Premiere Export no lumetri color

A very easy problem to diagnose. ColorSync strikes again!

Sadly, Apple for some unknown reason chose to create their own 'standards' for Rec.709/SDR video media within their color management utility, ColorSync.

Specifically they do not follow two of the required provisions of the long-used Rec.709 standards. They apply only one of two required transforms, and they apply an odd gamma. So there's no required display transform funtion applied by ColorSync, and they use gamma 1.96 rather than the specified 2.4.

So, on a Mac you must make sure the preferences option for "Display Color management" is checked on. This tells Premeire not to assume a correct Rec.709 display, and it checks the ICC profile/OS to see what is being used, and modifies the image within Premiere to get the closest to a proper Rec.709 viewing of the image data possible.

This gives you the best chance to get a good Rec.709 file out of Premiere. That's all Premiere can do.

Outside of Premiere on a Mac, it's a problem. Chrome and Safari browsers and the QuickTime player all allow ColorSync to mess with the video color/tonality. Firefox browser and VLC player typically do not, so you will tend to get more realistic Rec.709 images viewing in Firefox browser and VLC player.

I'm sorry, but there isn't any "fix" for this, as when Apple chose to apply different standards they chose to make everything different.

Adobe has provided a "gamma compensation LUT" and Davinci Resolve has an export option of "Rec.709-A", and yes, A is specifically for Apple. Both options get the same result, by two different processes.

The Adobe LUT darkens and oversaturates the file on export, so that outside of proper Rec.709 viewing as on a Mac, it looks mostly like a 'normal' Rec.709 file. However, on a normal proper Rec.709 system ... and most PCs ... that file will be way too dark and oversaturted.

The Resolve approach adds a different NCLC tag to the file header, which actually gets ColorSync to show the file with correct Rec.709 settings. However, on most PCs and proper Rec.709 systems, the result is the same as the Adobe LUT: the file is seen way too dark and oversaturated.

Among other things, I'll bet you haven't noticed that all professionally produced SDR/Rec.709 video media you watch via QuickTime player or over Chrome and Safari browsers have exactly the same thing done to them as what it does to your files?

Why? Because of course, you're used to what that screen shows you as "correct", and you've not seen what the colorist actuallly produced on a guaranteed tightly calibrated & profiled Rec.709 system.

Neil