Does Adobe have plans to fix the tossing of your color grade when exporting?

The basic problem is one that Adobe cannot solve. For that matter, BlackMagic can't solve it either.

When Apple created ColorSync, their color management system, they made a couple odd and very non-standard choices.

The full Rec.709 standards for pro work and broadcast are clear: sRGB primaries, D65 white point, gamma 2.4 (2.2 allowable in bright-room work), 100 nits brightness for the monitor, and applying both the scene-referred and display-referred transforms listed in the Rec.709 standards.

Apple for some reason didn't follow the full standards list in their "Rec.709" handling of media within ColorSync. They made two major changes:

- First, they apply what they call "sRGB Gamma" which when reverse engineered is between 1.95 and 1.96.

- Second, they only apply the scene-referred transform, they do not apply the also required display-referred transform.

The "display color management" option trys to get around this by remapping to a proper Rec.709 image by checking the ICC profile of the monitor. This helps within PrPro, but can't affect anything outside of PrPro on a Mac. As in the exports you've noted.

That's where that "gamma compensation LUT" comes in, as it will make the image often look more "proper" on a Mac with the ColorSync Rec.709 settings applied. However, and as they warn in the post where they announced that LUT, be aware: outside the Mac systems, on any proper b-cast system and most PCs, that image will be too dark, contrasty, and over-saturated.

Resolve tries a different approach. They offer a "Rec.709A" export option. And yes, A is for Apple. This sets a different NLC tag in place, which ColorSync sees and applies 2.4 gamma and both transforms to the file from testing done by many colorists. Sounds fine, right?

Unfortunately, that has the same issue on many non-Mac systems as the Adobe gamma compensation LUT ... the image is too dark, contrasty, and over-saturated.

Most of my many colorist freinds are Mac based, and to be honest, this drives them nuts. But it isn't something that either BlackMagic or Adobe can "fix" ... if Apple chooses non-standard standards.

And then there's the whole mess of different players/browsers and whether or not they pay any attention to color management at all. Yea, it's a mess.

Neil

The compensation LUT is what we all have for now.

Please submit a Bug report / Feature request at the Adobe User Voice: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/

Sounds like a video driver bug maybe. How are you exporting? How are you applying your grade? Is it on the footage or an adjustment layer? Some more details will definitely help rather than an oddly worded question of if Adobe plans to fix a problem that you are having possibly based on your workflow, hardware or software. Provide as much info as you can so as that people can help you.