Video exporting lighter - QT Gamma Compensation too dark.

Hi, in case you're still having trouble try to check Display Color Management. If you export with QT Gamma Compensation it should look fine on Mac.

First, are both you and your client on Macs, using the Mac 'standard' Rec.709 monitor settings?

Second, is this for web or broadcast/streaming?

Third, how are you determining that your monitor is actually "tight" to the full Rec.709 specs? D65 white point, sRGB primaries, display gamma 2.4, 100 nits monitor brightness?

Because if any of those isn't pretty spot on, you do not have a way to know that your export is ... anything. To start with.

Colorists use a breakout device ... by BlackMagic or AJA ... to get the signal for a reference monitor out of the computer without either the OS or the GPU touching the signal. They do not trust the view of any monitor connected via GPU.

Plus, they use pretty hefty calibration gear and pro calibration software to both study the monitor and create a LUT to use to bring the monitor all the way up to specs. And then, after installing that LUT in either the reference monitor itself, or the breakout device, they run a profile ... to check that the calibration is actually, in fact, tight to the specs.

In your case, an additional issue may be ... it sounds like you are on a Mac? If so, then ... there's another very fun (in a very not-fun way) issue. Apple, for some unique reason, chose to mis-apply the Rec.709 standard, using the camera transform of 1.96 as the display transform. So Mac monitors, set to the normal Mac setting for Rec.709,  display the media using the 1.96 gamma, which lifts the shadows notably. Rather than the broadcast spec 2.4 diplay gamma.

Ergo, the need for the gamma correction LUT. Which ... isn't a fix, as it only makes the export look "correct" on a Mac using gamma 1.96. But ... it's wrong on everything else.

For example, on my rig, which is to full Rec.709 specs and profiled, that LUT makes anything exported while using it, look so dark it's basically crushed blacks.

Also, there's another complication. As for any of the new Macs, which have the option of "HDTV" as a monitor space, that setting uses the correct gamma 2.4, and any media made using the gamma correction LUT ... is also showing way too dark.

So ... yea, it's a freaking mess. My colorist buds tend to either do straight up Rec.709 for all work, or for Mac clients, maybe apply the equivalent of an Adjustment Layer over the sequence, and just before export, use the Lumetri Color Wheels tab's Midtone brightness slider ... pulled down just a bit ... to lower the mids/upper-shadows brightness.

Trying to split the difference. Enough so it's darker but not too dark in the shadows on straight Rec.709 display, but dark enough it won't be too light on a Mac display. Joy.

Neil