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James Paulley
Known Participant
May 26, 2025
Answered

Gamma shift when using media players or YouTube

  • May 26, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 916 views

I have my colour workflow set to Rec.709 Gamma 2.4 accross the board. So Photoshop, AE, Premiere are all set to the same profile. Everything looks fine in Adobe's apps. I can play the files back in Premiere and as long as I have the Lumetri Colour viewer gamma option set to Gamma 2.4, they look fine. Same in AE, they look fine. When I view the files in various media players and on YouTube, the brightness is shifting. What is the best approach here? Should I be rendering a final version out with a gamma shift for uploading to YouTube? Would this be done by setting an output profile to sRGB Gamma 2.1 in the render module? I've seen people using a weird QuickTime Gamma LUT too. What a headache! I just want to upload videos to YouTube and have them look the same as what I can see in Creative Suite. I'm not overly technical so I'm just after some simple, practical advice. Thank you!

Correct answer Warren Heaton

For YouTube and social media, you want to be using sRGB IEC61966-2.1 under File > Project Settings > Color.

On the Premiere Pro side, make sure that the Viewer Gamma is set to 2.2 Web.  If needed, override Source Clip Media Color Space to sRGB.

A low-key picture quality check is to upload your exported video to FrameIO (included with our Adobe subscription) and check the playback on an iPad before publishing it elsewhere.

1 reply

Warren Heaton
Community Expert
Warren HeatonCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
June 4, 2025

For YouTube and social media, you want to be using sRGB IEC61966-2.1 under File > Project Settings > Color.

On the Premiere Pro side, make sure that the Viewer Gamma is set to 2.2 Web.  If needed, override Source Clip Media Color Space to sRGB.

A low-key picture quality check is to upload your exported video to FrameIO (included with our Adobe subscription) and check the playback on an iPad before publishing it elsewhere.

    J
    James PaulleyAuthor
    Known Participant
    July 14, 2025

    Thank you.  I have been working in rec 709 Gamma 2.4 mainly because when I preRender stuff as MOVs in After Effects, when I import them After Effects sems to assume they are rec 709 gamma 2.4 and I have to go to Interpret Media and change the media's profile every time. So I just thought it would be easier to work in Rec 709 Gamma 2.4. Do you know if it's possible to change that behaviour?

    If not, could I work in Rec 709 Gamma 2.4 and then right before final export change the project colour space to sRGB?

    Why does viewing it on an iPad specifically provide a good test?

     

    Thank you!

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