Exporting and Color management

[MasonDrummond]

Hello so Premiere Pro won't let me color grade a HEVC file with 2100HLG, when I do, I go to export it (even with match source to HLG and HEVC setting) it still comes out overexposed or over saturated. So I go back and remove the color grading (just slight blue tint, contrast, and saturation), and then it exports correctly and doesn't take hours for a 18min video shot in 1920x1080.

I have gone in the color manegament settings in the Lumetri panel, and made sure color spaces match and all is aligned but it still does this.

I only have this problem with HDR videos it seems.

[jamieclarke]

HI @MasonDrummond - Can you let us know which version of Premiere you are working on.  Have you tried turning on "Display Color Management". Can you post screenshots of your Lumetri "Settings"?

[jamieclarke]

Hi @MasonDrummond - Any updates?

[R Neil Haugen]

We would need to know what you're setting things for.

It sounds like you want to be working front to back in HLG? Ok ... understand, even for pro colorists, HDR is still the wild wild west. Not that high a percentage of screens yet actually do HDR. And among those that do, they typically only do one or two of the various HDR formats ... and few actually even do the ones they do do, correctly.

Some TVs are the bright spot in HDR playback, and some of the more middle/upper-expense monitors.

So ... depending on your OS and monitor and monitor settings, you may have a situation that works mostly ok. All computer monitors and TVs out now do shift exposure/contrast to protect the screen over time, so understand that 'holding' an image while grading it ... may end up looking rather different than during playback. Especially for short clips.

The only screens that don't do that are the expensive pro reference monitors. Flanders now has a 31.5" model that can do 1,000 nits and does not do the auto-dimming at all. For only $9,995, which is half the price of most other pro HDR reference monitors.

Ok ... first, make sure your OS and the monitor are both set for and working in HLG for what you want to do. Curious ... how bright is the monitor, supposedly? In my experience, never trust monitor data from the manufacturer (except Flanders) ... check with probe/software to know what you're getting.

And any pretty certificate showing how your BenQ or Asus or whatever monitor meets certain standards? Pretty much junk. I've never had a monitor where the factory Rec.709 or P3/D65 or whatever setting was actually ... measured ... even close to what the certificate said. Your mileage will vary.

In Premiere, set the Preferences options for Extended Dynamic Range when available to on. 

Auto detect log, auto tonemapping both on. 

Set the Working Space to HLG/Rec.2100.

Use export presets with HLG in the preset name.

If that doesn't work, post back, we'll go through your settings and see if we can puzzle out what's going on.

And if on a Mac, and ColorSync is involved ... as in QuickTime player, Chrome, Safari ... that is another issue. Though maybe not as bad as in Rec.709 workflows.

[MyerPj]

I see you've reported this as a 'bug', so of course you don't need to supply any of your settings, as it's a bug. But just in case, can you give an idea about what you are using and what you are doing. How about the OS, can we know if it's Mac or PC? Some info on the hardware, and some screenshots of your settings, just in case one needs to be tweaked. What did you shoot these clips with and what is your monitor. Cheers! 🙂

[Kevin-Monahan]

Updating the status of this bug report.

[dands]

Finding the same issue, Premiere Pro version 25. Files are iPhone HDR, exporting with 2100HLG colour space. They look fine within Premiere Pro, but any exported clips that have Lumetri effects added, even for the most minor corrections, appear wildly over exposed

[dands]

Actually, to add to my previous comment, I just tried exporting my video again without Lumetri and some clips were still over exposed. Turned out it was minor scaling. I'd made two clips 102%, and one clip 104% in size just to match objects in a jump cut. Those clips were way over exposed on export.

[jamieclarke]

Hi @dands @MasonDrummond - In the export menu of version 25 can you click the dots next to Presets and select more presets, then search for HLG.  Can you then star one of the HLG presets either h264 or apple ProRes and let us know if that helps your issue?  

[dands]

Thanks @jamieclarke, I'm already exporting as Apple ProRes 422, export color space Rec 2100 HLG, and the HDR video is fine as long as there is no scaling.

Within my video I scaled a couple of clips to 102.5% and 106% to match the size of an object in shot for a jump cut and they were the only ones affected by over-exposure, the rest of the video exported as HDR without any issue. I've removed the scaling and exported the whole clip successfully without the over-exposure.

For some reason it seems scaling the clip changes it's color space, but only on export - while playing back my timeline in editing the color looks fine

[MasonDrummond]

I've had this happen to me to once. Or even with text layers, it'll over expose

[MasonDrummond]

Hello I am on version 25. I am using a Macbook pro second gen.

[MasonDrummond]

Alright per your request here are screenshots with different presets and formats. The one that has been working for me is HEVC match source HLG. Mind you I can't do any color grading or it blows the colors and exposure out of proportion.

The color looks the most correct. If you refer to my other photos in another comment you will see I have no color grading going on, and my color manegmant settings are correct as far as I know.

And regarding your suggestion to try other presets, which ProRes preset are you referring to, there are a ton, be specific if you dont mind.

It could be, like R. Neil pointed out, a limitation of HDR on screens but I find that hard to believe in my case since I have a new macbook pro that should be set up for this format and encoding considering I shoot with an Iphone 15 pro max. I would think Apple would've fleshed that out across their devices by now. Of course I could be wrong.

I am open for any advice here. This bug, or whatever it is, happens with all my clients footage shot in HDR. I am a video editor and run my own youtube channel, so this does impede my work. I have now considered shooting in LOG to be able to color grade better. Only problem is the file sizes will be excruciating. 

Like I said I am open to any advice.

[R Neil Haugen]

The only thing would suggest be different is the Graphics White setting be left at the industry - typical 203 nits setting. Other than that, it looks correct.

So I'm wondering about the Macbook's screen ... is it actually fully handling the HLG exported file?

How do the exports look on re-import into Premiere? If they look the same as the sequence did, then ... there's something outside of Premiere that's off.

And could you share a clip for me to test on my rig?

[jamieclarke]

HI @MasonDrummond - When you say macbook pro second gen, which exact model do you have?  

There is a bug in version 25 where Premiere has always exported clips as Rec709, even if your color space is set to HDR it will only export as Rec709.  To get around this bug you need to use the HLG presets in your case since that is the color space you are exporting for.  This has been fixed in 25.1, so just to be sure as long as in your export settings (not the summary) you can clearly see which color space it is exporting to, you will only get Rec709.  

Can you try 25.1 which is the current beta version and let us kow if you get the same results?

[dands]

Tried this on another project, same result @jamieclarke - if there is any scaling at all, it doesn't matter if the color space settings are correct on both edit and export, the exported HDR footage will over expose and blow out. If there's no scaling, it renders and exports fine

[jamieclarke]

Hi @dands - would you please send me one of these files with a project, so that I can take a look.  You can email a link to jamiec@adobe.com 

can you also post screenshot of your export settings.

[dands]

Thanks @jamieclarke, I've shared a Google Drive folder with you now containing sample footage and my project file. Also included export files so you can see the over exposure occurring in the exported sequence with scaling applied.

Here's a screengrab of my export settings from this project

[jamieclarke]

Hi @MasonDrummond @dands - Checking in, Are you still having issues?