Video is showing up in a completely different color when imported onto Premiere Pro timeline

Hi everyone, I found a quick solution that worked for me if you don't want to read through all the comments!

I went to Lumetri Color -> Settings -> checked box for Display Color Management and Extended Dynamic Range Monitoring, and my color went back to normal. 🙂 Easy peasy.

Shout out to Neil for guiding me in the right direction, but ultimately I had to do some clicking around and this worked. 

Ok ... I work for/with/teach pro colorists. The majority of pro colorists have never delivered a single paid HDR file yet. That will probably tip this year, but even so, the vast majoriity of paid colorist work will still be Rec.709 deliverables.

Why? HDR is still very much the Wild Wild West of video production. Most screens still cannot do it at all. Those that can, especially in consumer priced gear, do only one or two of the numerous possible HDR formats. And probably don't do the ones they do correctly.

Which is frustrating because when done well, it can be wondrous. My first view of anything of mine in HDR was at NAB 2019, doing a presentation on Premiere Pro's color management of the time, in the Flanders FSI/MixingLight booth. To a crowd of pretty high-end colorists ... speaking between Alexis Van Hurkman and the Dolby Labs rep presenting on DolbyVision for professional colorists.

I remember being a bit intimidated by the speakers bookending me ... and the packed crowd! ... but blown away by walking around in front of the something like 50" Grade 1 HDR Reference monitor that Flanders provided for that. Just ... wow.

That said, due to the problems still with screens not doing well with HDR, I don't actually recommend folks work in HDR unless they have a specific reason yet.

In Premiere, the Source monitor shows the 'original' image, straight outta the cam, and if log, that's what you see ... not the after-transform to linear space image of the timeline and Program monitor. That confuses people at times.

Next ... you haven't told which specific build  of Premiere you are working in ... and the changes during the 24.x series were major build to build, but massive between the last 24.x and the first 25.x build. So which build is crucial.

For whatever build you are using, please do a screengrab of the Lumetri panel's Settings tab ... the one named Settings. As that is the home for all color management in Premiere now.

I would recommed for your workflow, if you want to risk staying in HLG/HDR, setting display color management, extended dynamic range if available. auto detect log, and auto tonemapping to on. Set your sequence to HLG. Use only export presets that include HLG in the preset name.

Not that I actually recommend working in HLG, but ... if you must ... and let's see your screengrab. Of the entire Lumetri Settings tab, with all sections twirled down/opened.

Hi Elizabeth36130191z2mp,

We're sorry about the poor experience. We can get this checked. Could you please share a screenshot of the Sequence Settings (Sequence > Sequence Settings) and the Media File Properties (right-click on the media > Media File Properties)? Also, please share a screenshot showing the difference in the video previews. 

Thanks,

Sumeet