Premiere Pro 2025 washed out colors on render

[Maxim29651068gq34]

I have lately updated Premiere to verison 25 and encountered an issue, that majority - including me - has been facing a lot before. When I first saw the shamleslly washed out color export (like, WHY AT ALL) a long time ago, I found a solution, people were talking about on the Internet - Gamma compensation lut. And it worked fine all along. Now when updated, Premiere doesnt seem to carry out much of it... As I know version 25 is still beta in many ways - I cant just stop production because of this. Need help!

[Ann Bens]

2025.0 is public release, 2025.1 is still in beta.

It looks like you are on 2025.0

Moving thread to regular forum.

[R Neil Haugen · Accepted solution]

You have a basic issue because of using the Apple computer. Why?

Rec.709 has been a long-established standard. Required to use sRGB color space, D65 white point at 100 nits in a semi-darkened room, with the monitor set to (essentially) display tranform of gamma 2.4. Originally, the CRT monitors naturally gave this 'transform'. When flat screens came out, Bt.1886 was appended to the Rec.709 standard, requiring display transforms for Rec.709 media of (essentially) gamma 2.4.

But Apple, in all their wisdom, decided to setup their Macs with Retina's to run with a display gamma of 1.96 instead, for playback of Rec.709 media. But only on Macs without Reference modes, as those Macs, when set to HDTV, use the proper display transform!

And so Apple really fouled things up, as all other devices, from broadcast systems through PCs through Android and TVs, and Macs with Reference modes ... use gamma 2.4, or at the least, 2.2.

So Apple created the problem, and as someone who works for/with/teaches pro colorists, I've heard about this A LOT. And they're mostly Apple geeks, and they're pissed at Apple about causing this problem. That realistically cannot be solved. You can't make one file that looks the same with two different display gammas in use.

That's why the "gamma compensation LUT" was created by Adobe, to darken the file at export so that it didn't look too light in QuickTime player on Macs. However, on all other systems, that file will be too dark.

BlackMagic built the "Rec.709-A" export option, which changes an NCLC tag in the file, so that on devices that actually read the tags, it darkens the file ... but ... can also darken it too much on other devices. It doesn't work realistically either.

So .... do you only care how the file looks when viewed on Macs without reference modes, or do you care more about how it looks everywhere else?

If only Macs without Reference modes, then set Premiere's color management to Display color Management on, Viewing gamma to 1.96/QuickTime, auto detect log and auto tonemapping on, use say a Rec.709 working space, and export using presets without HLG or PQ in the preset name.

It will look similar in QuickTime player, Chrome, and Safari browsers, to what you saw in Premiere.

BUT ... in VLC and Potplayer on your machine, and all other non-Mac (without reference mode) systems, it will be dark and over saturated.

Or ... set the viewing gamma to 2.2, as you're probably not grading in a darkened room, and then on export, it will be too light in QuickTime Player, Chrome and Safari, and other non-reference mode Macs.

And the image will be similar to Premiere in VLC and Potplayer on your machine, and everything but your type of Mac system.

Your choice. Isn't that delightful? Not so much, probably ...

[MyerPj]

I enjoy every one of these @R Neil Haugen ! 🙂

[Skippermark]

Very information and well-written @R Neil Haugen. I was aware of this, but it's always great to have a refresher, especially when it's so well-written. Thanks!

[Maxim29651068gq34]

Thank you for clearing it out for me! Gosh, how did I live before at all

[ALIASLABS]

Thanks for this answer but until the 2025 premier pro update I never had this problem on exports either on my Mac so regardless if it only displays incorrectly on Max and not other systems, this problem did not exist until the 2025 update all of my exports look clean and exactly the way I made them in Premier before this stupid 25 update and trying to explain this to Adobe he's like talking to cardboard

[The Freddy]

Brother I hear you. Thankfully I didn't click the "revmove old versions" button when I updated today. Just did a test in 2025 on a client project delivered last week. (Edited and Exported in 2024) Now when you apply the Gamma Compensation LUT on export ... it's too dark! Export without the GC LUT... it's too light! As @Maxim29651068gq34 metioned, the GC LUT worked flawlessly for me in 2023 and 2024 versions. But now? UUUUUUHhhhGGGHHH! Is there a new Premiere Pro 2025 Gamma Compensaion LUT out there?!

Please let me know and thanks all.

[R Neil Haugen]

Why in the world are you using that ancient hack? Seriously?

They have built an amazing, modern color management system that is vastly superior to using look-up table "solutions".

Yes, it's different and will require at least ten minutes to learn to make it suit your needs.

But then you will have far more usable and wider ranging abilities to produce your work. And it's been needed for several years.

[Skippermark]

I second what Neil said. The new color management system is amazing.

I edit footage from several different cameras, and the new color management system is awesome for that. It automatically detects the footage type and knows which clips are HDR or SDR and conforms them to whatever project color space you're using. It makes editing so much faster and easier to edit.

[ALIASLABS]

Where is this color management system you speak of this is over my head when I've done exports in the past the video looked exactly the way I created it in premier now it looks washed out. I do not know how to fix this issue is there a way to Fix this issue in export? Should I do a #2 pass? I understand that this problem only seems to exist while watching on QuickTime on a Mac, but the problem is many people use Max and this is what they end up seeing how can I get my export to look The way it does in premier's edit I never had to do this before it says archaic 10 years ago exporting was easier and it looked like what I was making now that's washed out colors after doing color work for three days straight. It's insanity. Thanks for your time 

[R Neil Haugen]

Ok ... the new color management is the Lumetri panel's Settings tab ... the tab named Settings.

There is a viewing gamma option set, to set the display of the Program manager within Premiere. The gamma 1.96/QuickTime option sets it to the similar look of QuickTime player outside of Premiere. 

But of course, that is only on the small subset of screens that is Macs without reference modes set to HDTV. 

All other screens ... from Macs with Reference modes set to HDTV to all broadcast compliant to most PCs/Androids and TVs ... and even Macs without Reference modes when using VLC, PotPlayer or Firefox ... will see the other image with darker shadows.