Colors are weak after Export

[kilian_0988]

Hey I have an MacBook Pro M1 2021 and have a Musicvideo in Adobe Premiere in which the colors look great, but after the export they are really weak. I have seen that it probably has to do with my Apple Macbook Display. So what is the best way to get the rich colors I have in Premiere. Thank you.

My Media is 60fps; color space: Rec. 601 (PAL); 1920 x 1080; Videocodec-Typ: MP4/MOV H.264 4:2:0 

Premiere Version: (25.0)

Color Management Settings:

 

[RobShultz]

Try outputting to match sequence settings/raw footage.

[R Neil Haugen]

Ok ... set Anziege Farb management ... display color management ... on. As well as log video auto-detect, and below that in the Sequence menu, the auto-tonemapping, whatever it's called auf Deutsch. And set the working sequence color space to Rec.709.

That gets you into a normal working setup.

Now you have a choice. Thanks to Apple, sadly. For which there are really two options, but neither "fixes" the problem.

The standard display transform set in the long published standards for Rec.709/SDR video requires the use of (essentially) gamma 2.4 for the display. 

Apple set up their ColorSync utility in their OS to use (essentially) gamma 1.96. 

"Houston ... we have a problem here ..."

But even then, 1.96 is only used on Apple screeens that do not have reference modes. As if you have a screen with Reference modes, and you set it to HDTV, you get ... full on Rec.709. As is used on virtually all other screens, devices, and TVs out there for Rec.709 video image display.

So your choice ... do you want to set your system so that the output looks more towards what you expect on only Macs without Reference modes, like yours, on on everything else not yours?

If the first ... set the Viewing display according to your viewing ambient light. If you are in a pretty dark room, use Viewer gamma 2.4. If you are grading in a normally lit office type environment, use the gamma 2.2 option.

And ... if you want it to look best on the Macs without Reference modes, and dont' care it's too dark and oversaturated on everything else, then... use viewing gamma 1.96.

But no one will ever see what you saw, on their screen, anyway. A Truth beginning colorists are taught.

[kilian_0988]

Ok thank you very much. But why is the footage in Premiere darker than the mp4 in the quick time player. Both the original material and the exported video have less contrast than when I work on it in Premiere. I use the same MacBook Monitor before during and after. 

[R Neil Haugen]

Because QuickTime Player allows ColorSync to manage the display transform, using essentially gamma 1.96.

While your Premiere default is gamma 2.4. Unless you change that in the viewer gamma option.