1.8 or 2.2 Gamma Setting confusion

[Dan Daube]

Harry,
Yes indeed this is a messy one. Rule of thumb perhaps as there’s no definitive rule: 1.8 is more aligned to working in print, 2.2 more suited for PC monitors and the video world.
The key takeaway that you read in those previous links is the need for an external monitor. You’ll want a trusted (calibrated) broadcast monitor to view and have confidence in your actual output. If that is not your workflow then you need to pick one gamma to work in and adjust everything to that spec. So it really depends on your work. In the meantime, be sure in your FCP User Prefs, on the Edit tab you select how you want imported graphics to be managed 1.8, 2.0 or 2.2
Also if you are viewing via QT and not a broadcast/external monitor, open QT and go to the Quicktime Player Preferences menu.
On the General section at the very bottom there’s an option that says “Enable Final Cut Studio color compatibility”. Check that box.

All of our monitors are calibrated to 2.2 gamma and D65 whitepoint. That’s a fairly standard recommendation and suited to broadcast video work in all its flavors.
Here’s a long history of why the settings are what they are: https://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2009/09/why_your_web_content_will_look_darker.html

2.2 has become more prominent mostly from the broadcast world but even in design or print circles it’s become more the norm.
If you aren’t on Snow Leopard it may be less of an issue for now. As SL will work in 2.2 gamma changing from 1.8 That may start this whole thing up again as that becomes the default OS.

I believe we still see the issues periodically with the AJA cards so it’s not specific to the ATI cards though the variance may be more or less. Can’t judge that.
There’s a ton of info and opinion out there on this-get it all set to what works best in your workflow and stick with that.
Best of luck!

Dan Daube
Director-Editorial Turner Studios Atlanta
Manager Multiple Systems-FCP 7.0.1 AJA Kona

[Gary Adcock]

[Dan Daube] “Harry,
Yes indeed this is a messy one. Rule of thumb perhaps as there’s no definitive rule”

Thanks Dan,
excellent explanation.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows for the Digitally Inclined
Chicago, IL

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php

[Harry Powell]

Thanks Dan for your very informative and comprehensive response. And I have read the link you provided and all the comments as well! Mind-blowing indeed.

I’ll certainly need to purchase a broadcast monitor if I’m doing broadcast work (or go to an external facility for grading). The current project is for web use (and occasional screenings at ‘conferences’) and they want a High Definition H264 QT movie file for both these purposes.

If I am not mistaken, the QT preference enabling ‘FCP color compatibility’ (although helpful to me) is not available (and/or not familiar) to all with QT (even if it is the newest QT).

And I believe, it’s not just a gamma shift but also a green shift as experienced by this poster:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/982922

It’s been suggested that converting to Motion JPEG (100% quality) then to H264 resolves the problem – but perhaps I’m getting confused with the more subtle H264 shift? In any case can’t seem to find Motion JPEG in the list of codecs, and it didn’t work with Photo JPEG.

And there was a solution suggested involving changing transparency settings in Movie Properties which didn’t work for me.

Here are 2 screen grabs I did showing the big difference, for when the QT preference is on and off (perhaps not ideal for showing the green shift as the walls are green):
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/600014/Gamma%20shift%20screen%20grabs.zip

I hope it shows how awful it would be if someone online, (or at a meeting with TV playback from their laptop), on PC or Mac, sees the washed out version. Surely there is foolproof solution (when QT is the delivery format) to this?

Thank you again
Harry

p.s. I’m on Leopard, on an (early 2008) 8-core Mac Pro with an ATI Radeon HD2600 graphics card.