Video color looks different in Premiere than in Finder

It's a Mac only issue, and something not a bug at all. It's fully by Apple intent and design. And annoying as Hades even for my colorist buds, who can't fix this either.

As ... Apple in all it's collective wisdom chose to make their ColorSync color management utility ONLY use part of the Rec.709 video specifications. Viewed on any non-Mac system, that file will appear the same inside and outside of Premiere.

Because Apple's ColorSync does apply the camera transform of approximately gamma 1.96, but they do NOT apply the also required display gamma transform of 2.4.

Premiere does, as well ... that's the full professional standard. So within Premiere you will see the image as it will appear on any proper Rec.709 compliant system.

And on a Mac, on any ColorSync managed app, you will see the lighter version. You might try VLC or Firefox browser, as they typically do not allow ColorSync control.

And there isn't any real way around this, as you cannot make a file appear the same at two widely different display gammas.

Adobe provides a "gamma compensation LUT" you can apply in the export process, but ... while that will "fix" the image on a Mac, outside of a Mac that file will probably be so dark you are crushing blacks, and will be oversaturated.

BlackMagic has a special export setting ... "Rec.709-A", with a for Apple. Which applies a different NCLC tag to the file header, going from the standare Rec.709 tagging of 1--1-1 to 1-2-1.

The fascinating thing is this does nearly the identical thing of the Adobe LUT ... even though the "2" in that spot is officially 'reserverd' or "non-specified" ... so why ColorSync applies 2.4 gamma with that tag is a mystery.

So things with the 1-2-1 tagging look 'normal' in Finder.

However ... also weird, given that 'unspecified' data bit ... outside of Macs, you will still typically get the same issue with the LUT ... too dark and oversaturated.

So there isn't any real fix that works everywhere. Pick your poison. You have several options.

Apply the LUT at export, the file looks 'correct' on a Mac, bad on account of way too dark on all non-Mac systems.

Leave as-is, you get the correct look on all non-Mac systems, and it's light on Macs.

Or ... split the difference. Make your color corrections, then before export, apply a new instance of Lumetri, and probably take the Color Wheels Mids tonal slider down a little bit to bring the mids/shadows down, just not to be too objectionable.

Now it's a bit light on Macs, a bit dark on non-Macs. But visible everywhere.

Neil