A method for transforming high dynamic range (HDR) video data into standard dynamic range (SDR) video data and encoding the SDR video data so that the HDR video data may be recovered at the decoder includes generating a tone map describing a transformation applied to the HDR video data to generate the SDR video data. The generated tone map describes the transformation as the multiplication of each HDR pixel in the HDR video data by a scalar to generate the SDR video data. The tone map is then modeled as a reshaping transfer function and the HDR video data is processed by the reshaping transfer function to generate the SDR video data. The reshaping transfer function is then inverted and described in a self-referential metadata structure. The SDR video data is then encoded including the metadata structure defining the inverse reshaping transfer function.