Subject: Persistent Color Shift Issue After Export in Premiere Pro

[ori_51]

I am encountering a persistent issue with color shift in my videos after exporting from Premiere Pro. Despite the video looking vibrant and correct during editing and even in the export preview window, the final exported file appears dull, washed out, and less colorful across multiple devices.

Here are the key details and troubleshooting steps I have taken so far:

1. Issue: The video appears significantly less saturated and vibrant after export. This happens across different players and devices, including Mac and iPhone.

2. Export Settings: I have tried exporting in various formats, primarily H.264, using the Rec.709 color space. I also experimented with HDR Graphics White (203 Nits) but reverted to standard Rec.709 as HDR isn't needed for my project.

3. Troubleshooting Attempts:

   • Used Display Color Management in Premiere Pro to ensure proper color representation on my screen.
   • Exported through Adobe Media Encoder with the same results.
   • Tried different codecs, including H.264 and ProRes, but the issue persists.
   • Tested the video across multiple devices and players to rule out player-specific issues (the video looks dull in all of them).
   • Ensured that Auto Tone Mapping was enabled, which maintained the original colors during editing but didn’t affect the export issue.
   • Additionally, I tried exporting videos from past projects I had worked on, and the color shift issue persisted after export in those videos as well.

4. Additional Information:

   • The source footage may be standard SDR (not HDR or LOG), and I’ve attempted to keep the export settings consistent with this.
   • I checked for color profile mismatches both within Premiere and at the system level on my Mac, but this hasn’t resolved the problem.

Despite all these efforts, the exported video still loses its vibrant colors. I would greatly appreciate any guidance or suggestions to help resolve this issue, as it’s impacting the quality of my work.

Thank you for your assistance.

[Richard M Knight]

Mac or PC?

[ori_51]

Mac

[R Neil Haugen]

This has been covered probably half a billion times, and I am not joking. At. All.

For context for my comments, I work for/with/teach pro colorists, mostly based on Macs, using Resolve or Baselight. I'm a contributing author on a pro colorist's teaching website, one of the largest ones in the world. The leaders of that team were the people Dolby Labs hired to do the in-house teaching videos on professional use of DolbyVision HDR within Resolve. I've been on panels discussing this issue and other things colorist related. I've talked directly in person with several of the top color management/calibration specialists in the world.

Ok ... Rec.709, "SDR", standard video, all non-HDR stuff, has a long established set of required standards. Rec.709 is the name of the standards.

Those include the use of the sRGB color space, primaries/white point of D65, and that for proper end-use viewing via broadcast/whatever, the monitor should be set to 100 nits and used in a semi-darkened room.

Those were the original specs, back when we had digital images available but still used the CRT, tube-based monitors. Which had a 'native', natural electrical signal processing response to input electronic signals equivalent (roughly) to gamma 2.4. No display transform was then used.

However, the new flat-screen tech did not have a 'native' signal response, and to be able to work across both types of monitors, CRT and digital screen, the digital sreens needed a display transform applied to the displayed image. 

Hence Bt.1886 was created by the same standards people that created Rec.709, as an addendum to the Rec.709 standards. It specifies a display transform roughly equivalent to gamma 2.4 be applied to the image file, by the display device at the time of display.

And ... that is the professional standard used across broadcast and streaming, by all pro colorists also.

It is also used by Macs with Reference modes set to HDTV. 

But on Macs without Reference modes, the Apple designed color management utility ColorSync will apply a display tranform roughly equivalent to gamma 1.96.

Do you see the problem here? As only Mac screens on Mac devices without Refernce modes apply the gamma 1.96 display transform to the image. All other devices apply the gamma 2.4 display transform to the image.

You can not apply two distinctly separate display transforms to the same image data, and get the same image on-screen.

So ... you have to choose between two imperfect options. Or sort of, three maybe. And before doing any of the below, unless you are working on a calibrated and profiled monitor, in-house calibrated and profiled, set Premiere's Dislay Color Mangement option to On. Period. (And if you don't know what I mean by profiled, you ain't.)

1) Work to the same professional standard as all broadcast compliant facilities. Which requires the following.

Set Premiere's Viewing gamma option to gamma 2.2 unless you are working in a pretty dark room doing color. The choice between 2.2 and 2.4 is made not on broadcast or web, but only to be decided by your viewing environment while setting image color/tonality.

The result? On most systems, meaning everything non-Mac, and on Macs with Reference modes, your media will look in relative terms like other profesionally produced media.

On Macs without Reference modes only, it will be lighter and less saturated than what it appeared in Premiere while you were working.

2) If worrried more about Macs without Reference modes, then do the following.

Set Premiere's Display Gamma setting to gamma 1.96/QuickTime, and do your corrections.

The results? It will look very similar out of Premiere on your Mac, but of course ... only in apps that allow QuickTime player to control color. Which are QuickTime player, and Chrome and Safari browsers.

But ... VLC and Potplayer will not allow QuickSync to change the image, and will show a darker image, closer to what you got in Premiere if using gamma 2.2 or 2.4 setting.

So you can use VLC and Potplayer to check what non-Mac systems will see from that file.

Yea, it's a mess ... and thank Apple for that. Neither Adobe's Premiere Pro nor Resolve can 'fix' the issue, both allow users to do things to 'jink' the system but neither way actually gets around the dsiplay transform issue across systems.

[ori_51]

Thank you so much for your detailed response and insights. I understand the challenges related to display transforms across different systems, especially Macs without Reference Mode.

However, in this case, the video I'm working on is intended for social media, and I’ve tested the exported files on several different devices and players, including VLC, QuickTime, and Potplayer. I also tried playing them on multiple iPhones and non-Mac systems, and the issue persists consistently across all devices. The colors remain washed out and less vibrant, so it doesn’t seem to be a Mac display-specific issue.

Given that this is a project for social media, the color consistency across a variety of platforms and devices is crucial. Is there anything else you recommend I try to ensure the colors appear correctly after export?

Thank you again for your help!

[R Neil Haugen]

What are your CM settings ... the entire selection ... in Premiere?

What specifically is your monitor, and how bright an environment are you working in when doing color work?