Premiere Pro | Color Management v24.2.1

Report · Feb 22, 2024

Hey guys,

I'm having this issue where I apply my color profile/mgmt settings and it also effects my animations while previewing it in the timeline. However, I believe the render is still normal. Is this something I have to deal with when working with Premiere Pro color mgmt settings? The hue's of my stroke shapes being red changes to a less saturated red.

I'm not sure how this works to be honest. Help.

Report · Feb 29, 2024

Make sure you use a coordinated set of CM controls, not just this or that. An oversaturated view from Premiere indicates there's a problem.

Display Color management should be on, period. Premiere then looks at the iCC profile the OS uses for that monitor, and adjusts the view in the Program monitor accordingly.

And for the vast majority of users, auto detect log and auto tonemap need to be on. Unless you are in specific known workflows and know CM in and out ... which covers only a very few people.

Display gamma is another each user needs to puzzle out. Some Mac users simply want things to look "normal" in QuickTime Player on Macs without reference modes ... so for them, the QuickTime/1.96 option is fine. (Won't look good on any Rec.709 compliant system, but what the hay ... )

Web/2.2 is used by some, but actually, even most monitors set for "web=2.2" still play video files at 2.4. I've seen some recent tests of that. They do stills as straight sRGB/2.2, but video at 2.4.

Most colorists simply and always do Rec.709 by the standard, at monitor settings of gamma 2.4.

But it's your choice.

Another thing we haven't talked about here is full/legal for video range. NEVER EVER set the monitor or GPU to full for Rec.709. It's simply wrong, and based on complete misunderstanding of the reality of the encoding process.

Nearly all 8 or 10 bit SDR/Rec.709 media is "YUV" . Technically, Y/Cb-Cr. And by the standards, is encoded with the data combined to within '16-235' ... but that's not saying there's any truncated data. It's the same data as would be written 0-255 (in any totally sane world) but using mathematics to encode the same data within 16-235.

RGB media ... only 12-bit from certain cameras ... is encoded in full, 0-255. And if you don't muck the settings up, your monitor WILL display RGB/full-range at 0-255, AND it will properly display YUV/legal range at 0-255 also.

But if set to display all media at 0-255, then it will exagerate contrast and saturation of Rec.709/YUV media, and totally crush and clip all RGB media.

Report · Mar 07, 2024

Great advice, Neil, thanks a lot.
My problem only persists, if I re-use the special double layer lumetri color preset I had created in one project. With that preset, there is a big difference wheter I use CM or not. So the problem is solved for me and I now use CM as you suggested, Neil.
From your input I've got further insights in CM. One question is open for me: If I have a color corrected monitor, do I have to puzzle with display gamma. I know that I have to decide on what display gamma to choose in my calibration software. I've decided about that in my photographic past and never changed this. Is this okay with video where I so far only use Rec.709 or should I give it a try and create a "Video profile" for my Eizo?
Is there a guideline for doing so?
Thank you so much for your insights and your support, Neil, I really very much appreciate!!

Report · Mar 07, 2024

My understanding is that you need to tell Premiere what viewer gamma to use as it will use whatever is set there. There isn't a 'none' option.

But that apparently works with the DCM switch, and seems to work correctly. I don't notice any major difference between the Program monitor and my transmit-out/clean feed monitor, except for the always-there difference between those two screens.

Report · Mar 08, 2024

Thank you, Neil!
One last question: How do Sequence preview settings like Microsoft AVI, GoPro 10bit or Quicktime etc. influence the colors I see in Premiere Pro on my Windows PC? Is there a rule what to do for best results? Until now I didn`t much care about it? Might this be a problem?
Regards
Franz

Report · Mar 08, 2024

The format of the previews shouldn't do anything to the color if the clips were 'managed' prior to creating the previews. It might be possible for previews made prior to a sequence CM change to be off ... at that point, just redo the previews.

For totally accurate color assessment in grading, it is recommended to flip back to original media to check. If you're using proxies, that's a fast easy keyboard tap to do.

Report · Mar 05, 2024

Oh wow, thank you for this insight.