SDR to 'Fake HDR': Mario Kart World on Switch 2”Anyone really interested in resolution, film scanning and digital cinema should see this in-depth comparison shot by an expert ASC cinematographer specifically to be a definitive set of proofs for the industry. He compares (and pixel-peeps) identical shots from a range of top digital cinema cameras (Arri Alexa, RED, etc) with a high-quality 6K film scan. https://www.yedlin.net/ResDemo/ResDemoPt2.html . I found the r…
Comment linking /ResDemo/ResDemoPt2.html
on “The AI magic behind Sphere's upcoming 'The Wizard of Oz'”Thanks for weighing in with real-world experience doing film scans. > From my experience, 4K was the absolute edge you could pull from the best 35mm films... I managed to pull 8K from some 70mm ride footage. This matches the expert opinion I've heard elsewhere, as well as what was done when scanning Blade Runner (an historically important film now in the national archives). They scanned the 35mm camera negatives at…
Comment linking /ResDemo/ResDemoPt2.html
on “The AI magic behind Sphere's upcoming 'The Wizard of Oz'”This is utterly false and bordering religious beliefs. Steve Yedlin has dedicated decades of his life to ultimately prove [1] that digital and film can achieve the same exact look, save for the fact that digital is infinitely easier to deal with. [1] https://yedlin.net/DisplayPrepDemo/index.html
Comment linking /DisplayPrepDemo/index.html
on “The contagious visual blandness of Netflix”2k is enough for most cinema purposes. https://www.yedlin.net/ResDemo/index.html I do think 8K will make a big difference for VR though due to the extreme angle of view.
Comment linking /ResDemo/index.html
on “DJI Inspire 3: new 8k cinema drone”This video is made by Steve Yeldin- the cinematographer on star wars VII and a number of other films. The companion Writeup can be found here: http://www.yedlin.net/OnColorScience/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Yedlin
Comment linking /OnColorScience/
on “ON COLOR SCIENCE FOR FILMMAKERS”That is not what Yedlin's tests show or made an effort to test! His famous first set of comparison tests are about resolution, specifically his opinions about the unimportance of 4K. I deeply disagree with his conclusion, because he is downgrading a digital image to show it can match the resolution and some of the visual aspects of a 16 print. Which is like putting a filter over a high resolution monitor and then co…
Comment linking /DisplayPrepDemo/DispPrepDemoFollowup
on “IMAX vs. IMAX 70mm: The difference between these two cinema formats”I love the OLED entry there. Virtually what I do to all my friends' TV's when I visit. Yes, it's an annoying thing to do, and they're all "hey, don't change my settings..." at first, but a few seconds later the TV looks better, clearer, brighter. https://www.yedlin.net/NerdyFilmTechStuff/OLED_Settings
Comment linking /NerdyFilmTechStuff/OLED_Settings
on “IMAX vs. IMAX 70mm: The difference between these two cinema formats”Related: Chart Of Common Viewing Angles from Steve Yedlin, ASC https://www.yedlin.net/NerdyFilmTechStuff/#:~:text=Chart
Comment linking /NerdyFilmTechStuff/
on “IMAX vs. IMAX 70mm: The difference between these two cinema formats”> Perhaps some of them will be inspired push the envelope and contribute their research back to the commons instead of guarding it in order to collect rent. I swear to god, this website is so infuriating. If you would like to learn more about this topic you can look at Steve Yedlin’s discussion of the matter https://www.yedlin.net/index.html or look at some of the technical documents linked from our website.
Comment linking /index.html
on “Show HN: Filmbox, physically accurate film emulation, now on Linux and Windows”I'm not sure if it's because of growing up watching most things online with limited bitrates, but I realized I dislike film grain a lot. I know that to a certain degree, film grain helps humans resolve finer details. Similar to using noise shaped dithering to allow you to hear more than the theoretical dynamic range in audio or see a larger range of color tones in a picture. But I found that on certain 4K uhd bluray…
Comment linking /OnColorScience/index.html
on “Netflix: 30% bitrate saving using Film Grain Synthesis”
