iPhone 14 Pro HDR Footage in Premiere Pro looks washed out andI've tried everything

[Christie5D46]

So I'm having the same issue as many others, having washed out and overexposed footage in Premiere because it was filmed on an iPhone 14 in HDR. 

I feel like I've tried everything, and still no luck. 

I've tried all the different colour space settings on both the clip and the sequence. 

I've changed the colour display setting in the general preferences. 

I've also downloaded a LUT that was supposed to fix the issue - but still no luck. 

When I change these settings, the footage changes - but nothing makes it look like the original footage that was filmed. 

I'm a freelance video editor, and this edit is for a super important client - can anyone please help me? 

[Warren Heaton]

Tone mapping in Premiere Pro
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/timeline-tone-mapping.html

[Ann Bens · Accepted solution]

Premiere Pro V22 - Understanding Color Spaces, HDR, and what that might mean to you - YouTube

Making your iPhone 12 and 13 footage look normal

[R Neil Haugen]

I can provide really deep help if you want, but first, I need to know what you need to end up with.

Are you wanting to create an HDR file, probably in the HLG format? Or a "standard" dynamic range and color space video, which is the normal Rec.709?

Both are possible, but the path to each is different.

Neil

[Christie5D46]

@R Neil Haugen Thank you for your help! I feel like what I've tried and failed to achieve so far is the 'standard' dynamic range and colour space video - but that doesn't seem to be working out for me. So maybe it would be best to try and achieve a HDR file in HLG format. 

The video is for YouTube, so would it still be worth trying to do a HLG format, or would YouTube destroy that? I'm not really that experienced with colour space, to be honest, so any help with this is appreciated. 

[Christie5D46]

@Ann Bens Thanks for this suggestion - I've already watched this video, and the method they're suggesting doesn't seem to work for me - potentially because the footage I'm working with is from iPhone 14, not 13/12. I think this could be why the many things I've tried so far haven't been successful. 

[Christie5D46]

@Warren Heaton Thank you for this! That button was only available on this most recent update, so I didn't notice that earlier! I have now updated and pressed that button - it's helped a little but it's still not looking anywhere near as good as that original iPhone footage 😣

[Warren Heaton]

@Christie5D46 

I beleive Neil linked to or offered to share a workflow for HDR. 

[R Neil Haugen · Accepted solution]

HDR media can look spectacular. And working with it in Premiere just went through another major change. So yea, it can be confusing at first ... again. But it should be pretty easy to get going.

That said, however, HDR is still very much the wild-wild-west of video production. Many screens don't handle it correctly, and more don't at all. And processing it is more complex than working with SDR media. A lot of people turn the HLG capture off on their iPhones still, staying in Rec.709 workflows all the way through. You might want to consider that for future shooting.

For dealing with the media you already have , Eric Escobar is one of the supers in the color formats items, and he's posted a thread including a short YouTube video he created. That vid explains their new Auto-Tonemapping tool in the Sequence settings and the interaction with the Auto Log Detection in the Preferences, and especially with HLG and iPhone footage.

So this may help you with your issue ...

Auto Log Color Space Detection option in the Preferences

As Eric demonstrates, with log footage and iPhone footage, you need to set the Sequence settings color management option for Auto-Tonemapping to on by checking it. Then with 'auto-detect' in the Preferences also selected, you can probably work directly with the HLG footage from that iPhone without needing to go to the Interpret Footage panel.

Neil

[Christie5D46]

@R Neil Haugen This is all super helpful thank you so much - I've got it looking so much better than before, so thank you!