Skin Tone Color Problems with Slog in Premiere pro CC 2019 vs After Effects

[Jon Bodhi]

Hey Everybody,

I'm having a strange color shift when I color grade Slog footage in Premiere Pro. I will take the same clip and put the exact same LUT on it in After Effects and it looks totally natural. It looks like Premiere Pro is adding a strange pink contrast to certain areas of her face and arms. Here are two pictures of the exact same color grade. The first is in Premiere Pro and the second is in After Effects. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Justin T - Hyper Brew]

Strange, this looks like a secondary with bad selection, but you're saying only the LUT is applied in Lumetri? Is the LUT plugged into Basic Correction or Creative section of Lumetri? Is this from a render or exported still from Premiere? Do you have "Composite in Linear Color" checked in the Premiere Sequence Settings?

[Jon Bodhi]

Hey! Thanks for the reply!

The LUT is plugged into the Creative section at 100%. I have also just color graded using curves and wheels and I get the same results. I can do micro adjustments to color hues to somewhat correct it.. but it doesn't look natural like in After Effects or Final Cut. Yes Composite Linear Color is checked. hmmmmmm

[Justin T - Hyper Brew]

If it's a Sony SLog LUT, try putting it into the Basic Correction section instead.

Also, you can copy the exact effect from AE to Premiere by copying and pasting a video clip just to double check all your settings are identical.

[Jon Bodhi]

Tried it. dang.

[Justin T - Hyper Brew]

So is the LUT a Sony LUT or one you made yourself? Can you post it?

[Jon Bodhi]

Sure! How do I do that? I don't think its the LUT because even when I do a simple correction I get the pink spots. Is there any setting I'm not getting right? I'm running a 2017 Imac

[rodneyb56060189]

can you explain better ? if you grade in PPro using Lumetri and it looks good, and then you put it into ae, and it looks different ( I guess it's linking to ae ? ) and if you export from PPro, wouldn't it make sense to make sure it looks nice in PPro  and in your export ?

[Jon Bodhi]

Hey Rodney,

So I have them imported separately in each application. I just apply the same LUT with no other corrections. Even after export in PP it still has the color defects. I have also imported the same clip into FCPX and am getting none of the strange pink white blotches on her face when same LUT is applied.

[rodneyb56060189]

hmmmmm. I'm sure someone will be able to give you good advice.

Not me... I don't use CC stuff. Only old CS6 stuff and now resolve 15.

I don't apply luts to put stuff ( like S log ) into resolve. I just choose a color space for source and it comes in flat and unsaturated.

Then I make adjustments to lift gamma gain luminance to get in the ballpark, and then (if a lot of clips are the same lighting) grab a still ( make a grade which is saved) and apply THAT to the other clips...so they are all pretty close to being balanced.

then the stuff looks the same in editor, color, fusion, etc.

good luck !

in your case I would use basic stuff ( luminance) and maybe go to log ( instead of color wheels) for very minute narrow range ( skin tone) adjustment... it's fun.

[rodneyb56060189]

I'm not promoting resolve for color, but a lot of people make round trips from PPro to resolve and back ( edl, xml, whatever works).

I think it's your lut and whatever settings you have at your disposal in preferences, etc.  Obviously the AE image is really beautiful, so at least you got that working nice !

[Justin T - Hyper Brew]

Well if it's causing that issue without the LUT, then the LUT wouldn't be the issue. What codec is your footage? Is it just that one clip or all of your footage? Sometimes Premiere import cache can get corrupted and you'll need to delete, save, and re-import, sometimes rename the file.

Also, just to make sure the Premiere project isn't corrupted, start a brand new project, import that clip, and test the color.

[Jon Bodhi]

Hey I tried. I'm giving up but thank you so much for the feedback!!

[raefallon]

Did you ever figure this out? I'm having the same issue!

[R Neil Haugen]

This is an old thread of an older version of Premiere.

Please create a new thread and give more specifics, such as your system, the media involved, any effects, and what LUT is in use.

Neil

[rodneyb56060189]

if you shot that you have a really good personality with your subjects … they look really natural and comfortable with you.

[rodneyb56060189]

S log is usually h264 from cameras like that... so you can put a lot on the SD card.

[Jon Bodhi]

Thanks man! I really appreciate it.

[Justin T - Hyper Brew]

Well, when you have time I'd try doing a fresh install/preferences wipe for Premiere. This behavior is very strange.

[R Neil Haugen]

A number of my colorist friends constantly point out that LUTs are the dumbest math there is. Useful ... but at times, they break for some footage with the right exposure/colors and all.

That said ... this is really odd and unexpected behavior. As Justin, I'd love to get the LUT in-shop and push it around a bit myself.

But you say you also get the same results by just doing some manual corrections ... so let's look at your rig and setup.

Which GPU do you have, what Mercury Acceleration settings in the Project panel, and what happens if you go into the Project Settings dialog and set Mercury Acceleration to Software Only, essentially shutting down the use of the GPU?

What does the Vectorscope YUV show for the image before and after using the LUT? Is some hue showing as pegged?

I'd also love to see a screen-grab drag/dropped in your reply of the Waveform in YC no chroma mode without and with LUT.

And of course, what settings for saturation and vibrance you are using.

Neil

[Jon Bodhi]

Hey!

I'll play around with my gpu settings and see if that does anything. Even when I grade manually I still get strange pink blotches across the face and skin. I can tone them down a bit using the hue curves but it's still not pleasing to the eye. Here is the dropbox link to the clip and the LUT if you would like to take a crack at it. I feel like I have tried everything.

Dropbox - Clip and LUT - Simplify your life

Thanks again for the reply I really appreciate it.

[Jon Bodhi]

It might take a couple minutes for clip to upload.

[R Neil Haugen]

Definitely had the same issue when using that LUT.

However, didn't have much trouble without it ... what it behaves like is similar to clips from my GH3, when it's close to in-cam clipping red channel. And maybe that LUT over-drives the red somehow ... anyway, without using the LUT, I was able to work without troubles.

Using the Curves RGB, pullling black point over to the right, white point a bit to the left, then setting a pivot point just above middle and pulling the upper part to upper left to add a bit of contrast. Then back in Basic, pulled the contrast, shadows and whites down a bit to touch, and added a lot of saturation.

Then in Creative added vibrance to bring up skin tones more, then used the shadow highlight "tint" to do the color correction base. then to color wheels to do the last little touches to lift shadows while dropping mid-tones and slightly warm the color.

Neil

[Jon Bodhi]

Awesome!

Thank you so much for your help Neil! You rock man! Yes I do have ECM on. I was messing around with it and with a lot of tweaking I can get the skin tones to good enough. The only question is why is this a problem in PP and not After Effects? Very interesting.

[R Neil Haugen]

Nice ... and beautiful touch on the video work.

Pr and Ae have slightly different color mechanisms, and perhaps that LUT just didn't bother Ae. Your guess is as good as mine there. I know sometimes it's better to have composite-linear on, but at other times, the two apps do much better with comps if comp-linear is off.

And of course, you need to have the color settings in Ae matching the base Rec.709 setup of Premiere.

Neil