Graphic White Levels Very Dark When Exported from HDR Project

[Skippermark]

I've used DaVinci Resolve for 7 years but want to switch to Premiere Pro. Unfortunately, I'm experiencing something in Premiere that I haven't in Resolve.

I edit in HDR, and my graphics export as gray (100nits or less), even if they're set higher in the timeline. Videos are fine. If  one peaks at 1000 nits, it exports with the same peaks at 1000.

To test, I've set my graphics levels very bright at 1000 nits, but they export to 100. If I set them to 150 nits, they export to 75, and if they're 10, they export to 5.

Actual videos are fine. The waveforms are identical between the timeline and the exported video. If a clip peaks at 1000 nits on the timeline, it will be 1000 nits when exported. It doesn't matter if the clip is a true HDR, LOG or a Rec.709 I had to inverse tone map.

According to an Adobe employee in an older post, the "Graphics White Level" doesn't have anything to do with created graphics levels like text or shapes and simply the level that a non HDR clip is adjusted to when imported into an HDR timeline. If you import an all-white sRGB image into an HLG or PQ project, Premiere will use the Graphics White Level amount and adjust the imported image to that. The normal standard being 203 nits, so that sRGB image will max out at 203 nits. You can adjust it higher or lower one imported, but that's the base level Premiere sets it to.

My sequence and export settings are standard for an HDR project (both HLG & PQ), but I've checked them multiple times and have read numerous posts and watched several videos, but I'm still missing something.

Any thoughts would be awesome. Thank you!

[R Neil Haugen]

In typical HDR output, for 1,000 nit max, graphics white is around 200 to 250. That's where the texture disappears and it becomes a highlight.

So a 100 nit object is a middle ish gray.

I've seen people suggesting 90%, or about 180 nits, to 110%, around 120 nits, for "white" titles.

[Skippermark]

Thank you for the reply. I have found the problem, and it appears to be a bug in Premiere. When the Loudness Normalization option in the export window (see attached) is enabled, any non-video objects (still images, shapes, text, titles...) get severely darkened. When that option is not enabled, those same objects export properly.

I have tested this with an HLG and a PQ project on a production Mac, a laptop Mac and a Windows computer, and it happens on all 3. I haven't tested with an SDR project but will be doing that shortly.

I discovered this when trying to match the luminance of a still image of a product to an HDR video of the same product. Everytime I exported the project, the still image was much darker, even though the levels matched in the timeline. I started testing and added some shapes and text to the project, and those get darkened too when Loudness Normalization is enabled upon export but are fine when it's disabled.

I'm going to post about it in the bug section and hope it gets someone's attention. The auto Loudness Normalization setting is great when needing to turn videos around quickly, but I can get around it by using the old school method of using a loudness plugin.

[Skippermark]

To clarify the above post, when I say any non-video objects get severely darkened, I'm referring to the exported video. Everything displays correctly in the timeline.

[R Neil Haugen]

Thanks for posting back about that! I'll go up that Bugs post.

[Skippermark]

Thank you! I have also posted a more detailed post in the bugs section.