Premiere Pro Exports with Less saturation and contrast. How to fix?

The issue is one of display practices and application of proper standards. And in the end, of what you "expect" to see.

When Rec.709 was first created for digital image capture standards, it included a 1.95 (essentially) gamma setting as a camera or "scene referred transform", which meant that when the image was displayed on the CRT monitors used back then it looked 'correct'.

Then CRTs went out, and we had digital panels, which had a different 'native' display process. So to keep the images from digital capture showing correctly on the new digital display panels, a display transform was added in Bt1886, as an addition to and also required part of Rec.709. Back about what, 2004 or so?

So the full display standard professionally for SDR/Rec.709 video imagery is sRGB primaries, D65 white point, displayed on a screen with gamma 2.4 (semi-dark room) or gamma 2.2 (bright-room/office viewing).

And that is what Premiere Pro (and BlackMagic's Resolve, Baselight, Avid ... ) uses.

Apple in all their wisdom came out with their gorgeous and capable Retina monitor hardware ... but for some freaking reason chose to ignore part of the color management setup in their ColorSync utility.

Which applies sRGB primaries, D65 white point, but ONLY the original camera or 'scene-referred' transform function of 1.96. It does NOT apply any display transform function. That Bt1886 bit.

So the same file you see one way in Premiere Pro on your computer (especially with the Display color management preference active as it should be on your rig!) will appear differently outside of Premiere on that same computer.

BUT ... most notably, in Chrome & Safari browsers and QuickTime player. Depending on the user settings/defaults, VLC and Firefox may very well show you an image much closer to Premiere. So depending on which CM controls are used, the file will look different on your computer. Same data.

Again ... because of what default display transforms are used, or not used.

My system is a PC, but more importantly, my monitors are carefully calibrated with puck/software, and on my reference monitor, I've not only calibrated it ... I've run a profile with ColorSpace linked with Resolve as a patch-generator..

A profile checks the screen and gives you charts of how the screen performs, both for where it is working correctly and where it may be off. My profile is a very nicely acceptable one.

So if you send me the file, it will look pretty close on my reference monitor to what you see in Premiere on your rig. But ... that's really a "so what" sort of thing.

Because ALL screens vary a ton! Pro colorists (and yes, I teach that ... ) have to learn this right off. You setup your system TIGHTLY to pro standards to pass the dreaded QC quality control machines, and be acceptable for broadcast/streaming/movie theatres.

But ... not one person viewing your content will ever see precisely what you saw. Most will see something quite different in fact.

But by sticking to " the standards" on your setup, your media will be in the middle visually of all other pro produced media, and will look so on any other device out there no matter how far off the color is on it.

Because it will look "normal" on that screen.

Um ... have you every looked at something pro-produced on your QuickTime player and immediately thought "I'm not seeing what the colorist saw ... "? No?

Well, you aren't. QuickTime is doing to that media what it does to yours, and you haven't even noticed!

Neil