Washed out export video

[Mitch MA]

Hi all,

I have over 30 iPhone videos I am turning into one video. I'm all ready to go but when I export the final video it's washed out. When I go to the export tab I'm getting the error you see below. I looked at some previous posts from 2022-prior but I'm having a hard time figuring out how I can fix this before editing. Like, do I need to do something to each individual video, or do I have to use Media Encoder or can I make one change that will fix all of the individual videos?

Thank you for any help. I'm on Premiere Pro beta.

[Shebbe]

Hi,

It looks like you've shot in HDR on your iPhone. While Premiere Pro does offer HDR color workflows and delivery, it is good to ask if this is what you actually want? And if so where you also planning to view the videos on an HDR display? If not then you need to make some changes to your setup to prepare it better for SDR.

If you actually wanted HDR you will have to change your export settings to a format that supports it.

Let me know which is true and I can explain further.

[Mitch MA]

Hi Shebbe. so yes I was viewing on an HDR display and that's what I want (I think). When I compared one video clip in Media Encoder there's a big difference - see picture below. Thanks so much for helping me.

[Shebbe]

Hey Mitch,

Ok, what is the display you're viewing it on? What is the display set to as it's profile? And what do you intend to do with the HDR video once exported? Not all distibution platforms support HDR.

To make an HDR deliverable the best option would be HDR10 since HLG (how your iPhone recorded it) is not well supported.

In your timeline go to the menu Window -> Lumetri Color and switch to the tab Settings at the top.

Apply the following settings there.

In your export settings try the following (click More in the basic video settings section):

You should now have an HDR video file that an HDR display can play back.

[Mitch MA]

Hi Shebbe,

Thanks so much. Here are the settings I used...now when I go to play the final file I am getting an unsupported error. Maybe I need to export again? I appreciate your help.

[Shebbe]

I'm not fully sure. To be honest I never deliver HDR formats myself so don't have direct best practices. Perhaps the level needed to be 5.1 instead of 4.1? Or try again without the Include HDR metadata checked. If it still doesn't work maybe try H265 instead of H264. It could also be the video player itself, I believe you're trying to open in in Media Player on Windows? You could try open it in VLC player, a free media player that reads many more formats. Hope that helps.

[edit] oh and btw, you should also check Use Maximum Render Quality and Maximum Depth in the settings to make sure it is actually encoding in 10bits instead of 8bits.

[Mitch MA]

This does help and I appreciate it. Last question (promise!) - if I wanted
to export in non-HDR could that help? I don't *need* HDR, just figured it
was worth doing. Have a great night.

[Shebbe · Accepted solution]

non-HDR is a lot easier. Just select Direct SDR (Rec.709) as the preset in the Lumetri Settings instead of  HDR PQ and leave the export settings to default. Premiere should auto convert the video to SDR in a nice way.

[Mitch MA]

That's what I will do then. Thanks again my friend, really appreciate your
help.

[Mitch MA]

Hi Shebbe, I just exported with the non-HDR settings and the video came out perfect. I can't thank you enough, it was driving me absolutely crazy!