TATechnical Art & Graphics Academy
← RenderPath

Colour lab

Lighting is calculated in linear space; screens use a non-linear encoding. Mixing the two makes lighting look wrong. The sun here is 40× brighter than white.

Histogram of displayed brightness (black → white)

Tone mapping

Output encoding

Try it

  1. Pick "linear (wrong)": shadows crush to black.
  2. Pick "clamp" and raise exposure: the sun and sphere highlight burn flat.
  3. ACES keeps colour in the highlights. Click the sun to read its real value.