Color Changing in Premiere Pro Export

[Tim Kolb]

Use a non-QuickTime format and look at it outside of QT player…the gamma error resides there.

(as it has for more than a decade unfortunately)

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Andrew Drachman]

Are you saying the exported file should be something other than a Quicktime format?

If you look at the image in the original post, you can tell the color difference between what is being shown in the export window and what’s in the program source monitor. That seems to be happening in Premiere Pro, not the export.

[Tim Kolb]

It’s gamma? Mid range skewing a bit high for a milky sort of look?

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Andrew Drachman]

You’re going to have to forgive me Tim, I’m not entirely sure what you are asking in regards to “gamma”.

I am just receiving a more saturated image in my program source monitor than in my export window and, therefore, in my exported file.

[Tim Kolb]

Yes…what your eye sees as saturation difference is likely the midtones ending up a bit brighter. QuickTime has had this issue for a very long time. H264 files in particular, don’t map properly.

If you export to an H264 file (not a mov H264 or MP4), and then play the file in VLC player, you’ll notice that the file looks right…play the same file in QuickTime and you’ll see the difference.

If you encode to a QT wrapped H264 file (a .mov), or if you just play an H264/MP4 file in QT player, the grayscale curve (the “gamma” curve) is interpreted incorrectly.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Dustin Parsons]

Unfortunately, it’s Apple software that does it. I ran into a similar problem https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/66624

[Andrew Drachman]

Hi Tim,

Do you have a solution as to how to get the intended color in an exported file? I kinda gave up on fixing the issue at the time I wrote this post, but 5 months later and I’m still experiencing the same problem.

I exported samples (MPEG2, h264, QT h264, QT ProRes and just an exported JPG from the program monitor) from Premiere and took screen shots of them open in QT player next to the corresponding preview. There is a clearly noticeable difference between the two images.

Exported Frame from Program Monitor:

h264:

QT h264:

QT ProRes:

MPEG 2:

I’ll be the first admit that I’m not an expert when it comes to codecs or exporting, so I won’t be surprised if there is a simple fix to this. I’m hoping there is!